The Case For Team Building
The beauty of team management can be summed up by combining two old adages: two heads are better than one and too many cooks spoil the broth.
To put it bluntly, teams are the most effective response to todays business challenges, challenges posed by global competition, customer service, total quality, continuous improvement, and all the other hot topics that separate todays market winners from the companies they leave in the dust.
Teams are important because they do better work than individuals they draw on a broader mix of skills, experience and know-how than any one person could offer. They are more flexible than larger groups within an organization because they can be put together to meet a specific goal, then, disband when the job is done.
Another advantage of teams is that they make the profitable growth possible. For example, if an organization is going to grow and prosper it must be customer-driven and be able to partner with its suppliers, which cannot be done by individual employees alone. Teams promote the learning and behavioral changes that are needed for an organization to succeed in the 21st century.
Teams also promote working for the common good of the organization. A group of people jells into a team when the members work together to overcome obstacles that stand in the way of their performance as a unit. By succeeding together, team members build trust and confidence in each others abilities and they reinforce each other to use those abilities to serve organizational goals rather than individual ones.
Employees who are members of teams have more fun. People in the top-performing teams typically have a good sense of humor because it helps them handle every day pressure. When employees celebrate successes as a team its much more enjoyable because members revel in the satisfaction of taking part in something larger than themselves.
Effective teams should be small, no more than 12 people. Team members must possess complementary skills; a combination of technical expertise; problem-solving and decision-making skills; and interpersonal skills. Keep in mind that good teams will seldom possess all the skills they need at the start. Because teams are such powerful vehicles for learning, the team can identify skill gaps and help members fill them.
Too often in the past, people who worked for large companies saw the performance of the overall company as something far removed from them, something that they had little sway over. What small, goal-driven teams give employees is sense of valued contribution. Employees see that they are the company. They find that their decisions and their inputs are valued and considered seriously by their fellow team members, and its much easier to chart progress.
Once employees see their own ideas being implemented, they begin to free themselves from the classic mindset, itll never happen and turn their imaginations loose. Organizations cannot help but benefit when this new liberation and enthusiasm that is surging through their personnel.
The market today is changing and segmenting so rapidly that you have to address what customers demand right away. The best way for an organization to make rapid changes is to split off into small goal-oriented teams and eliminate the typical hierarchical reporting charts. Whoever can accomplish the job should go right ahead and do it, and then get on to the next one.
An organization can only succeed in todays highly competitive world economy by focusing on performance and the only way to maximize performance is through teams. Teams strengthen the performance of individuals and management processes, they are practical; that is they demand discipline, leaders and performance challenges, and teams get results; they perform better than individuals or working groups.
The ability to adapt quickly and positively is the hallmark of a dynamic organization, and that is exactly what teams do. When you have a group of employees working within a net of caring, real team players, instead of quick-to-blame bureaucrats who are in the organization form themselves alone, youve created a dynamic approach for your organizations success.
Joe Love draws on his 25 years of experience helping both individuals and companies build their businesses, increase profits, and success coaching programs. He is the founder and CEO of JLM & Associates, a consulting and training organization, specializing in career coach training. Through his seminars and lectures, Joe Love addresses thousands of men and women each year, including the executives and staffs of many businesses around the world, on the subjects of leadership, achievement, goals, strategic business planning, and marketing. Joe is the author of three books, Starting Your Own Business, Finding Your Purpose In Life, and The Guerrilla Marketing Workbook.
Copyright2007 by Joe Love and JLM & Associates, Inc. All rights reserved worldwide.
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