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4 Ingredients For Creating Teams Who Will Love Working Together

A team is only as successful as the cohesion it has between its members. Enough cohesion and the team will stick together through the toughest of times. Too little and it will fragment when things don’t go according to plan. But what does a cohesive team look like? What are the ingredients for building cohesion in teams and what do leaders need to focus on to make sure the team members want to deliver mission after mission? Here’s our take on it:

1.Vision with dialogue

Leaders, teams and vision are talked about often. Experience has shown me that leaders with vision are important, but clear communication about the vision that bring it to life for the team, by the team, are the only way that vision can become a reality. The dialogue about the vision needs to have three things: clarity, connection and constant dialogue. And I don’t mean chant it daily, although do that if it works for you! What I mean is relate everyday activity to it, all the time. Strong leaders do this without using the word ‘vision’. If you can’t connect activity to the long term, then question why it’s being done at all and don’t expect your team to be able to connect it for themselves. And when something is happening that will detract from the vision, be clear about what it is and what’s needed and if you need to, re-think the vision itself. Whatever you do, don’t leave it open to unchecked interpretation.

2. Ownership with enquiry

We work on the principle that we’re all adults at work. It means we each ‘own’ our contribution in terms of what we bring and how we bring it to the team. If there is ownership, the leader’s role is a smoother one. Conversely, a lack of ownership, even in just one team member, can divert the whole team’s focus as they become distracted in the unhelpful behaviour. Strong leaders have clear strategies for creating ownership, maintaining it and role modelling it. But what does ownership really look like? For me, it’s when things don’t go according to plan that ownership (or a lack of it) shows up most. Let’s look at an example. Person A mishandles a discussion in a meeting. They’re defensive when challenged about an idea they’ve been working on. If ownership is an intrinsic part of the team’s culture, they feel safe enough to say something like “I was off kilter today and I didn’t handle that meeting/conversation well. I’m sorry. Let me digest where we are and look at how we can move forward from here?”. The other half of the ownership balance is in the response. If ownership is present, there are few (if any) side conversations, no biting sarcasm and no gossip. The leader won’t dismiss the apology or give responses like ‘not to worry about it’. Other team members may enquire, privately with Person A along the lines of “are you ok, what was that about? What happened?” and offer support. They’ll accept and build upon the apology that has been offered. It’s uncomfortable, it happened, now what? Person A retains the responsibility to handle how they behave when they feel ‘off kilter’ in the future and work out what solutions will work for their personality and circumstances. Support has been offered for them to make use of if they feel they need it. It’s dealt with, honestly and transparently, with next steps agreed to learn from it and move past it. But what creates and sustains ownership?

3. Courage with care

I’ve seen courage confused with confidence, positive talk and/or risk taking. All these are important too in the right measure, but for me, courage is essential in team work and it’s about strength of character, empathy and personal investment to the team vision and purpose. It’s easy to celebrate a good result or go the extra mile in a silo, but it takes courage to speak up or provide an opposing view when something isn’t working and/or hold a difficult silence against a popular view. It’s also about having the courage to hold each other to account when something hasn’t been delivered rather than move into martyr/rescue mode. Then, once the point has been made and heard, let go. So, courage, in this definition, is about finding a way to call out the ‘elephant’ in the room, constructively, without playing a blame game, to the person or people that can make a decision. And then it’s deciding to move on. Here, the leader’s role is to encourage people to do right, not be right, if the team is to really break new ground.

4. Recognition with thought

Early in my career, recognition was put to me as the 4th basic human need after food, shelter and safety. But just as people have different preferences for what they eat, where they live and what makes them feel safe and secure. Recognition too, is personal. So simply saying ‘thanks, good job!’ or having a ‘when you do this, we’ll give you that’ approach won’t work if you’re expecting people to bring their full personal investment, courage and commitment to achieving the team goals.

