5 Things You Can Do to Increase Your Team's Performance
There's a lot going on, and making it all happen on the job while keeping the bigger picture in mind can be a challenge. There are a lot of issues that can come in to play: fragmented teams, constant change of focus and direction, communication and cooperation, office politics, leadership styles, alignment, etc. Our job is to support your process and your results—and we like that job! What are the key things that you can focus on to make a difference?
Here are 5 areas of focus that can make a sustainable and significant difference:
1. Purpose
Purpose is the big container that can make a difference in everything you do together. What is the purpose of your team? Is it connected to a higher purpose that is common among the team members? Communicate the purpose of the team with your people, and get to know and understand each person's personal sense of purpose and how it is served by their work on the team.
2. A forum to connect
Face The Music Ignites
FTM had the opportunity to engage 3M HiPO's at the exclusive 3M innovation center in Maplewood, MN. 3M's IGNITE leadership development program participants wrote and performed songs about their learning's in the program as a way to process and deepen the experience. Sadly all songs lyrics are confidential so we can't share, but we can share that they're a power group of individuals. (facethemusicblues.com/our-clients)
Provide a place and time for your team to get together outside of the day-to-day running of the business—hold these events regularly, say, once a quarter. Make an environment available where they can express their opinions, brainstorm, get to know each other, and connect with the bigger picture. In this environment people can learn more about themselves and those they work with. As a group the can work on how they work together, not just on the tasks themselves. This enhances trust, respect, appreciation, and understanding.
3. Engagement
Engage has several definitions in the English language (no diamond rings needed), but what we're talking about here are these 3 from Webster's dictionary: 1) To interlock with, 2) To hold the attention of, 3) To induce to participate. When someone is engaged, it means they are emotionally committed to their company and their work goals. They care about their work. They care about results. This makes them go above and beyond—to give discretionary effort. Strong employee engagement is dependent on how well employees get along, interact with each other and participate in a team environment. Developing a strong team environment can help foster engaged employees. Do this using your connection forums and bringing what is learned there to the workplace.
4. Become self-aware as a team/system
Using activities and review as a learning process can give powerful insights into the system and processes of a team. Organizations and teams don't belong to the mechanical world; they are much closer to living biological organisms. Looking under the hood (wait, that's a mechanical metaphor...) of the team to see how it operates, and making conscious tweaks to the team system is a powerful way to impact performance/results, engagement, ownership, and motivation.
5. Mojo
Back to Webster's dictionary: "Mojo: a power that may seem magical and that allows someone to be very effective, successful, etc." It's doing things that are purposeful, powerful, and positive, and making an impact that stands out. Mojo happens when you're getting happiness and meaning from what you are doing. A team with mojo is taking care of business and having fun doing it. Purpose, innovation, collaboration, and performance.
Face The Music is about unlocking these dimensions in teams in a unique and potent way; bringing more of each person into the team process, and releasing that performance potential into the job at hand. An FTM program addresses and develops teams in these 5 areas with an engaging and effective process. Call us to find out how it can work with your team. (845) 687-2100
This question is asked by companies large and small:
How can you get your message across amidst the noise and information overload of the modern business world?
If there were a simple answer, everyone would be doing it and then the problem would be back again. In truth, that's how the problem occurs. People find an effective communication method before others and use it. Then others discover it and pretty soon it is jammed. As I noted in the questions about social media, what has changed today is that communication is no longer a one-way street. It is truly about engagement. However, you do have to get people's attention to then possibly get them engaged.
One approach is to be outrageous. We see that with the current political campaigns and with a number of so-called pseudo-celebrities who are famous for being famous. If your services can align with being outrageous in what you say or do, then doing so is likely to cause you to stand out in the crowd. However, if you gather that kind of attention, you can be assured that some of it will be negative. If you can't live with that then you can't be outrageous.
Another skill today is being concise. A few years ago YouTube recommended videos of 3 minutes or less. Today 2 minutes or less is probably better. (This one is 2:34). Notice this response/answer is broken into short paragraphs. Get people's attention by being concise and to the point. Then if they want more, you can show them where to get it. This leads to remembering that your content can be written, audio or video. YouTube is the #2 search engine in the world. iTunes contains a ton of free podcasts.
Targeting is critically important as well. Who, precisely, is your target audience? Not who do you wish would be interested, but who is really likely to be interested? How do they want to consume content (written, audio, video). Write or produce content for them. Post where they will see it? Create a list of those people and email or snail mail your message to them. Or, find third party platforms that those people frequent.
There are a number of content aggregation sites on the web that take credible contributions from 3rd parties (unpaid). Look for such sites by pretending you want to read such content. See what shows up in the early results of an Internet search and then look at how/if those sites accept 3rd party content.
Lastly, and most importantly, have something valuable to say. You are interrupting the reader's/viewer's/listener's day. Why should they find that interruption valuable? What's in it for the reader/viewer/listener to read (or watch or listen) to your content? If you want people to talk about you, be remarkable. If you are, people will remark about you.
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Purpose is the big container that can make a difference in everything you do together. What is the purpose of your team? Is it connected to a higher purpose that is common among the team members? Communicate the purpose of the team with your people, and get to know and understand each person's personal sense of purpose and how it is served by their work on the team.
Provide a place and time for your team to get together outside of the day-to-day running of the business—hold these events regularly, say, once a quarter. Make an environment available where they can express their opinions, brainstorm, get to know each other, and connect with the bigger picture. In this environment people can learn more about themselves and those they work with. As a group the can work on how they work together, not just on the tasks themselves. This enhances trust, respect, appreciation, and understanding.
Engage has several definitions in the English language (no diamond rings needed), but what we're talking about here are these 3 from Webster's dictionary: 1) To interlock with, 2) To hold the attention of, 3) To induce to participate. When someone is engaged, it means they are emotionally committed to their company and their work goals. They care about their work. They care about results. This makes them go above and beyond—to give discretionary effort. Strong employee engagement is dependent on how well employees get along, interact with each other and participate in a team environment. Developing a strong team environment can help foster engaged employees. Do this using your connection forums and bringing what is learned there to the workplace.
Using activities and review as a learning process can give powerful insights into the system and processes of a team. Organizations and teams don't belong to the mechanical world; they are much closer to living biological organisms. Looking under the hood (wait, that's a mechanical metaphor...) of the team to see how it operates, and making conscious tweaks to the team system is a powerful way to impact performance/results, engagement, ownership, and motivation.
Back to Webster's dictionary: "Mojo: a power that may seem magical and that allows someone to be very effective, successful, etc." It's doing things that are purposeful, powerful, and positive, and making an impact that stands out. Mojo happens when you're getting happiness and meaning from what you are doing. A team with mojo is taking care of business and having fun doing it. Purpose, innovation, collaboration, and performance.
This question is asked by companies large and small: