Master Your Game: Foundation of High Performance Teams - Part 1
Master Your Game: Foundation of High Performance Teams - Part 1
Team Charter
Improve your high performance team by setting a team charter that contains the team's code of conduct. If the charter is developed collectively, it will implicitly embody the shared values of each person. To establish the charter, focus on the following areas:
• Vision - the final outcome for what the team could possibly achieve
• Mission - the purpose underlying why the team has come together
• Values - what is important to you about who you are as team members
• Code of Conduct - the ground rules that the team is to operate under
Dialogue
" Dialogue is the interaction between people with different view points, intent on learning from one another. "
Will Phillips, Management Consultant and Author
High performance teams dialogue rather than discuss. Discussing focuses on winning or convincing others that one viewpoint is more valid than others. When we dialogue and work collectively, we welcome differing opinions and find new solutions built on common ground.
Improve your team dialogue by following the principles identified by dialogue experts David Bohm, Donald Factor and Peter Garrett.
1. Silence - allowing a space to exist to give others time to think and respond. It also involves listening to our own inner guidance before speaking.
2. Suspending Judgment - active awareness of how we filter information and the ability to set biases aside or step beyond it. We must also continually interpret what the other person is saying.
3. Focused Listening - listening actively to what is being said and for underlying unspoken messages.
4. Shared Meaning - finding common ground and underlying meaning in others' statements.
5. Reflection - taking time to reflect back to the speaker and the rest of the group a view of some of the assumptions and unspoken implications of what is being expressed.
6. Seeking Understanding - asking key questions that enable us to locate ourselves in the thought of another.
7. Clarifying questions - being curious and asking open ended question that take the thought process to a deeper level.
Research has proven that better communication leads to better business results. If we comprehend and understand each other well then we work more effectively to the same end.
Working Procedures
Effective meeting practices are vital to fully engage team members, physically, mentally and emotionally. Given the number of meetings people attend, there is a huge opportunity cost to ineffective meetings. Improve your team's meetings by reviewing your working practices:
• Do you have a set meeting format? One option is Roberts Rules of Orders based on the old military format, effective at moving through a meeting agenda. However, to solicit a broad range of divergent ideas, a facilitated session format is preferable. Meetings could entail the use of both formats.
• Do you have an agenda? This is the most important aspect of any meeting and considerable thought should be given to it. Creating an agenda is more than making a list of topic areas. It is defining the required information to move forward on any specific topic. The initial question that the facilitator posses will determine the quality of the dialogue and hence the quality of the outcome.
• Is someone responsible for keeping up to date minutes of the meetings and who has made commitments? Do you have a process for following up? What process has been designed for people to report back on their progress?
• Does your group follow a decision making model that allows people to provide qualified votes on proceeding with different actions?
A number of good books are available to help you improve in this area. Alternatively, you might want to engage Catalyst for a few meetings to establish your team's process.
Next issue, I include suggestions for improving your team's score in creativity, diversity, continuous learning and results.
Building solid foundations,
Jacque Small
Master Your Game Foundation of High Performance Teams Part 1 - To learn more about this author, visit Jacque Small's Website.
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This is the third article in the series on High Performance Teams. Now that you've conducted your self-assessment, here are some suggestions for increasing the effectiveness of your teams. The first three category areas are discussed here. The last four categories will be covered in the next Master Your Game.
Team Charter
Improve your high performance team by setting a team charter that contains the team's code of conduct. If the charter is developed collectively, it will implicitly embody the shared values of each person. To establish the charter, focus on the following areas:
• Vision - the final outcome for what the team could possibly achieve
• Mission - the purpose underlying why the team has come together
• Values - what is important to you about who you are as team members
• Code of Conduct - the ground rules that the team is to operate under
Dialogue
" Dialogue is the interaction between people with different view points, intent on learning from one another. "
Will Phillips, Management Consultant and Author
High performance teams dialogue rather than discuss. Discussing focuses on winning or convincing others that one viewpoint is more valid than others. When we dialogue and work collectively, we welcome differing opinions and find new solutions built on common ground.
Improve your team dialogue by following the principles identified by dialogue experts David Bohm, Donald Factor and Peter Garrett.
1. Silence - allowing a space to exist to give others time to think and respond. It also involves listening to our own inner guidance before speaking.
2. Suspending Judgment - active awareness of how we filter information and the ability to set biases aside or step beyond it. We must also continually interpret what the other person is saying.
3. Focused Listening - listening actively to what is being said and for underlying unspoken messages.
4. Shared Meaning - finding common ground and underlying meaning in others' statements.
5. Reflection - taking time to reflect back to the speaker and the rest of the group a view of some of the assumptions and unspoken implications of what is being expressed.
6. Seeking Understanding - asking key questions that enable us to locate ourselves in the thought of another.
7. Clarifying questions - being curious and asking open ended question that take the thought process to a deeper level.
Research has proven that better communication leads to better business results. If we comprehend and understand each other well then we work more effectively to the same end.
Working Procedures
Effective meeting practices are vital to fully engage team members, physically, mentally and emotionally. Given the number of meetings people attend, there is a huge opportunity cost to ineffective meetings. Improve your team's meetings by reviewing your working practices:
• Do you have a set meeting format? One option is Roberts Rules of Orders based on the old military format, effective at moving through a meeting agenda. However, to solicit a broad range of divergent ideas, a facilitated session format is preferable. Meetings could entail the use of both formats.
