TEAM BUILDING – TRAINING

How can my employees relate work and achieve?

The ARTICLE is brought to you by the team from TechBuzz hub after the very webinar about the same that had Mr. Roland Tayebwa, a proud father, consultant trainer and CEO, DIRECTOR and FOUNDER at Bwongo consult, present on the live webinar and these are part of the what transpired in the meeting. And for those who did not have the chance to attend the live meeting, patiently go through this article to get you sorted on the various other things you need to know about team building.

BY the end of the presentation we expect to now the characteristics of a wonderful team. The four stages of team development, individual differences and roles within a team, how to relate and work together in a team.  Before going further to understand all the afore mentioned subjects we need to understand what a team is

What is a team?

 A team is defined as a group of people who perform complementary interdependent tasks that have a high level of interdependence to work together to accomplish a common mission or specific objective. So they share different capacities and abilities. The reason why we set uo teams is because we want people do thing that I cannot do on my own.

What are the characteristic of effective teams?

There are very many kinds of teams such as the dormant teams, successful teams, lazy team, effective teams among others but today I shall focus on the effective teams.

• They must have a clear vision or purpose. A vision is a clear and concise statement of purpose Something that brings you together, it appeals to people’s imaginations and motivations, in order to achieve a set milestone or target. Everyone as they are coming to the team then they must be in line with the vision. It’s a fuel that pushes you to another level.
• You must have a shared commitment. If each member is committed to work towards achieving the vision each one works towards their own reward because of your commitment to work towards the vision of the team. If you are not committed to what they are doing then you are not an effective team
• You must have clear roles and responsibilities on the team. And each member should know what the other members are doing in order to look out for the interdependence it makes everyone know what they bring to the table and how much another person offers to hit the targeted goal. After knowing your roles and responsibilities then you must have trust.
• You must build Avery strong wall of trust. With a high level of trust members are able to go beyond boundaries, through ups and downs, in order to get the job done. You can only be sure that your colleague will deliver only when you trust him and you are sure he can do it.
• We must develop mutual accountability and support. Team mates should be able to be equally accountable to one another. Because that is how your team wins. The performance of the team improves with the availability of mutual support, getting to know who is this person am working with on the team what are his abilities and inabilities, and how can we achieve a goal thus allocated to us.
• Celebrate individual; and team success. Before we are a team, we are individual. The general success of a team is only known and achieved by the individual winnings and achievements. Therefore, its only logical that celebrating individual successes a=before you celebrate team or general successes. It helps motivate every team member who has added a milestone to continue working harder.
• There should be a serious concern for the mini tasks as much as the group tasks that must be done by the team. Success moves from the individual to the group, the small tasks management, the fact that the petty cash must be taken care of is very important as much as the biggest sum expenditures on the team.
• Address challenges with creativity. Solve them in a more creative and innovative way. How do you address a challenge at work, because how you address these challenges is very key on how to have an effective team? Which information or concern is for the whole team to know and learn from and which one is to be handled in isolation. As a team leader you must judge.
• Inclusive decision making is key. Team members become so effective and show a lot of performance when they feel involved in decision making process so the team, or organizations.
• Regular communication and feedback is very important. You must keep regular and timely communications. How you communicate and give feedback matters. Because motivation is something that you as the team lead do not want to lose in your team or else it ends up being ineffective.
• Close work friendships create employee satisfaction. How much do you know your employee, do you what his life after work looks like, because it affects how you are going to work and your performance will improve. It’s good for a team leader to create and make a lot of rapport with his team members. Remember we can be on the same team and yet we are friends, however we can be on the same team and yet we are not friends. Always note that limits are good enough to keep at the back of your mind while trying to create rapport with your team mates. Avoid sending the wrong information to your team mates especially of the opposite sex.

Stages of team development.

There are various stages of team growth and development, such as forming stage, the storming stage, norming stage, performing stage among others. These we shall look at in a little more depth.

1. Forming stages. It involves the whole process of orientation and getting acquaintance. There is a lot of uncertainty, and people are looking for authority. Team members ask questions like, what is expected of me, will I fit in, most interactions are social and members get to know each other.
2. Storming stage. This is the most difficult and hard stage to go through, it is a period marled by competition and conflict as individual personalities start to come out.  Team performance may actually decrease as people engage in less productive activities such as proving oneself to the boss. Many members are looking forward for recognition. Energy is being invested n un productive work. Members in such as stage of team development must work to overcome obstacles like individual differences and conflicting ideas on tasks and goals.
3. Norming stage: if teams go through the storming stage, conflict is resolved and some degree of utility emerges. Consensus develops among the team on who does what and who is good at what exactly. However, the harmony is precarious, and if disagreements arise the team can slide back into the storming stage.
4. Performing stage: in this stage the team is mature. It is well acquainted with the structures, vision, mission of the organization and usually smoothly functioning. This is to the extent that when conflicts arise they are easily managed by the team members and leaders.
5. Adjourning stage: at this stage most of the processes of the team are achieved. and there is usually no much to add on. Everyone understands and knows each other’s tasks and duties, the structures are clear and the team follows through smoothly.

Discussion questions. These are some of the questions that you must be in position to ask yourself in order to measure and see where your team is currently at, in terms of development levels.

          A) when did your team form?

          B) what are the circumstances in which your team grew, to what it is now?

          C) have you seen the three 3 stages of team development in your team.

          D) what needs to get you to the next level and stage?

What advice would you give employees joining a team? Especially when face with a circumstance where they (new member) knows better and more efficient way of addressing a task, but the old team seems not to think it would work.

Simple as it sounds, for an employee joining a team, you must be humble and try to blend in. behave like a chameleon that means first understand what they do and how they do it. Once oyu understand their perspective of though and doing things, then you can introduce your idea. Remember its always good to cultivate patience.

How do you advise a team to get past the storming stage?

For a team to first of all realize that they are in the storming stage is by the traits that we already discussed. Besides that, one must practice patience and endurance. It is in storming that I advise businesses to do organizational team building such as gatherings and outings.

Usually there is no time frame for how long you might last in the storming stage. It can be short or definitely long.

How do you deal with a colleague who is constantly dragging the team down, he is basically a disappointment to the team.?

• Always encourage and remind him that we win together. And that he must understand that fsct.
• Approach them, or someone on the team must approach them and let them know they are dragging the team by their character and that its not fair.
• Make him know if there is a possibility of rea signing him as according to his strengths and not weaknesses. And lt them know about the possibility of having them a different role.
• Losing them is and should be the last option after they have failed to work with the system provided to them and the structures of the organization. Let them try to fit in the structures that exist in the organization and have them improve. Firing such people should be until then.

Finally remember, that as team lead, or the leader of your organization there shall always be somewhere where one of your team members is better than you are. Hence you are indeed important to the company or organization but not irreplaceable.

A team is as strong as its weakest point, this means that you must always keep your team in check and focused. It’s easier to manage the team when you know clearly what stage of growth and development your team is at.

Wishing you all the best as you build your teams for a better franchise and work force. Look out for our other webinar aeries and blog that are coming up.