Make Teamwork Happen

Why are people so stingy with praise of their fellow teammates?

After all, we know that positive feedback inspires and motivates people.  So what lame excuses have you heard lately?

Too Busy.  You don’t have enough time to take a moment to smile and comment about a job well done.

Didn’t Notice.  You are so self-absorbed that you didn’t even notice your teammates’ hard work.  Ergo, you can’t comment on what you don’t see.

It’s Hard Work.  It takes a tremendous amount of work to invent new and creative ways to commend people on their efforts.  Why put forth the effort?

Ignorance is Bliss.  If you don’t know how to give praise, you look stupid bumbling your way through a few heartfelt thank-you’s.

Afraid To.  Whether you are afraid of being perceived as soft, weak or playing favorites, you would rather say nothing than anything at all.

Why Bother?  You rightfully expect your teammates to do their jobs correctly.  You should not have to provide any positive strokes to people simply doing their job.

Whatever your excuse, don’t be so stupid!

Stop what you are doing, notice the team’s work, and take the time and energy to simply comment on the great work your teammates do.  Don’t worry — as long as your feedback is genuine and sincere, you won’t look stupid.  You’ll look like a team player!

Question:  How have you praised your teammates lately?

I just took my daughter, Marina, to her college orientation at the University of Virginia. We must have walked around the entire campus, taken the trolley and wandered through “the Corner” buying all sorts of UVA paraphenalia. Check out Mincer’s for a wide assortment!

I was schooled on what to expect (and not to expect) as a parent of a college student….and I was most interested in one presentation on “building community within UVA”. The presenter was Dr. Kathryn A. Neeley, Associate Professor of Science, Technology and Society. She, among other professors, invites their students to have dinner with them…to get to know them better and to build community.

Question: Do you invite your teammates to break bread with you…simply to get to know them better and build the team?

When it comes to teamwork, most of us think we are pretty good team players.  We participate; we offer opinions; we help when we can; we ask for feedback so we can be a better teammate, etc.

Unfortunately, some people are not even mediocre team players.  They are simply toxic to the team.  You know who I am talking about.  Toxic people suck the life out of other people.  Every time they open their mouths, it’s about what’s wrong with the world, who did what to whom and why others make their world so difficult.  They are simply miserable and want to share their misery with anyone who will listen.

The sad thing is that you have to listen to that garbage!  Before you know it, you are infected with the toxic virus and start spewing the same garbage.

Surely, all of us can have a bad day, a bad week, a bad month, or even a bad year.  We’re not talking about those folks.  They need our help and support through a relatively brief period of time.  On the flip side, chronically toxic people need a quick, swift kick in the can.  (Okay, spare the physical violence, but these people have spent years perfecting the art of polluting every great idea or possibility.)

Toxic people need a significant emotional event to jar them from their toxic behavior.  You may ask, “What kind of significant emotional event?”  For example, the team leader calls them on the behavior — first in private, and if that doesn’t work, the team calls them on the behavior while all team members are present.  Give the toxic person direct, objective, specific feedback between the eyes.  Calmly describe the impact of the toxic behavior on the team’s performance and relationships.  Describe the consequences of the inability or unwillingness to change the behavior.

And, as a last resort, if they can’t get their act together, kick them off the team.  If you have done everything in your power to buff them up, upgrade their team skills and bring them up to an acceptable level of team behavior, then you are doing your team a disservice to keep them on the team.

No one likes to kick someone off the team, but it’s certainly the avenue of last resort that you should not be afraid to explore.

Question:  If you are toxic to your team, how can you change?

Napoleon Hill coined the concept of the mastermind alliance in his classic book, “Think and Grow Rich.”  He believed that a group of like-minded, achievement-oriented individuals could dramatically leverage each other’s success.  It’s all about creating the synergy of like-minded professionals to have a safe place to celebrate success, solve pressing issues, offer support and encouragement, unleash creativity, gain valuable insights and expand and grow their businesses.

Mark Sanborn is an international speaker on leadership and teamwork, and he suggests the following guidelines to pursue a meeting of the minds:

Find the Right Mix.  Find great people with complimentary businesses, functions, positions with similar career levels and shared values.  The diversity of the group is a strength, and everyone should have something of value to bring to the group.  Mark warns that “too much disparity between experience levels, however, can hamper the sharing of ideas.”