So, what is the answer? As is often the case with people, the answer is in the dialogue. It’s a question, or series of questions and there’s no catch all answer. The most effective recognition givers tend to gain the best team results and they do this through enquiry, observation and thoughtfulness about the individuals, as well as the collective. And then there’s also the issue of timing. Recognise achievement when there’s something to celebrate. And don’t just focus on the task, focus on what you want someone to do more of. Look for it, find it and recognise it in a way that’s meaningful for the individual. Encourage line managers to do the same and you’ll see team engagement flourish.

And while we’re talking about encouragement, don’t confuse it with support. Everyone, no matter how high their experience and competence levels, can be boosted with some well-timed, on point, encouragement from the right source, to do a great job. They might not need any support. They will always benefit from feeling appreciated. And that’s a huge recognition tool that adds nothing to the overheads in your P&L. Where support is needed, identify it and provide it. Where it isn’t, get out of the way with genuine gestures of faith that they’ll deliver. This shows trust. And there’s no bigger human validation mechanism than feeling trusted and appreciated.

We love working with leaders and their teams so they can identify their culture, build on their working relationships and connect with their goals. If you’d like to discuss how we might help, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us today for a no obligation consultation.

How to use Conflict Management To Turn Team Disputes into Positive Action

Conflict Management. It conjures up all kinds of emotions. Difficult relationships, hardship, long term disputes, I could go on. Yet while some avoid it at all costs, strong leaders welcome it and even encourage it. Why is that? And what can be gained from it?

We believe conflict, handled effectively, unlocks minds, allows innovation, enhances creativity and increases co-operation. What’s not to love?! We also believe it’s an essential ingredient to building strong, high performing teams. In fact, it’s a rite of passage for high performing teams and we believe avoidance can serve as a handicap to those who seek high performance.

One of our favourite models for understanding the place conflict management has in building high performing teams is the Tuckman model, also known as the Tuckman Stages of Group Development, which is widely known, yet often underutilised. Here’s how we see it:

Differing opinions are a good thing when expressed appropriately and constructively.
Boundaries are important and should be respected. Obstructive conditions and defensive behaviour are not examples of healthy boundaries.
Ownership is essential. Consequences are important. Avoidance of conflict erodes both.
Constant agreement leads to stagnation and complacency, not growth.
Trust and openness, about the things that will help the team perform, delivered in healthy ways, are the core ingredients for becoming a high performing team.
A truly aligned, performing team cannot form without the above.
None of the above is achievable without navigating through differences of opinion and clashing agendas.
Differences of opinion and clashing agendas are conflicts. This can be positive. What’s negative about conflict is the behaviour that can come with it. Not the conflict itself.

The Leadership Role

If the leader can detach enough to manage conflict issues and engage enough with their people to guide the team through each phase of team development, the team can become more productive, much quicker. And while there may be some disruption when someone new joins the team or someone leaves, a good leader will be able to navigate their team through the new phase, including any conflict that arises and make them stronger for it.

We have found that strong leaders know how to focus their own attention on the goals they want to achieve, have healthy boundaries and strong empathy and diplomatic communication styles. The great news is that this can be trained and developed for leaders and their teams, and there are many tools out there to support them.

If you could use some support to find out what works for your team, we’d love to help by exploring which blend of traditional and bespoke models might work for you. For a no-obligation discussion, get in touch.

3 Things Leaders Must Do to Get the Best Out of Your Team

If you lead a team, you’ll have one objective – to optimise its performance.

But how can you do this when you’re managing a collection of disparate individuals? How can you develop a cohesive unit where everyone works together, delivers their best and supports one another, when each member of your team has their own unique personality, character and motivation?

Whether you subscribe to the view that great leaders are born or made, there are three things all leaders must do if they’re to inspire their team to perform at the highest level:

Build Strong Relationships

A cornerstone of successful leadership is building, developing and nurturing strong relationships with everyone in your team – not just with senior-level staff.

