The secret to team-building
It doesn’t really surprise me when there’s trouble in a professional sports locker room, when some egomaniac decides to dump on the coach or a teammate in front of the cameras. What shocks me is that it doesn’t happen that often. For the most part, the rich and supposedly spoiled elite athletes of the world manage to bring their diverse, cocksure personalities together and function as a perfect unit.
Wouldn’t it be nice if the rest of us could do that?
Whether the task is a work assignment, surprise party, sandlot ballgame
, or bake sale
, convincing people to function as team often seems to be the biggest challenge. How can you inspire your group to perform all for one and one for all? Try these suggestions:
• Agree on the mission. Make sure everyone understands and agrees to the objective. Write it on a blackboard, poster board, computer screen, or in chalk on the sidewalk—anywhere it will be visible throughout the rest of the discussion. Each idea, each assignment should directly support the mission. If it doesn’t, it’s not worth arguing about. When people start to get into conflicts about issues that don’t support the mission, act as the persistent arrow that keeps pointing them back to the mission statement.
• Ask for volunteers. People are more likely to embrace roles they’ve chosen than roles they’ve been assigned. So begin by asking people what they want to do. If you’re lucky, everyone will want to take on a different role, and you won’t have any problems. But don’t count on it. Once you’ve identified which dogs are going to try to gnaw on the same bone, you can start figuring out how to fairly resolve the potential conflicts.
• Tell the truth. Honesty is always the best policy—particularly when it comes to ensuring your project goes as planned. If two people are vying for the same assignment and one is better suited to the task than another, say so—and say why. Of course, you should try to be tactful. For instance, don’t say, “Marge, please let Rita bake the cakes. Yours taste like wallpaper paste.” Instead say, “Marge, I’d prefer to have Rita bake the cakes because hers were the first to sell out at the last bake sale.”
• Divide the dirty work. Ask the group to share equally in the drudge work rather than assigning it to one individual who may become resentful and dump the whole thing. And be sure to thank all the participants for their time and effort. One quick way to blow up a team is to let people start to feel unappreciated. If you share the load, share the fun, and share the love, you might be able to create a team that will produce a championship effort.
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Thanks, Deborah