sheila,
I am glad that your team is successful! You are right that communication is an important key to that. Taking the opportunity to make the most of informal meetings and interactions is so important. Having an open door policy may sound cliché, but it is a sign of a transparent culture, which employees need to feel comfortable.
Dr. Jamie Morley
At this time I have a great team. How we deal with issues with our team is communication. We have team meetings and if a change needs to be made with the curriculum someone takes the lead and then has everyone on the team review and then if in agreement we implement. I also communicate with my team and show that I appreciate them and if we do have any issues we discuss and work them out.
Caroline,
Great insights! I am glad the course helped you identify an area that you can improve. You can never over communicate. Knowing your audience is another clue to how and how much communication is necessary. If your case, I am assuming that your audience was made up of nursing educators. Nurse educators are thorough and meticulous. I agree that giving them advanced copies of the material will yield better results at your meeting. Also, be sure to give them an opportunity to add to the agenda so that they feel invested in the meeting.
Dr. Jamie Morley
In a recent faculty meeting I noticed that a couple members were having difficulty processing an agenda item related to NCLEX preparation of students. Part of the reason for this was because they had not been in the prior faculty meeting so were not up to speed re the identified problem.
Even though I had sent out a preparatory notice advising members of the agenda item, I later realized that it would have been better to send out more materials prior to the meeting. From reviewing the content of this course I can see that I could improve the participation in the meeting by sending out information ahead of time.
One way to communicate this to team members would be to identify that I realize they have not always had all the information needed to discuss an agenda item and that in the future I will send out information prior to the meeting.
Taryn,
You are also spot on when you talk about the importance of recognition. Especially in today’s climate, praising one’s own accomplishments is often frowned upon. Many successful companies however, realize that enabling employees to express their accomplishments is good for them, the supervisor, and the company. For example, Intel requires employees to create a monthly “brag sheet†outlining their contributions to the team’s goals. This gives the employee an incentive to complete their tasks on time and helps the supervisor remember the team member’s contributions when it comes to evaluation time.
Dr. Jamie Morley
It starts by having clearly stated objectives and expectations as well as a process for evaluation and review from the very beginning. With these steps in place, team members should be able to assess early on where they are having difficulty with performance and/or productivity.
Some corrective measures may include 1)rematching individuals with tasks that are better suiting for their talents and abilities, 2) offer additional training if time and resources permit, 3)solicit constructive dialogue from team, and 4) remind the team of the negative consequences of poor performance while offering direction and coaching for improvement.
For a serious matter, I would hold a separate meeting that focuses on the issue and purposely addressing areas of improvement and keying in on problem solving. For a minor matter, I would weave the topic into regular meeting, but focus on resolution with feedback from all members of the team. Either way, it's important to follow up with a written action item. Praise good ideas and reward great results.
Lawrence,
Thanks for responding to Donald. You make excellent points! I would also add that using a democratic process makes everybody feel like their opinion matters. However, sometimes as a manager, taking the decision of the group is not practical. Therefore, it is important that the team understands that you are open to suggestions, but that not all suggestions can be approved by management as is. This will keep the expectations of the group in check.
Dr. Jamie Morley
Hello Donald,
I am in complete agreement with what you stated. However, the leader or facilitator needs to be in control of the discussion at all times. The next step of the leader is to get the team to focus on the fact that some type of action is needed. Now the leader can direct the group to offer solutions because the team has moved passed the obstacles and egos. The team may or may not even realize they are bonding as a group to be reckoned with, which was the goal of the leader from the start. Better solutions or even more defined opportunities may come to light that will improve the effectiveness of the group's plan of action. The next question that comes to mind is whether or not the right person was chosen or has the skills needed to properly manage the team. I look forward to your comments.
Douglass,
You have incorporated a couple of good ideas in your post. First, you mentioned soliciting opinions from all the team members. This is very important. Brainstorming allows everybody to feel invested in the decision. You also touched upon the importance of codifying the results of the discussion. The importance of taking minutes is often overlooked. However, writing and distributing minutes makes sure that everybody is on the same page and enables members that missed the meeting to stay in touch.
