Summer holidays are a time when the pace of life slows enough for us take stock, reflect on the future and maybe catch-up with some reading.

Relax, Reflect & Resolve this summer

As you sit on a plane, a beach or in an armchair this summer, you might like to ponder one or two of the following:

- What have I achieved this year that was worth all the effort?
- Whose life has improved as a result of my contribution?
- What is the most valuable lesson I’ve learnt this year?
- Is the future more certain now than it was a year ago?

These periods of reflection can be motivating and inspiring, particularly as we recognise the ‘unique contribution’ we each make. It’s equally important for teams to take time to reflect on past successes and future challenges for the same reasons. So have a great summer, take time to think and set a date to do the same with your team.

Are you a “good” boss?  One of the most important aspects of an executive’s/manager’s/boss’s job is to manage employees; it is also the most challenging.

Bonus Rule 6: Don't dance in front of staff, especially if you can't dance.

A boss can either create a team unit or keep herself apart. All of us are given choices every moment of every day. How we respond to difficult situations is a choice. How we choose to react in a moment affects not only us but our employees. Employees perform best in an environment that is supportive, consistent, has good two way communication, and where everyone helps each other.

Follow these five tips to become a “good” boss:

1. Speak with respect - It seems that respect has taken a back seat to disrespectful verbal and non-verbal behaviour that is rampant in our society. It is time to put respect back into business and life. It starts at the top with the boss. Do not shout at or speak harshly to your employees or interrupt them when they are speaking. If a manager is harsh, condescending, arrogant or rude, how does that inspire an employee to want to do their best for the company? Speak with respect to your employees.

2. Eliminate sarcasm from your delivery style – do not make fun of or embarrass your employees. Sarcasm and public displays of criticism are negative. Negativity breeds anger, resentment, and frustration. These emotions and feelings create stress which can lead to decreased productivity, decreased enjoyment, increased illness, increased absenteeism, and increased turnover.
Give your employees positive feedback on what they are doing well.

3. Be a good listener – Communication is about more than speaking; it is also about listening. If we expect our employees to listen to what we have to say, then we must be willing to listen to them as well. Listening allows your employees to be heard and feel validated. It is not productive for an employee to leave your office thinking I’m never going to her again since she does not listen and acts like she knows it all. Be a good listener.

4. Think before speaking – Before reacting to a situation, think about the ramifications of what you will say to the employee. If an employee is not performing or doing what you ask them, then take a few minutes to figure out what you can say to inspire them to comply with your request, rather than discourage them with words that are harsh or demeaning.

5. Act calm and confident – Have a calm tone of voice, speak softer and slower, and smile. What you say and how you say it will either make your employees want to come to work because of the positive atmosphere that you create, or dread coming to work because of the negative environment. Take a look at your management style. Commit to being a positive, calm, caring, confident, and good boss.

These five tips will help you create an environment that promotes productivity, teamwork, and success to increase overall profitability and foster a winning attitude among your company’s stakeholders.

A blog by guest writer Anne Smith, Ph.D.

Anne Smith, Ph.D., the only tennis player in history who has won 10 Grand Slam championships and earned a doctorate, works with athletes, coaches, and parents who want to develop a prescription for how to win. Dr. Smith is the author of two books titled GRAND SLAM: Coach Your Mind to Win in Sports, Business, and Life and MACH 4TM Mental Training System: A Handbook for Athletes, Coaches, and Parents.  Visit her website at www.annesmithtennis.com.

Rule 4: Avoid micromanagement

Sometimes you can pinpoint the problem immediately (if, for example, your employee is lazy or unresponsive, comes in late and leaves early, shirks responsibility, or constantly questions your authority without cause).

But there are times when your personality just isn’t compatible with those on your team. Unfortunately, you still have work with these people and find a way to motivate them so that the whole team can realize success.