Agree on Purpose.  Each member should share his or her own “What’s In It For Me” (WIIFM) for participating in the group.  Be very clear on what you are trying to accomplish;  generate leads, provide support, offer advice, encourage each other, etc.

Establish Ground Rules.  Agree on the administrivia that can drive teams crazy, e.g., meeting time, length, attendance and other fundamental beliefs to support the effective functioning of the team.  Melanie Mills, another national speaker from Indiana, phrased this aspect so well when she said, “Establish guidelines for how you operate with each other, like not putting down other members, a solutions-orientation versus a problem-orientation, sharing time so nobody dominates, confidentiality, and mutual respect.  This is probably the most important step, as it creates the atmosphere for you to operate in.  I would keep them simple but clear.”

Agree on Format.  Detrmine location, time and agenda.  Most Masterminds start with an update from each member.  That time can be used to share good news, ask questions, solve problems, etc.  Then the meetings usually move into a specific topic area (agreed to ahead of time) and each team member brings ideas, best practices, resources, suggestions, article reprints, book recommendations, etc.  The meeting usually concludes with a commitment to each other on what each member will do in between sessions.

Select a Coordinator.  One person needs to coordinate schedules and meeting logistics.  This position can be permanent or rotated between team members.

Use a Facilitor.  Make sure that each meeting has a designated facilitator (a Mastermind member or an external facilitator) to keep the process moving, ensure balanced participation and move actions forward.

Keep Checking.  All Mastermind groups evolve into new formats and mixes of people.  Periodically, check the “pulse” of the team by reinforcing what’s working well and what can be “upgraded.”  Mark assures us that it’s OK to “revisit your purposes, goals and time commitments frequently, so you can address whether adjustments should be made.”

Question:  If you are a member of a Mastermind group, what is your key to success?

Have I told you that I am moving cross country from Alexandria, VA to Scottsdale, AZ? Yep….loaded up the U-Haul truck and auto transport and we’re driving cross country.

Currently in Clarkesville, Arkansas (never have been in AR before!) and spent the ENTIRE day yesterday trying my darndest to stay loyal to Verizon.

You see, I love my fiber optic high speed wireless in Alexandria. Verizon calls it FIOS; I call it blazin! And, I wanted to transfer the service over to Scottsdale. Sounds simple, doesn’t it? Well, it wasn’t.

Spent most of the day on the phone trying to get the right person to START my service in Scottsdale. 15 minute wait, then a disconnect. Happened three times. I almost threw my cell phone out the truck window.

I really want to do business with Verizon…but you can’t talk to a live body.

So, in desperation, I called QWest, and was delightfully surprised at the attentive and responsive people (Jeff, Kim and Gail) who answered the FREAKIN phone, handled my request pleasantly and thoroughly.

Although I will miss my FIOS, I will NOT miss Verizon. Sorry guys, I tried. And, for those of you trying to call my old phone number, that number has been disconnected and Verizon says they “can’t promise” to add the forwarding number to the disconnect announcement. So…the message from Verizon is “don’t let the door hit you on the way out!”

Question: What are you doing that makes it hard for your customers to stay loyal to you?

My daughter, Marina, just graduated from the number one public school in the country, Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (at least that’s what US News and World Report says).   I am sooooo proud of her!

The last two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity: Prom was last week, graduation was on Saturday and everyone is down in Corolla for “Beach Week” taking a deserved vacation from four years of serious studying.

For me, Prom Pictures was the highlight. Marina looks so beautiful and glamorous….and don’t forget she’s incredibly smart!

And her group of friends were having a great time as well!   (Marina and her date, Will Beckman are on the right).

So…sometimes it’s okay to do things by yourself, and at other times, it’s better to do things in a group. Everything does NOT have to be done in a team, nor do you have to do everything yourself.

Question: Are you optimizing your strategy to team or not to team?

More and more organizations have moved toward open office spaces designed to foster communication and teamwork.  Rather than hide behind closed doors, each person has a cubicle or “pod” to do individual work and several areas or rooms to gather as a team.

Conceptually, open space design sounds great.  Unfortunately, many don’t understand or appreciate these neighborly rules of behavior.

Leave Me Alone.  When you see anyone in a “Dilbert Pod,” assume the person is intently working.  When they want to commune with their teammates, they will get up and move to a communal area.