As well as having a clear understanding of the skills each individual brings to the team, you must invest time to get to know all those you’re managing on a personal level. Taking time to learn about the individuals you manage will help you understand the dynamics of your team.

It’s important also to make opportunities for team members to get to know each other. In this way, the team will become far more than the sum of its parts.

When everyone in the team has confidence and trust in everyone else and knows how they work, creativity and synergy will happen naturally. Team members will intuitively know how to respond to one another to achieve their shared goals.

To develop this level of mutual connection in your team, you’ll need to dedicate a higher proportion of your time to supporting and listening to your staff. But you’ll have to exercise your judgement as to when it’s appropriate to relax with your team and when you need to push them to deliver your objectives.

Invest in building relationships with your team and explore ways in which you can celebrate their wins with them. You can’t win every time, so remember to empathise and console team members when the outcome isn’t what you wanted.

Be Clear About Your Objectives & Plans

People aren’t manufactured – they grow organically, with their own strengths, weaknesses and preferences – in their own time. They also do it when they have something they want to achieve for themselves and each other. But on its own, this isn’t enough.

Teams need to believe, understand the plan and have the skills to put the method in place as standard practice if they’re to stand a chance of achieving. Experience helps of course, and this will come with time, but you’ll need to ensure your team has clarity about what you want them to do, and how they are to work together to achieve it.

If you’re disappointed with your team’s performance on any level, it’s worth asking yourself if you’re communicating as effectively as you should be.

So often we expect people to know what we want them to do without giving them clear directions or the benefit of our advice. When it’s deserved, be sure to praise team members, so they keep going, and when you need them to make adjustments to the way they’re working, give them the constructive feedback they need to be able to understand and implement the change you require.

Mindset & Preparation

Your team might be a composite of all the right skills and experience. Still, if you don’t prepare them for the task you want them to undertake by instilling the right mindset and giving them the opportunity to practice, you can’t be sure how they’ll perform under pressure.

With a positive team mindset, your team has the best chance of achieving its goals. Success is the result of incremental actions, some of which may appear small, but when added together, can make the difference between winning or failing.

And the adage, ‘practice makes perfect’ may be a cliché, but it’s also true. Individually, your team know what to do and how to do it – that’s knowledge, but only through practice will you be able to help them create the neurological pathways they need to be able to act instinctively and to stay focused in the moment only on delivery.

As we said earlier, you can’t expect to win 100% of the time, but if you know your team has a winning mindset and has rehearsed every potential step – if the outcome doesn’t go your way, you’ll be able to move on to the next opportunity knowing everyone did their very best, with no need for blame or excuses.

Can We Help You Create a Winning Team?

At Organic P&O Solutions, we work with teams of all shapes and sizes, helping team members understand each other, communicate effectively, develop a successful mindset and work together towards a common goal.

If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you create a winning team, call us today to arrange an initial conversation.

How to choose an HR Consultant

Your business is growing. It’s evolving and changing, and in many ways you feel great about that. But with each operational change and every new staff member, there are more holidays to cover, more sicknesses and absences to manage and more people issues to handle. At some point in this ocean of ‘to-do’s’, you may realise you could use some trusted support, and that’s where a dedicated HR presence can help. But what can they really help with? How many people justifies external support? With so many different choices out there, how do you choose the right HR consultant for you, your business and your team?

First Step – Honest Diagnosis

As a first step, think about what your current business challenges are. Is it retaining your good people? Is it finding the right people? Is it customer service levels? Perhaps it’s decisions your team are making that you’re unhappy about? It’s important to take an honest look at your business and identify the conversations you’ve been having too many of, or that you’ve been avoiding and you’ll start to understand where you could use support. Whatever the challenges, or business size, a good consultant will explore your needs without any of the judgment you are heaping on yourself, long before they get anywhere near suggesting solutions.