Another strategy to consider is to create monthly task lists and include those in the minutes so that all team members see the progress.
Dr. Jamie Morley
I would conduct a short meeting to determine exactly where our problem areas are. Then as a team come up with solutions for improving these areas. I would then write up a document summarizing our findings and distribute it to the team members.
William,
You are correct, William! Encouragement is essential. Too often, team leaders do not have the authority to give awards, bonuses, or monetary incentives, so praise is a great way to keep your team motivated. Many team members also appreciate being given additional assignments or responsibility. This doesn’t motivate everybody, so the leader should know their team before determining if a stretch assignment is a motivator.
Dr. Jamie Morley
William,
Establishing meeting norms is a good strategy to keep your team in line while still encouraging their participation. Determine the order of the meeting and set time limits for everybody to state their position, as well as time limits for discussion on each item. This lets everybody know what to expect. Consistency makes team members more comfortable.
Dr. Jamie Morley
William,
Again, you make some excellent points. By giving team members “stretch assignments†they have the opportunity to grow and develop, thereby becoming move valuable members of your team. One downside to this strategy is that you should be prepared to provide guidance, in case they fail, to ensure that the team or the project does not suffer. Can you think of any other upsides or downsides to using stretch assignments to improve the effectiveness of your team?
Dr. Jamie Morley
William,
Very true! My rule is that after an email string has gone back and forth more than twice; it is time to get up and make a phone call or, better yet, a personal visit. Since many companies have multiple locations, email is quick and cost effective. However, with the advent of gotomeeting or Skype, you can always communicate more effectively than email – it just takes a bit more effort.
Dr. Jamie Morley
William,
I agree with your method. It is too easy to get into a “he said†– “she said†contest when the parties are not together. It is amazing how the stories change when you put all parties in the room and you encourage them to come to a mutual understanding.
Dr. Jamie Morley
When considering team performance there is absolutely no doubt that positive feedback is a very successful motivator and individuals have a basically inherent need to receive both types of feedback regarding their comments and or solutions to specific problems. It is very important so that other team members to not gain up on one individual which eventually will cause that individual to go into silence in order to avoid confrontation. And so few a leader throughout the meeting to continually reinforce positive behavior and reward those that are participating in a positive manner which should bring about a very positive meeting.
It is difficult at times to keep everyone on the same page as there is a tendency for individuals not to be actively listening when others are speaking but may quite possibly be thinking of their response in order to play an active role which naturally the leader has encouraged to take place in the meeting. That's very important for the leader to keep everyone on track by reentering the specific goal that was originally set out to be resolved. It generally is only in my opinion a natural course of events for conversations to a very off topic and then after a. Return to the topic. This can often times lead to meetings running overtime which as we all know so well leads to frustration and actual lack of participation in the long run.
Is very important to allow the team members to express themselves and plan active role in the meetings where you will witness them becoming more involved in the meeting topics and an increased participation is generally the outcome. A good leader will encourage this type of participation and may even use particular members of the team to seed the initial discussions to bring out specific areas where others may then picked up and carried the ball from there. The outcome of course is actually a well defined goal being reached.
When you have differences of opinion it's very important to stop and take a good solid look as as to why you have the differences of opinion and interrogate or ask I guess would be the better word individuals on exactly where they're coming from with their difference of opinion. Sometimes it's the direct result of a misunderstanding of a particular concept or I've even found that some individuals may not be familiar enough with the particular topic and have a tendency to overreact to particular statements.
And e-mail is a wonderful tool but obviously the visual element is missing and the emphasis and tone of the voice are missing also and one finds himself staring strictly at printed fact and will sometimes react in a contrary measure just based on the way that the e-mail itself was worded. E-mail is designed to be a communication tool and not to be a substitute for centralized meetings where you need to develop an outcome or you have a preset goal.
