Teamwork in the Workplace: A DefinitionWritten by CMOE Development Team
A tight knit team is a group of competent individuals who care deeply about each other. They are fiercely committed to their mission, and are highly motivated to combing their energy and expertise to achieve a common objective. From our observation and studies on teamwork in workplace, we have found three primary conditions that have to be met in order to attain higher levels of team performance and member satisfaction. - Resources and Commitment
- Ownership and Heart
- Learning
These three conditions are heart and soul of teamwork. These conditions are not a blueprint. Each group is unique, and specifics and details of teamwork have to be worked out separately. Let’s look closer at number one - Resources and Commitment. RESOURCES AND COMMITMENT A strong personal commitment and leap of faith are needed to start up and sustain tight knit teams. Genuine energy and resources are required during early stages. For example, important non-task time is needed for teams to meet and establish identity, expectations, spirit, bonds, and patience is required for learning, coaching and behavior change that is consistent with team principles. Investment in teamwork is very intangible. You can’t measure it like most corporate assets that can be sold off for a profit if you have a couple of bad quarters. Teamwork in workplace requires a lot of care, sensitivity, and patience for it to pay off in long run. This is not exactly formula that most organizations run on these days. Typically we see organizations pre occupied with putting out fires and handling crises. Most organizations have a very short-term focus and many leaders are not enlightened enough to invest in fire prevention and not get caught by excitement of task or by activity trap that is so common today. It doesn’t take much to bring a group of individuals together to do a job especially if you are depending on just a compensation package to get
| | Leadership Training and CharacterWritten by CMOE Development Team
The vast majority of leadership training available to managers focuses primarily on skill and behaviors: how to delegate, how to communicate, how to manage conflict. These skills are unquestionably important and necessary. However, we maintain there is another important ingredient that has been severely neglected in leadership training, that ingredient is “character.” Leadership character and its qualities is focus of our new book and workshop: “Qualities of Leadership.” In 340 B.C. Aristotle began describing a series of principles that have been embraced in both western and eastern cultures. A thorough understanding of these ideas enables a leader to think and act with greater clarity and effectiveness causing people to voluntarily follow leader’s direction and example. We believe that sound character has greatest impact on leadership success. Leaders simply attract people, ideas, circumstances, opportunities, and resources that are in harmony with their core thoughts and being. A leader can never achieve greatness and success on outside unless he or she has developed fundamental qualities on inside. Behavior decisions and choices are all a reflection of our inner world. Unfortunately managers can unintentionally get caught in competitive “win at any cost” mentality or greedy “more for me” line of thinking. This can derail careers of most intelligent people. We read all about it every day in Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Forbes, manager who abused their trust of community, customers, regulators or employees. It happens in sales, research, or in operations from executive suites to front lines. Successful business thrives on sound character, values, and principles more than laws, regulations and fines.
|