Imagine a Door.  If you must interrupt, knock on the partition before entering the cube space.  Consider each pod has a “door” that deserves the same courtesy as an enclosed office.

Back Up.  Sit with your back facing the entrance to your a cubicle to minimize distractions and discourage people from entering your space.

Post a Sign.  When intently working, post a “do not disturb” sign on the outside of your cubicle or try draping a velvet rope across the entrance. 

Talk Quietly.  Even though you may have a loud voice, that doesn’t give you the right to have loud conversations, use the speakerphone or shout across the bay.

Move It.  When having a mini-meeting of just a few people crammed into your pod, move to a real meeting room.  Team conversations are naturally louder than one-on-one dialogue and will distract others around you.

Be Discreet.  You’re fooling yourself if you think your personal business will not be overheard by others.  If you must conduct personal business on company time, take a walk and make personal calls from your cell phone.

Popcorn, Anyone?  Unless you are willing to share (or suffer the consequences), keep your popcorn, aromatic leftovers, perfume overdoses and other overbearing scents at home.

Check It.  Periodically, review these rules of cubicle behavior.  Provide an avenue to bring up any irritants, express grievances and improve the overall environment.

By following these ground rules, you can work comfortably, enjoy open communication and enhance your team’s work.

Question:  What are your pet peeves while working in a cubicle office space?

The typical corporate e-mail user receives more than 30 messages a day and spends an hour or two dealing with these messages.  Learn to manage your inbox efficiently so you can realize the benefits of e-mail; it’s less formal, quicker, easier, more convenient and cost-effective that other forms of communication.

Quit fiddling with e-mail throughout the day.  Check your e-mail regularly (e.g., first thing in the morning and right after lunch).  Do not allow e-mail to continually interrupt your day.  You don’t need to know every single time you’ve got mail, so turn off your noisy e-mail alarm.  It drives your office mates crazy!

Before you open all your messages, check your e-mail subject lines while in your inbox/browser.  Delete the junk mail.  It’s the equivalent of standing by the trash can as you go through your “snail mail.”

Handle e-mails only once.  Discipline yourself to DRAFS as many messages as you can:

Delete
Reply
Act
Forward
Save

DELETE:  Delete spam, unwanted messages and incoming “free offers.”  Nothing is free.  E-mail is a great way for companies to collect information and leave “cookies” (little pieces of software) on your computer.

Delete those messages you won’t read or don’t have time to read.

If you don’t want to receive jokes, chain letters or other types of “junk” e-mail, politely tell your teammates to delete your name off their distribution lists.

Create a “rule” or “filter” that will automatically delete unwanted e-mail from your inbox.

REPLY:  Reply within your agreed-upon times, even if a brief acknowledgement is all you can manage.  Ignoring or postponing a response to a teammate’s message is downright rude.  When you know your teammates are expecting a reply but you need more time, send a short “what’s happening” message to let others know when you will get back to them.

You are not expected to reply to an FYI or copy to/cc message.

Use threads (a string of responses to a single mesage) by setting up the reply function.  You can set up your system to include the sender’s message at the beginning or at the end of your reply — usually a matter of preference.  Don’t forget to edit excess forwarding information that doesn’t relate to the content of the message.

Don’t reply to a point in a prior e-mail message without quoting or paraphrasing what you’re responding to and who said it.  When replying to just one point of a long e-mail, clip and past the pertinent paragraph only.  A > inserted before text means “you wrote.”  Try using a different color and size font so that your answers stand out from the original message.  (Let others know, e.g., “See my response in blue.”)

You can use the “reply all” feature to “brainstorm” a topic, allowing everyone on the team to participate.

Beware of Reply All.  Do all of the people from the incoming to: and cc: lines need to know?

Unless the matter is really urgent, don’t try to reply to every message as soon as it comes in.  Generally speaking, people who respond to every message within five or 10 minutes are paying more attention to their e-mail than their jobs.

When e-mail has been lobbed back and forth (like a tennis ball) for more than three volleys, it’s time to pick up the phone, or go face to face (F2F).

ACT:  Take immediate action on items that will take less than two minutes, or if you have time, deal with them on the spot.

Group all messages that will take longer than two minutes into an “action folder.”  Clean out your action folder when you have time to deal with them appropriately (usually once per day).

