Click this link for A Lean Journey's Facebook Page Notes Feed.
Here is the next addition of tips from the Facebook page:
Lean
Tip #1351 - Create and Maintain a Team Spirit
Team
is like a family, where mutual support and trust are the most important values.
Organize team activities both during working time and after. You will have the
half of success by creating and maintaining a powerful team spirit at the
workplace.
Lean
Tip #1352 - Learn From Each Other
When
managing a group of people, it’s crucial to remind your team that it’s made up
of individuals who bring diverse skills to the group. This, of course, applies
to workplace skills but don’t forget about the perhaps underutilized creative
talents of your employees.
Every
few weeks, try hosting a rotating “skillshare” where a team member presents an
untapped skill to the entire group. Encouraging people to share their talents
and interests will not only give them a chance to work on something they’re
really excited about, it’ll also help the group to unwind together.
Lean
Tip #1353 - Ask More Questions
When
an employee comes to you and has an issue with the current status quo, take
this opportunity to get curious with them and ask questions about why it’s not
working, and what they would do to fix it. Maybe a major overhaul isn’t even in
order, and it’s a simple adjustment that can make everyone more engaged. These
one-on-one opportunities with your team are great ways to, little by little,
shift away from the current state of affairs towards something more meaningful.
Lean
Tip #1354 - Challenge Your Employees to Move Out of Their Comfort Zone.
You
can’t move forward if you don’t grow and you can’t grow if you never leave your
comfort zone. When possible, give your employees challenging assignments. Help
them prepare by providing them a safe environment to learn from the mistakes
that they are bound to make.
Lean
Tip #1355 - Set Motivating Goals
It
is incredibly important to get goals right. When goals support key initiatives
and are aligned with the department or organization’s strategic goals, they
have a lot of power to direct work almost effortlessly. And when work piles up,
stress mounts, and we start to lose sight of how to prioritize, goals can
refocus our efforts and help keep us on track.
To
be motivating, goals should make a difference, be fairly urgent, have a
measurable accomplishment tied to them, and sound challenging. There should be
a visible difference between the success and failure of a goal, the timeframe
for accomplishment should be shorter than one year, and the completion of the
goal should evoke a sense of pride.
Lean
Tip #1356 - Make Time to Lead.
To
be effective, team leaders need to invest time in the role. Too often, this
responsibility is simply added onto someone’s already lengthy task list, thus
setting the new leader up for failure. As a team leader you need to be visible
to the team and available to support them. If you’re predominantly tied up with
your own critical hands-on tasks, you won’t be. So, be sure to review and
re-negotiate your workload before taking on a leadership role in the first
place.
Lean
Tip #1357 - Get to Know Your Team.
Leadership
is all about how you influence your team to achieve its objectives—something
you’ll struggle to do if you don’t get to know your team members and what makes
them tick. While it might be tempting to jump in and start making big moves
from day one, remember that you’re not there to flex your ego.
Take
time to listen to your team members; find out what their issues and aspirations
are, gather ideas, and identify potential strengths and weaknesses. Only then
can you formulate a leadership approach that stands a chance of success.
Getting to know who you’re working with is the first all-important step to
bonding with the team and establishing their respect and trust. The old adage
of listening twice as much as you speak still holds true.
Lean
Tip #1358 - Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.
Once
your team is up and running, it’s imperative to keep the communication going to
build relationships, assess progress, and identify risks and issues. Plus,
you’ll get more engagement from team members if they see you investing time in
them and showing interest in their activities. Make expectations and
responsibilities clear so that everyone knows who’s doing what, why and by
when. This seems obvious but don’t assume everyone has your detailed
understanding of the project at hand. Encourage and embrace new ideas. The more
your team can contribute to the project, the happier they’ll be.
Lean
Tip #1359 - Lead by Example.
Think
about the behaviors you want and expect from your team members and be sure to
exhibit those traits yourself. You’re the role model, so what you say and do
will impact the team’s daily work habits and attitudes. That said, it’s
important to be yourself and to believe in yourself. If you fake it, you’ll
soon be unmasked and you’ll lose credibility and trust.
Be
open, honest and passionate. Treat everyone on the team fairly, with respect
and without favoritism and you’ll find those behaviors returned. Extend the
same courtesy to the rest of the organization as well. Never undermine or criticize
other individuals or departments in front of the team. Make it clear you’re all
there to work towards success for the big picture.
Lean
Tip #1360 - Reward the Good and Learn from the Bad (and the Ugly).
Be
quick to recognize a good performance and reward it where appropriate. You
might not be in a position to hand out pay raises and promotions but a little
bit of verbal praise goes a long way in showing your team you are both aware of
and appreciative of their achievements.
Be
equally as timely in tackling poor performance issues. The longer you leave
them, the tougher they’ll be to fix. Look for the best in people and understand
that mistakes will happen. When they do, learn from them and see how they can
be prevented in future. And whatever you do, don’t play the blame game.
If
you need to have a challenging conversation, do it in private; no public
floggings. And don’t try to win a popularity contest. Not all your feedback and
initiatives will be well-received, but if you concentrate more on being
everyone’s friend instead of being a strong leader, the work will suffer, as
will your integrity.
Lean
Tip #1361 - Remove Individual Competition
Competition
can kill collaboration. If you want the team to work together, you need to not
single out employee’s efforts and instead look at team performance and team
metric.
Lean
Tip #1362 - Form Common Team Skills.
Be
sure everyone has a common skill base for communication, conflict resolution,
problem solving, giving and receiving peer feedback. I find that teams who have
these common skill sets are much more productive than teams that don't.
Technical expertise is only half of the success quotient.
Lean
Tip #1363 - Help Your Team See the “Big Picture.”
Take
time to explain to your team how their assignments and projects fit into the
company’s larger goals and overall objectives. This will help demonstrate how
every task they complete can have an impact on the company’s reputation,
success, and bottom line.
Lean
Tip #1364 - Create an Environment of Constant Learning and Development—Be Sure
to Include Yourself in this Process.
Encourage
your team to explore new methods for reaching their individual goals and those
set by the company. Allow them to make and learn from their mistakes, and be
sure to reward new and innovative ideas.
Lean
Tip #1365 – Provide Professional Guidance.
A
good manager and leader should also be a mentor. Make yourself available to
staff members and show interest in their career development within the company.
Don’t overlook the motivational power of positive reinforcement because your
staff will appreciate your commitment to their progress.
No comments:
Post a Comment