What Does It Take To Build And Develop A Truly Great Team? Part 6 of a series…
Welcome to part 6 of this series on hiring and developing a great team, specifically with an hourly workforce. We’ve talked about hiring for qualities, correctly welcoming (indoctrinating) your new hires, and now we are moving to the next steps necessary to keep your great new hires great, as well as changing expectations for your current team members. In part 5 we talked about helping people who do not belong on your team find their happiness elsewhere, and deciding if they really have to go, or are we acting out of fear.
Today we will focus on:
2. Changing expectations for our existing team members.
We will likely have a large number of our team members happy to be getting great new people on the team (finally!), and happy to see the worst go (what have you been waiting for?). The rest will be swept along by the strongest force (whether it be good or evil), and while they are not the yet the great team members we’d like to have on the team, I’ve found that the ‘window’ for great team members is wider that most people think. Many more people would be great additions to the team if they are properly trained, trusted, allowed to take chances, and if they really believe that we, their team Leaders, have their best interest at heart.
Our current team members are not yet acting like Great team members for several reasons. As Leaders, I believe our first job is to assume that our team members are fully capable of greatness, and our job is to remove the roadblocks that are holding them back.
Some of them have had the creativity and willingness to speak up beaten out of them by past bosses. They are now doing average work because in the past it has not been in their best interest to speak up, make suggestions, maintain high work standards, or exceed expectations.
For these people the process will include brainstorming sessions, allowing them to move forward with their ideas with little or no input from you, and rewarding and celebrating each and every time one of them speaks up, offers an idea, or provides even the smallest bit of constructive criticism.
You should expect the process of encouraging people to speak up to take some time… months at least, if not longer. At first they will not trust you to listen to, or care about what they have to say. The need for patience and understanding is paramount, and your ability to ride out this process will be tested. If you are able to stick with it, the payoff will be more than worth it.
Some of them have always had each and every step of their jobs spelled out for them, and have not had the freedom to innovate, or make any decisions for themselves. These people have been taught to follow orders, rules, and job descriptions to the letter, and the thought of changing this learned behavior could be very scary.
These people do not expect to be trusted (in fact they will likely expect just the opposite), so you must be not just willing, but eager to extend trust to everyone on your team. People don’t need to ‘earn’ your trust… people deserve trust simply because they are people. And as Leaders it is our job to extend trust.
Here again, we get more of what we reward and celebrate. So… if we want our team members to take chances, try new methods, and innovate, we should celebrate and reward each and every instance.
I have found that it helps to suggest ways in which people might step out of their rigid confines (whether they are self defined, or have been defined for them by others). We are often able to see the right answers and best course of action for others, and yet unable to see any path at all for ourselves.
Literally making suggestions about how to approach their work differently may not work, since too many people will hear our suggestions as yet more direction. So… I’ve had success simply relating my experiences… “When I was… I tried this…” or “I had this great team Leader who suggested that I try… I failed miserably, but because of that failure I thought of trying… which worked out great” or “I’ve seen this… or this… work in the past, and I bet you can come up with an even better way to…”
This is where celebrating every attempt will help you, because many of your team members will be hesitant to try something new for fear of failure… or more specifically, the consequences of failure. So… having their team Leader celebrate and reward every attempt at innovation will go a long way toward helping your people break out of their old habits.
Some people have ideas or pictures of themselves that are not true, or not supported by fact. You know the stories we tell ourselves… like: I’m not good at math… I could do everything about the next job but the financials. For whatever reason, many of us tell ourselves, convince ourselves that we are not capable, or not able to do certain jobs or tasks … we can help people break out of these limiting molds and thought patterns.
As we develop relationships with our team members, we will begin to understand what thought patterns are getting in the way, and over time we can work on helping our team members see that these beliefs are not only false, but often the opposite is true! They will only listen to us however, once we show them that we have their best interest at heart.
Some people have attitudes that stand in their way. We can be too idealistic, feel that everything we do must be perfect, or that we cannot compromise at all without compromising who we are. Attitudes like this can easily keep us from building on our strengths, getting enough tasks accomplished, or working well as part of a team.
We can help these people by showing them how this belief or behavior is getting in the way of achieving their goals. Our first job, as usual, is to develop strong, trusting relationships. Then, when they realize that our goals for them are the same as their goals for themselves, they will actually hear us when we talk to them about how these attitudes (which then affect their behaviors) are keeping them from achieving their goals.
To sum up… to move our current team members from average to great, our first steps are to build strong, trusting relationships; assume there are obstacles keeping them from being great; removing the obstacles and roadblocks we can remove; helping our team members develop new habits and overcome old patterns; and rewarding and celebrating every attempt towards the behaviors we need to see more of.
Next time we will discuss how our expectations for performance and behavior need to change in order to achieve great, as well as how to relate these changes to our team. As the past behavior of the team is exactly what we allowed it to be, we need to fully own our responsibility in order for the team to accept the needed changes.
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