Choose Values, As Well As Technical Expertise

We see this often. The focus when recruiting new people goes more into technical skill, experience and networks they have. But the biggest challenges business owners face usually relate to behaviour and differences in personal values. So when you think about current people capability, spend some time thinking about the characteristics of people that work well in your business and the culture you’ve created. You can then apply that thinking to the choice you make about the external consultants you choose to work with so you get a good match.

Ask For Recommendations

There is nothing quite as reassuring as a personal recommendation. In the age of digital selling, it’s easy for people to make claims about what they can deliver. But they might not be as good as they claim to be and if you’re getting in touch because it’s not your area of expertise, there’s a higher risk that you’ll receive a surprise down the line. So personal recommendations, especially in trusted professions, by people you trust and who know you, are usually a strong basis for finding a good fit. At Organic P&O Solutions, our new business is generated 100% from referrals and recommendations. So, talk to your business connections and trusted friends and ask them who they could recommend. You can also use your LinkedIn network and clients.

Delegate (To A Point)

Engage the team members who are going to work with your external suppliers by all means, but remember you’re looking at support for expertise that isn’t currently in the business. So, while other opinions may be valuable, stay close to recommendations and opinions to make sure you are exploring relevant options.

Qualifications, experience and technical expertise can all be verified. It’s the nature of the solutions on offer and the way the consultant works that are also important for you to think about. Which means don’t delegate the research entirely to someone else. Junior people can’t think like you do as a business owner, not yet anyway! So be there to ask the strategic, searching questions about how the consultancy can meet your business goals now and for as long as you need them to.

Ask Quality Questions

When you’re talking to potential consultants, ask them how they work. Get specific examples. Consider the frequency and level of advice you feel you will need for the current headcount in your business now and for the future. Ask for examples about how they work with other clients, and how that has worked out. What results have they delivered? Most importantly, ask them how they will get to know you, your team and your business so they can deliver the right service for you. It’s also important to find out what they can deliver operationally in terms of capacity too, so you can plan for those future needs you’ve identified.

There’s a lot to think about when deciding who you’ll use to help you with your team. It’s never one-size fits all when you are dealing with people and we know from our experience at Organic P&O Solutions that we are really right for some businesses and not for others. That’s why we refer to partners where we think the service on offer might be a better fit.

If you’d like to know more about us and how we work, so we might explore whether we could be a good fit for you, get in touch with us today, subscribe to our mailing list or visit our website.

4 Reasons Your Performance Reviews Are Failing (And What You Can Do About It)

If you’re running a team, no matter how small, you’ve probably conducted a performance review. They’re fairly simple on the surface – a periodic meeting between manager and direct report to assess performance and suggest improvements. We’re finding they are increasingly the subject of much debate, with many people questioning their effectiveness in the workplace. Done right – the reviews can be incredibly useful for everyone involved, but mishandled, they can be a waste of time and energy for all concerned. Today we wanted to share with you 4 of the most common reasons performance reviews fail to deliver the results managers want, and how you can change that for the better.

All The Wrong Focus At The Wrong Times

Let’s start with an easy one. Many businesses are conducting performance reviews once a year. This means that managers end up storing store up all the things employees may have done wrong (and right), and rather than addressing them at the time, pour them all out in one go. This could be months after they actually happen. In our experience, performance reviews are most effective when they are done weekly or monthly. This doesn’t have to be a big formal meeting – just a 15 – 30 minute catch up weekly or monthly with each employee, to address issues and suggest improvements that are relevant at the time. This means they can be acted upon quickly, and so the opportunity to make changes stick increases.

