If I boiled Team Leadership down to one word, it would be Communication.
Sam – Team Leadership participant
If I boiled Team Leadership down to one word, it would be Communication. That’s what Sam said after taking part in a Team leadership workshop one day a month for 12 months.
Sam was the model of a great participant. He took the information from the workshop, thought about it, and customized what he had learned to successfully meet the needs of his team.
Communication is the key ingredient to successful teambuilding.
Sam’s takeaway was that communication is the key ingredient to successful teambuilding. Here are three questions Sam asked himself to ensure effective communication as he built and nurtured his team:
How am I sharing information with my team members and encouraging them to do the same?
How am I offering my associates insight into my responsibilities and tasks?
How am I encouraging everyone to share information about their responsibilities with each other?
How might I ensure that I emphasize the importance of each team member’s contribution and show team members how all their jobs operate together to move the entire team closer to its goal.
How might I give all team members the opportunity to express themselves?
How might I:
- encourage team members to set up open, honest relationships with each other?
- give everyone the opportunity to know each other as people, not just as co-workers?
How might I give team members the opportunity to be creative together?
Sam’s answer to these questions was multifaceted and ongoing. I could write a blog on each one of his initiatives. Initially, he:
- hosted pizza parties and potlucks
- encouraged staff to give each other one-on-one feedback
- delegated problem-solving tasks to the team and let them work on creative solutions together. He attended the start of these brainstorming sessions, and remained in the background so the team could devise its solutions independently.
Questions
- How did you answer Sam’s questions?
- What can you start doing to improve communication with your team?
Chuck Scharenberg is the Founder of More Profit More Freedom, a consultancy that supports the execution of large-scale growth for small businesses. His practice has successfully grown businesses with processes that identify potential roadblocks and mitigation schemes to accelerate realistic execution.
Solving the Right problems by asking the Right questions!