To that end, here are a few simple ways to keep the peace and get everyone working towards the same goal:

1. Talk TO them, not AT them. Talking down to your employees and acting superior is the best way to ensure that they tune out. You don’t necessarily need to be their best friend, but let them know that you’re open to conversation. You can offer clear and authoritative directions as well as keeping an open mind and listening to their suggestions. This is the best way to let your team members know that they are valued and give them a chance to truly participate in the process.

2. Be generous. Nothing motivates people better than the knowledge that their efforts are appreciated, so let employees know that you have noticed their hard work and compliment or reward them for both individual and team successes (anything from a weekly paid lunch to a team-building day to gift certificates could fit the bill, although sometimes a pat on the back will suffice). On the other side of the coin, avoid lambasting them in front of the entire crew if they make a mistake. Simply inform them of their error privately, talk about how it happened, and brainstorm a solution to ensure that it doesn’t happen again.

3. Provide the necessary tools. You don’t want to set your team up for failure, so make sure they have what they need to get the job done. If they tell you that they cannot proceed without a costly piece of software or machinery, take the time to determine if you really need to spend beaucoup bucks, if there is a comparable alternative at a lower price, or if they’re just blowing smoke. Don’t simply throw out the idea because you think it is too expensive. It’s your job to determine the needs of your team and outfit them for success.

4. Avoid micromanagement. You hired people for a specific function, so operate under the assumption that they know what they’re doing. Check in periodically to make sure they’re on track (or ask for updates), but don’t hover and intimidate them. It will only make them nervous and more apt to make mistakes (small and large). Let them know that they can come to you with concerns or stumbling blocks and then adopt an attitude of beneficence rather than berating them.

5. Pick team players. No matter how good of a boss you are, there are going to be times when you just can’t motivate an employee. Some people resist every attempt at inclusion. If that is the case, you can’t allow them to compromise your goals and drag the whole team down with them. So don’t be afraid to cut dead weight and find someone who fits your team dynamic and does their fair share. Everyone will be happier when all the cogs fit together and turn as they should.

This is a guest blog written by Kathleen McKenzie who is a writer for Student Grants. Kathleen also gives advice on the pursuit of higher education and career options for young adults.

How will Fabio Capello communicate with the England team this world cup?

It seems as though weak internal communication is a virus that has infected most organisations, often the larger the business the worse the condition. Strangely high tech systems and gadgets, rather than help seem to make the problem worse, so put your Blackberry in your drawer and try some of these low tech approaches:

 - Encourage chatter: let the banter flow, this is where great ideas are born, not during email exchanges.
 - Be authentic: be yourself, lower your guard, bury the high flying corporate executive image, it’s not fooling anyone.
 - Listen more and tell less: use your ears and mouth in the proportion they were given, 2 to 1, listen twice as much as you speak.
 - Get about a bit: visit people, stop to talk in corridors, queue for lunch and talk to the person next to you, close the conversation gap.
 - Feedback is a gift: be generous with praise and recognition, people long to know how they are doing.
 - Keep the information flowing: just like the news channels keep reporting breaking news and events, especially successes no matter how small.
 - Speak up: when something isn’t right say so to the person it concerns without delay.
 - Meaningful one to ones: make dedicated time to give praise and encouragement, set targets and when necessary correct and reprimand.

There are a few exceptional organisations where people say ‘Communication here is really good’ Leaders in these businesses follow the points above and know that relationship is the answer not technology as Jim Brown wisely says:  “High tech communication is in danger of creating a society with relationships a mile wide and an inch deep”.

Our latest training resource Innocent Success is a short film about innocent drinks, exploring how they have managed to continually improve their internal communication despite achieving periods of rapid growth and change, call us to arrange a preview screening.

The biggest of these projects is a semester long research project in a lab class, for which I have so far invested upwards of 20 hours a week, one all-nighter and countless late nights with my two partners. The class has a required team building component, one that we were all contemptuous of at first. Team building? Setting ground rules? Why should we waste our time learning things like that when there was real work to be done?

