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Soft Skills
Creating high performance teams
Team dynamics can greatly improve workplace productivity.
Pallavi Jha offers tips on building great teams
 Research
shows that most employees cannot do something they have not been shown how to
do. Many corporate executives like to talk about team players, but they do not
practice the concept, leaving employees to wonder how their experience on the
school cricket team 20 years ago could possibly relate to the workplace. Because
they don’t know what it means, they simply go about their tasks.
At the same time, it is true that companies see amazing results when they move
to work-oriented teams. Productivity often increases because employees feel
they are a part of the company, employee retention often increases because employees
feel they can make a difference, and costs often fall because employees are
working to solve problems management might never see.
I would encourage you to make the move keeping these things in mind:
Workplace teams are different from sports teams so someone has to show you what
to do. As a first step, start by sharing with all your managers successful examples
and case studies. It’s also a good idea to develop your team through effective
training where they will learn basic communication skills as well as strategies
for setting up good teams.
- Real teams give worker teams responsibility for outcomes
They don’t just bring employees within the department together for a weekly
meeting just to pass on information or listen to complaints and excuses. Instead,
even worker teams at the project level should be asked to identify problems,
including the costs associated with them. They should then be empowered to solve
those problems.
- Cross-functional teams have the greatest impact
Many of the successes team-oriented workplaces have seen come because they bring
together groups of workers who never before talked to each other. For example,
technical / project management and customer service teams are frequently at
odds with each other—customer service wants the product out as soon as
possible, but project management has multiple deadlines to meet and doesn’t
want to give poor service to anyone. By bringing the two groups together to
solve a problem, both sides will understand what the other’s concerns are.
The whole idea of teamwork is to bring together people with different areas
of expertise to address a specific problem. As a result, teams should be formed
and disbanded as needed. When a person or group identifies a problem, teams
are formed by gathering employees with the necessary information to help solve
it. When one task is complete, the team ends; when new problems are identified,
new teams are formed.
- You must provide resources for teams
To be effective, teams need access to key functions and services such as different
technical skills and processes, customer service, marketing and HR, as well
as continuing management and technical education via consultants. They will
need money to conduct studies such as a comparison of two processes, or benchmarking
a process with that of other companies.
In the process of creating productive teams, we may need
to deal with difficult co-workers. We all have people in our lives whom we don’t
like but can’t ignore. We also know the toll these relationships take on
our own mental—and sometimes even physical—health. You dread having
to be in the same room with them. Your heart rate starts to soar at the mere
thought of having a conversation with them. Worse, you spend hours of precious
time just dealing with the bad feelings.
It doesn’t have to be this way. You don’t have to like everyone you
come into contact with, but you can make the relationship easier on yourself
by following a few key communication tactics:
You’ll realise a huge difference when you make a conscious effort to smile
at your co-worker and ask him a non-work question, such as how his family is
doing or what he thought of the local football team’s latest game.
- Show respect for the other person’s opinion
Never tell the person he is wrong. This can be difficult, especially if the
person is antagonistic or poorly informed. However, we’ve found that it
often doesn’t take long for a ‘difficult’ person to become more
easy-going once he’s being truly listened to.
- Try honestly to see things from the other person’s
point of view
Again, this can be a challenge when you’re convinced that the other person
is coming with a completely alien mindset. Yet, with a little practice, you
can begin giving people the benefit of doubt, and start seeing why they feel
the way they do.
- Give honest and sincere appreciation
Remember this: “If you can’t say something nice,
don’t say anything at all.” It may seem quaint, but it works, especially
when you are in a contentious relationship.
Of course, there will still be tense moments, but your co-workers and you will
be able to handle them as professionals instead of letting your emotions get
in the way. The higher you are in your organisation, the more important it is
to work in teams and know how to deal with people. As you learn to successfully
manage your inter-personal relationships at work, you will have a definite leg-up
on many of your peers.
Pallavi Jha is managing director, Dale Carnegie Training
India. E-mail: pallavi_jha@dalecarnegie.com
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