Summary
Often modern businesses have a culture which values overwork and creates an ‘always on’ mentality. If this is the overall culture of your business, you will need to take an honest approach, so people feel it is ok to call for help and ask for timeout. Ensuring that each member of the team has a healthy work-life balance and is fulfilled can increase team effectiveness by boundless amounts.
Building Esteem within Your Team
It is vital within a team that each member feels that their input is valued and that they are trusted. There are a variety of ways to help managers achieve this, some examples are:
- Recognise success out loud and share it with other team members.
- Ask for advice from team members when business planning and listen to them.
- Avoid Micromanaging; trust your team members to complete their work and give them the space to do so.
- Encourage team members to help each other; every person brings something unique to a team and if we share our own abilities then everyone will benefit.
- Reward team members with awards, gift certificates and bonuses.
- Provide training and executive coaching
Make An Impression as a Leader
Team leaders and managers have a difficult task, as the need to be both authoritative but also approachable. The type of leader you are can have an enormous impact on the effectiveness of your team.
Managing Expectations within a Team
In today’s flexible, modern workplaces we are often are working in differing time zones and therefore send out emails at odd times to our colleagues in other zones. It is important to be mindful of our colleagues lives when managing expectations. Ask yourself the following:
- Do I expect my colleagues to respond within ten minutes whether it is day or night?
- Am I aware that our colleagues may have kids to put to bed, or have evening or weekend plans?
- Do I expect my team to stop making personal plans just in case a client demand springs into their inbox?
- What would I do if I received a work email at that time?
If we start to encroach on personal time, our expectations become intrusive and for the most part, unnecessary. We can remedy this by checking in with team members and being clear how we expect to work together during the times where we are travelling and modifying our behaviour accordingly
What does Emotional Resilience Mean for your Team
Working towards high Team Emotional Resilience, or Team Emotional Intelligence can help to align your team and improve performance and team effectiveness. Within Ei World we use a tool called the Team Ei Survey which creates an emotional experience for team members to support the highest levels of collaboration and performance.
The economist recently featured the tool in an article which you can read here.
For more information about what we at Ei World can do for your team, please take a look at our Team Performance Essentials Brochure or contact info@eiworld.org
Conclusion
In today’s business culture it is easy to take our colleagues and other team members for granted and to overstep personal boundaries. As leaders it is important to ensure your team feel able to address these issues with you, and to know how to work towards resolving them.
