Let me explain. If you, as the boss, were to walk into the office tomorrow and make one announcement to the entire staff, you would see that you really don't have a team. Here's the announcement you would make: "Three people from this department need to go. Three people are being laid off. Which three? You decide. I want your answer by the end of the day."
And now pandemonium ensues.
For all the work you may have put into building a "team" you would have to agree that this announcement would pit one personality against the other. You would have to come to the realization that there really aren't any teams, but there are a bunch of individuals all pointed towards a common goal. That is not a team.
Take a look at any professional sports team and you will see the same thing: there just a bunch of players who have each given a commitment to achieve a common goal. Does that make them a team? No it does not. Because when it comes right down to it, each person is, at the end of the day, looking out for his or her own best interests.
Is that wrong? Of course not. But please understand that in the same way people will compete for a job, compete for a promotion or compete for that corner office, they will also compete to keep their jobs too. If that means pointing out the weaknesses of others, justifying why they should stay or agressively stabbing someone else in the back, they will do it.
I doubt that there are many people who, when faced with the above-noted situation, would say, "I am the weakest link in this department so for the good of the team, I will go."
A good coach understands that in order to get the best performance out of each player, he has got to figure out where the players' "hot-buttons" are and find a way to push them. Each player will respond to different stimuli. A blanket approach to coaching a team can be a lesson in futility. Each players needs to be coached differently. Each player needs to buy into the common goal and each will do so in their own way.
Each player has a different set of values, strengths and attitudes. Therefore each player needs to be coached separately. The same rules apply at work.
If you're the boss, you're the coach. You had better understand that in order to make your department function at peak performance. At no time can you expect everyone to be on the same page, to bring the same skill-sets or contribute equally with the same strengths as the rest of your people. It's not possible.
You don't have a team. You have a group of individuals all pointed in the same direction each with differing talents and each with different roles. Stop training them as all equal and coach their individual strengths instead. Their performance will improve and so will your bottom-line.
As for the trainers who think they offer teambuilding workshops? Think again.
Kevin Burns - The Chief Instigation Officer of Laugh-Long Learning!
1-877-BURNS-11
Read/Comment on Kevin's Blog http://www.kevburns.com/blog.html
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