Flag your e-mail messages for follow-up actions.

Stop procrastinating.  Just take action.

FORWARD:  Forward misdirected e-mails to the correct address.  Don’t even forward spam or chain letter e-mails.  Not only are chain letters against the law, it’s tacky.

When forwarding messages, put your comments at the top of the message.

E-mail gives us an illusion of privacy, but your e-mail could be forwarded to ANYONE.  Do not forward your fellow teammates’ mail without permission (or tacit understanding), especially if it may embarrass them.  It is all too easy to forward a personal letter to the entire team, division or company.

When forwarding e-mail, set your e-mail client character width to 70 characters.  This keeps your text from getting pushed off the screen with older software that does not have a “word wrap” feature.

More than three forwards, and you’re out!

SAVE:  Develop an orderly filing system for those e-mail messages you wish to save.  Create file folders to save your messages.  Create sub folders for each process, project or program your team works on.  When saving your messages, rename with with a descriptive title under a specific subject folder so you can find them later.

Only save messages you think you will need to retrieve at a later date.  After all, how many paper files have you ever gone back to?

Create a shared drive or website to post and save team information.

Keep messages remaining in your electronic mailbox to a minimum.

If you don’t know what to do with it, or don’t have time to deal with it, save it to a “temp” folder.

Clean out that “temp” folder once a week.

Question:  Do you follow these e-mail rules or do you have others of your own?

Once a year, the “girls” at Baltimore Gas & Electric and I go golfing. I have worked with Jeannette, Darlene and Doreen on-and-off over the past eight years, and we enjoy bringing each other up to date while trying to hit an itty-bitty tiny white ball. This year, we graced the Turf Valley Country Club on the hottest recorded temperature for that day EVER!

It was the first time out for the season for most of us, so we reasonably decided to play “best cart ball” which means that we would take the best ball that was hit from one of us in the cart, and keep the game moving along. Good thing too, since it was so bloody hot!

Our game is a social event, and we try to stick to the rules (as much as you can stick to rules with a “best ball” format!). Scores are kept more as a frame of reference, but we have won some tournaments in the past, so the score is no slouching matter.

Jeannette and I were in one cart, and Doreen and Darlene were in the other, keeping the official score. What cracked me up is that the end of each hole, we’d ask, so how’d you do and compare scores. Of course, we know how we did (that’s an achievement orientation) and the comparison to others is more about competition. Both are normal and natural in teams. It’s when the competitive aspect moves ahead and overshadows the desire to do your best that makes a team less constructive and more aggressive.

Question: What kind of team are you on? More constructive and achievement oriented or more aggressive and competitive?

Ever wonder where the term “ground rule” comes from?

Frank Bell, a facilitative trainer says the term comes from baseball.  Each baseball park might have different conditions not anticipated in the “book rules.”  For example, when a batted ball bounces over the fence on the first bounce, the book rules declare that the play is a double.  This rule applies to all playing venues.

But at Wrigley Field in Chicago, ivy grows on one of the outfield fences.  The “ground rule” there is that a hit ball that gets stuck in the ivy and consequently becomes out of play is declared a double.  This is an example of a ground rule, not a book rule, because ivy exists only at Wrigley Field, not at Yankee Stadium, Camden Yards or Dodger Stadium.

Every team meeting should have some ground rules – explicit agreements on how the team will function in their specific ballpark.  Ground rules should be established or reviewed at the beginning of each game, before getting down to business.

As you formulate your ground rules, consider how the team is going to deal with their specific concerns such as:

• Interruptions:  What to do when members are called out of the meeting.  How to deal with telephone calls and messages.  Will pagers and cell phones be tolerated?
• Assignments:  If members can’t complete their “homework,” who should they notify and by when?
• Roles:  Should the team  rotate roles?  Which ones and how often?  In the event that a team member can’t make it to the meeting, are “substitutions” allowed?
• Decisions:  How will the team make its decisions?  Are the members aiming for consensus?  Is there a “fallback” in case the team can’t come to a consensus?  Is the team leader making the final decision?
• Confidentiality:  Are there topics or kinds of information that shouldn’t be discussed outside the meeting?
• Penalties:  How will the team deal with minor and chronic violations of the ground rules?

Ground rules simply cover all the bases to ensure effective teamwork.

Question:  What ground rules have you set for your team?