Team Building part 2 - Honesty is
Key !The second in a series of 2 articles giving a slightly different viewpoint on effective team building, condensed from an original seminar presented by author, John Roberts. John is a Freelance Training Consultant and director of JayrConsulting Ltd. Part 1 ( Another Brick in Wall ) dealt with selecting and building initial team. Part 2 deals with culture that need to be in place to run team really effectively. The ideas expressed are personal opinions built up from many years of experience in Electronics/Aerospace industry, Armed Forces, Telecoms industry and Training industry. There is no suggestion of this being a 100% solution applicable to or workable in all situations, but it is aimed at getting people to think outside of norm and question ‘normal' way of doing things.
1. Honesty - The Key ! It really is that simple! The basic foundation of building and running REALLY successful teams is TOTAL honesty! Sounds simple, but it can be one of hardest things to implement due to existing workplace cultures and peoples long-term conditioning to them. If you are not prepared to implement this culture change, you will only ever have functional ‘teams' that are purely paying ‘lip service' to whole idea of team building.
Being honest starts here! You cant pretend to be honest, or only implement some parts of it, either as a team member or as a team leader. If you are not going to give it 100% - Give it up, because rest depends on this to work properly!
There are two separate parts to honesty within team scenario and both are equally important:
(a)Being honest with other people You have to learn to be honest with everyone. If someone is not performing properly-Tell them as soon as possible, and help them to overcome cause. If someone is performing well-Tell them as soon as possible, and help them to do even better. If there is good news about project/team/company-Tell people as soon as possible, without hiding things and deliver praise where appropriate. If there is BAD news about project/team/company-Tell people as soon as possible, without hiding things and discuss what can be done about it at a team and personal level-ask for input and ideas to resolve things. Most people can handle most situations well, as long as they feel they are being kept informed and involved. Make sure that you are doing your share of teams work, to best of your ability. If team are having to cover for you, you are not being honest with them. If you make a mistake- admit to it, as soon as possible and if necessary get help to resolve it. If you try and hide your mistakes you are not being honest and it just leads to more work for others in long run. Don't perpetuate rumours! It is one of fastest ways to break down trust in a team culture. If you don't know something is a fact-don't repeat it!
(b)Being honest with yourself For a lot of people this can actually be extremely difficult to achieve, due to long term conditioning in a competitive work place, but once started it tends to build on itself as long as everyone is really committed to long-term success of team building process. You have to really look at yourself deeply and honestly and work at correcting your individual behaviour patterns and shortcomings. If you can't cope with something-tell someone and get some help with it. No one is perfect and we all need help sometimes. In a good team environment, nobody is going to think less of you for requesting help-just opposite if it helps to get things done. Be honest about your skills and abilities starting with your c.v. !). If not you will be found out eventually, but by that time, you may have let a lot of other people down! Don't steal credit/ideas from other people and put them forward as your own. Any gain for you is only short term and it is one of quickest ways of destroying trust amongst your team. Question your commitment and work ethos continually-Are you really giving 100% effort all time? If not-why not -do you need to seek help or are you just being lazy? Don't lie! It's infectious in a team environment. If you want a day off- take a leave day-don't keep re-burying your grandmother! Admit when you are wrong in a discussion-and apologise! Don't moan and grumble about work - if you don't like being there -Leave!
2. Communication Communication is one of most important factors in successful teams. To be effective it must be continuous and completely OPEN - both between team members and between team leader and their team. There should be no secrets. The team need to know how they are affected by corporate plans and decisions. Members need to know if they are doing things correctly. The team leader needs to know if their team members have any ideas or problems that should be acted upon. People respond better if they know facts - even to bad news! (I had a team where they all volunteered to take a 10% pay cut to save a team member from redundancy, when financial figures were explained to them openly!)
This DOESN'T mean that you need to have interminable ‘formal' team meetings! People should be encouraged to talk to each other and to team leader all of time. A good team leader will set aside time every day, (YES, you can do it, if you are organised!), purely to get around and talk to their team. The better your communication is, less meetings you will need to have! 3. Trust Trust between team members and between team and team leader MUST be absolute. If you don't trust people to get on and do their job - why are they in your team? If you trust people to do a job, you have to relinquish power to them to make their own decisions - and they have to be responsible for those decisions! Team members must have trust in team leader - that they have their best interests at heart and are working for team rather than individual success. In ultimate team, people have to depend on each other for their lives - that can only be done with trust in your fellow team members.