Although we all wanted to jump right into our research projects, we weren’t given a choice. Instead, over the course of a four-hour team-building lecture, we established ground rules for the semester and started getting to know each other. Thanks to this, my three-person team became more cohesive than I could have imagined. We know each member’s personality and commitments, and have adopted a “we’re all in this together” attitude.

The value of that team building became even more apparent when I started a group project in a different class. This short, intense four-week project required creativity and collaboration; a positive group dynamic was sure to make it more successful. Although we were encouraged to get to know each other and choose a group leader, this was nothing compared to the highly structured team building I experienced in my lab class.

As a result our project got off to a rocky start and we quickly fell behind schedule. We had a hard time establishing how and when we were going to communicate and weren’t able to split the workload effectively because we didn’t understand each other’s commitments. The project got done, as they always do, but it could have been a better experience for everyone if we had used the techniques I learned in my lab class.

Just like my classmates in lab, most MIT students resist the idea that teamwork is important like oil resists mixing with water. And through my experiences this semester, I’ve seen that even when suggestions for how to have a successful team experience are offered, the process is not organic.

As you read in last week’s article about internships, building trust, loyalty and commitment in a team is vital to the success and sanity of everyone involved. And learning how to lay the foundation for a strong team is a skill that will be valuable even beyond the MIT bubble.

So take a risk: challenge your group’s aversion to team building and take a few simple steps to put your group on the path to success.

1) Set some ground rules. Decide who will do what by when and make sure that everyone commits to doing their part. Lay out a method for how, when and how often you will communicate as a group. Use texts, e-mail, Dropbox and Google docs to make sure your team is on the same page.

2) Get to know your group members and understand their commitments. What are they involved in on campus? What do they have going on in their other classes? This part is especially vital to understanding how to divide up workloads. But don’t just stop at learning about their commitments. Building relationships with your group members shows them that they are important to the team and will strengthen their loyalty to the project.

3) Don’t be afraid to step up and be the team “coordinator.” This doesn’t mean that you need to be the taskmaster or the one who does all the work. It’s a role that you can fulfill simply by keeping track of the group’s progress and facilitating communication.

Ultimately, effective team building takes practice and the ability to relate to different people in different situations. You can join clubs, project teams or programs like the MIT Gordon Engineering Leadership Program to gain this valuable experience.

Eventually our time at the Institute will come to an end and we will step into a world where our success depends on how well we perform as members of a team. So stop dreading the words “team project” and think of group work at MIT as an opportunity to learn skills that will someday enhance your career.

This is a guest blog written by Elizabeth Ohrt who is a junior in the Department of Chemical Engineeringin and on the Gordon-MIT Engineering Leadership Program.

Team building is not complicated, declares Lencioni, president of his own management consulting firm and author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

Don't let your conference be a waste of money

We begin to ponder whether the vast sums spent on such events will generate a worthwhile return. All too often expense and time come before imagination and courage. By this we mean that a little time spent thinking creatively about how your event will be sure to engage, inspire and motivate your audience will not only save money but, more importantly, extinguish boredom.

In our experience conference planners are so fearful of disaster that they simply repeat previous events with just a few changes to speakers, venue and menu. Irrespective of the effectiveness of previous events. A minority, understand the value of ringing the changes and start with a clean sheet of paper and as much hard and anecdotal data as they can gather from previous events. Add to this the organisations current priorities and a theme and list of key objectives quickly comes to light.

Now it’s time to swallow a brave pill and think the unthinkable and question every element of the conference – hotel or tepee, overseas or underwater, speakers or experiences. The benefits of such an approach are two fold, firstly the delegates will be engaged during the event and therefore will remember the messages long afterward, secondly you are certain to achieve better value for money.

If this sounds like an approach your organisation should take to your next big meeting then come along to our next seminar: How to Create Captivating Conferences.  Mention this blog and we’ll give you a FREE space, normally £99 + VAT. If you can’t make it then do contact us and we will happily meet with you to discuss your next conference.