• Do you have an agenda? This is the most important aspect of any meeting and considerable thought should be given to it. Creating an agenda is more than making a list of topic areas. It is defining the required information to move forward on any specific topic. The initial question that the facilitator posses will determine the quality of the dialogue and hence the quality of the outcome.
• Is someone responsible for keeping up to date minutes of the meetings and who has made commitments? Do you have a process for following up? What process has been designed for people to report back on their progress?
• Does your group follow a decision making model that allows people to provide qualified votes on proceeding with different actions?
A number of good books are available to help you improve in this area. Alternatively, you might want to engage Catalyst for a few meetings to establish your team's process.
Next issue, I include suggestions for improving your team's score in creativity, diversity, continuous learning and results.
Building solid foundations,
Jacque Small
Master Your Game Foundation of High Performance Teams Part 1 - To learn more about this author, visit Jacque Small's Website.
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Dianne CramptonDianne Crampton is an executive leadership coach, team culture consultant, author and president of TIGERS Success Series, Inc. Dianne has been helping CEO's and Executives connect their employees to their core values and goals for over 20 years using the trademarked TIGERS team culture process, which stands for trust, interdependence, genuineness, empathy, risk and success. To download a free white paper on behaviors that build strong teams and behaviors that will predictably tear them down go here. Dianne's contribution to the 2010 Pfeiffer Consulting Journal (an imprint of John Wiley and Sons Publishers) entitled TIGERS Hearted Teams is available in November 2009. Her new book TIGERS Among Us: 5 Winning Business Team Cultures And Why, Three Creeks Publishing will release in March 2010. To receive publishing discounts, subscribe to the free TigerTracks Newsletter here. - Visit Dianne Crampton's Website |
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George LudwigGeorge Ludwig is a recognized authority on sales strategy and peak performance psychology. An international speaker, trainer, and corporate consultant, he helps clients like Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Northwestern Mutual, CIGNA, and numerous others improve sales force effectiveness and performance. Though it's George's strategies and processes that help corporations increase productivity and performance, it's his tremendous energy and dynamism that spark the transformation. Again and again, clients remark on his amazing ability to unleash human capacity and inspire men and women to break out of their comfort zones. The result is a whole new type of salesperson. His customized presentations teach achievers to make stunning advances in their lives. From helping salespeople realize cherished dreams to helping corporations exponentially accelerate revenue streams, George Ludwig leaves audiences and individuals empowered, emboldened, and clamoring for more. George is the best-selling author of Power Selling: Seven Strategies for Cracking the Sales Code and Wise Moves: 60 Quick Tips to Improve Your Position in Life & Business. - Visit George Ludwig's Website |
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Dave KurlanDave Kurlan is the founder and CEO of Objective Management Group, Inc., the industry leader in sales assessments and sales force evaluations, and the CEO of David Kurlan & Associates, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sales force development. Dave has been a top rated speaker at Inc. Magazine's Conference on Growing the Company, the Sales & Marketing Management Conference and the Gazelles Sales & Marketing Summit. He has been featured on radio and TV, including World Business Review with General Norman Schwarzkopf, in Inc. Magazine, Selling Power Magazine, Sales & Marketing Management Magazine and Incentive Magazine. He is the author of Mindless Selling and Baseline Selling – How to Become a Sales Superstar by Using What You Already Know about the Game of Baseball. He created and wrote STAR, a proprietary recruiting process for hiring great salespeople, and he writes Understanding the Sales Force, a popular business Blog and is a contributing author to The Death of 20th Century Selling and 101 Great Ways to Improve Your Life, Volume 2. - Visit Dave Kurlan's Website |
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Linda RichardsonLinda Richardson is the Founder and Executive Chairwoman of Richardson, a global sales training and performance improvement company. As a recognized leader in the industry, she has won the coveted Stevie Award for Lifetime Achievement in Sales Excellence and she was identified by Training Industry, Inc. as one of the “Top 20 Most Influential Training Professionals.” Ms. Richardson is credited with the movement to Consultative Selling and is the author of ten books on selling and sales management, including Sales Coaching — Making the Great Leap from Sales Manager to Sales Coach, and Stop Telling, Start Selling. She teaches sales and management at the Wharton Graduate School of the University of Pennsylvania and the Wharton Executive Development Center. Linda is a frequent speaker at industry and client conferences, has been published extensively in industry and training journals, and has been featured in numerous publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Nation’s Business, Selling Power, Success, and The Conference Board Magazine. Learn more about Richardson's sales training and performance improvement solutions at http://www.richardson.com web - Visit Linda Richardson's Website |
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David BarrDavid Barr is the President of Venture Opportunities, Inc. David has been a professional business broker/intermediary since 1980 focusing on General Business Brokerage and Mergers and Acquisitions representing client transaction value from $400,000 to $20,000,000. Mr. Barr has handled the sale of over four hundred and fifty companies. David earned a university degree from the State University of New York majoring in economics and business. David holds the Mergers and Acquisition Master Intermediary and the Certified Business Intermediary designations from the International Business Brokers Association. He is also a Senior Business Analyst and a Texas licensed Real Estate Agent. For more information about David and Venture Opportunities, visit www.bizdealmaker.com. - Visit David Barr's Website |
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