Trust and communication are very important in team work

What becomes clear if you look at these characteristics is that most of them are not the hard skills of industry or management expertise: most are attitudes rather than skills. Successful team players are defined by the way they relate to their colleagues, and the way in which they interact across a broad range of skills bases. In fact 80% of what makes a good team member is determined by these positive attitudes, and only 20% by the specific job skills they possess.

So why does industry spend around 80% of its training budget on developing often short-lived skills which need updating on a regular basis? For any real value to be gained from team development initiatives, you must be able to get colleagues to recognise a whole range of contributions made by different team members. Only then will they be able to think about how best they can exploit this potential and work effectively together to ensure that everyone plays to their strengths and maximises the team’s efforts.

One of the best ways of bringing about this recognition is to get the team away from the office environment. Putting groups of people together in new, unusual or fun settings, in which they depend on each other’s individual attitudes and strengths to work through challenges and problem-solving can have immensely powerful consequences.

The relationships you see in the office are only the tip of the iceberg. To fully appreciate the qualities your colleagues possess, you really do need to take time out and get rid of the 9-to-5 agenda. Far from wasting time, this enables you to develop new ways of working together based on the powerful experience of shared experience. For example, we have run team-building workshops based on activities such as scuba diving where participants are literally thrust into a totally alien environment. Colleagues have to work together using non-verbal communication, trust each other to share masks as they tackle a range of tasks, and learn to adapt both to the unfamiliar environment and to their colleagues’ needs and abilities. Similarly, team challenges based on off-road driving or sailing activities, or some of the more simple team tasks involving problem-solving and competitive, time-limited challenges will highlight these areas of strength and potential for further development.

So get out of the office: think about the added value that a really well-designed team-building event can add to the in-house training you may already have. And have fun!

It's imperative to develop the talent within our organisations. This young man obviously has high aspirations but may be too young for the managment development training.

It is therefore imperative to develop the talent within our organisations, a fact supported by a Deloitte survey that found 60% of business leaders intend to increase investment in management development in the months ahead.  Another survey carried out by PwC reports that 85% of CEOs expect to overhaul the way their organisations manage people during change.
 
81% of the same CEOs stated a need to invest in raising staff morale.  One of the best ways to achieve this is to set aside a day for entire teams to take time out from working ‘in’ the business to spend a few hours working ‘on’ the business.  Alongside all the economic upheaval, the past 24 months have brought with them significant changes in mobile telecommunications, social networking and employees’ aspirations, a failure to address these changes is a failure of leadership.

Fortunately Brains knew that flying wasn't his greatest strength

When team building there are a number of questionnaires (or psychometrics) that can be used to help teams identify their strengths and preferences.  When this information is used to assign roles and tasks true teams are formed.

All teams need a blend of the following:

Gluers – people that motivate, encourage and develop relationships inside and outside the team (Lady Penelope)
Creators – people that offer ideas and solve problems, either through analysis or lateral thinking (Brains)
Doers – people that can focus on the task, apply expertise and get the job done. (Scott, Virgil, Alan, Gordon and John Tracy)
Leaders – people that set direction, monitor progress and take decisions (Jeff Tracy)

These headings shouldn’t be confused with job roles, in fact often the best managers might not score highly in the ‘leader’ area but they will surround themselves with a mix of team members that suits the work they are tasked with achieving.

“A body isn’t just a single part blown up into something huge. It’s all the different-but-similar parts arranged and functioning together. If Foot said, “I’m not elegant like Hand, embellished with rings; I guess I don’t belong to this body,” would that make it so? If Ear said, “I’m not beautiful like Eye, limpid and expressive; I don’t deserve a place on the head,” would you want to remove it from the body? If the body was all eye, how could it hear? If all ear, how could it smell?” - Eugene Peterson from The Message