That brings us to our next point. Performance reviews/appraisals are supposed to give an in-depth look at how individual employees are contributing to the overall direction and goals of the team. So that’s what the constructive feedback should be about. Yet we find many managers struggle with creating outcomes that leave employees feeling charged and ready to perform better, and instead focus too heavily on the weaknesses of individuals rather than on what’s needed to drive better performance and what the employee can do about it. While highlighting negatives and planning improvement is important, it can de-motivate if there’s too strong a bias or it lacks context. Great managers identify what didn’t work and find ways to recognise and praise what they want to see more of. Focus on what an employee’s strengths look like and how they can be used to enhance performance, and there is a much better basis for improving performance in the long run. To create a really clear and aligned focus, mutually agree goals and then agree what the key activities are that will achieve it. So, for example, if there is a need to increase sales next quarter, what activities need to happen to achieve that goal? This way you can synergise your differences, capture ideas and be clear about expectations about how something is achieved, not just what needs to be achieved.

One Size Fits All

Every person is unique. Everyone’s perceptions are different, which means we will interpret information and respond to news differently to one another. So taking a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to performance reviews limits success. A little time planning each review individually will reap big dividends. Think about that specific person – what you want to say, how you want them to feel when they leave the meeting – and tailor your messages to achieve that goal. And don’t stop there – provide direction for that person based on what they need, and make sure you give them the chance to contribute to their own goal setting and review process. Then you’re more likely to get ownership of the activity that follows from the people delivering it. Finally, remember to consider personal circumstances. Don’t tolerate excuses, but if there’s a new baby in the household or a sick parent to care for, make sure you’re fair and considerate about your expectations and approach. Consistent care for individuals counts as recognition, often far more than a small percentage salary increase could ever achieve over the long term.

Too Much Listening, Not Enough Hearing

When two people have a conversation, they are listening to each other, but they’re not always hearing what the other is saying. In performance reviews this becomes really obvious – particularly where someone is trying to give difficult feedback or deliver uncomfortable news. Inviting perspective about the issue before giving your view as the manager is essential before embarking on this type of conversation. It’s also worth considering whether it should form part of the appraisal discussion or be dealt with separately. When we tiptoe instead of saying what we mean clearly, it’s all too easy to think we’ve made ourselves clear, when in actual fact the person you’re speaking to hasn’t really heard and understood you at all. Equally, being too direct can have the same effect, because we haven’t given the other person the opportunity to absorb the message and ask questions of it for their own sense of clarity. This leads to mismatched expectations, and means managers and employees become upset when they can’t see a change they were expecting. When we deliver training around this we encourage the following question – ‘What did you hear?’ – The response can be surprising and very useful in making sure a point has hit home in the right balance, not too hard and not to soft and such a way that it compels the individual to want to take positive action.

Expecting Instant Results

Human beings are creatures of habit. There are no two ways about that. But it’s no bad thing – it simply means that if you want something to change, you need to give it two things. Time and repetition. Far too often I have seen managers suggest some behaviour changes and then be disappointed when those changes haven’t manifested according to their timescale. Research suggests that it takes 21 – 28 days to accept and implement a new habit, and much longer for it to become a permanent change in behaviour. That’s because people develop organically, based on what they relate to and understand – at that time – in their world as they know it – for themselves. Change is a process, not an event. So instead of expecting change right away, allow time for evolution and a few mishaps after your reviews. Let the learning and change happen in layers, as an iterative process. And through the process – understanding to action, mistakes, review and new understanding – change will happen. As a manager, it’s important to notice and recognise the incremental changes throughout this cycle, and guide your employees accordingly. Then you’ll really get some traction towards the results you’re looking for, your employees will feel recognised and they’ll appreciate your support too.

Organic Top Tips

Finally, let’s round up by sharing some of our own tips for conducting successful performance reviews and appraisals gathered through observation of achievements and learning opportunities of our own over the years:

Be specific about expectations in both directions. What do you expect from the employee, and what do they expect from you as their manager?
Be honest. Don’t undo the feedback you’re giving by generalising (or saying everything is OK when it’s really not, which we’ve seen too many times!)
Balance responsibilities and feedback fairly. Don’t give one employee a goal that the whole team will need to contribute to, or give a negative review if a flawed task, or other team members were involved in a failure.
Focus on the activity, not just the goal, if you want to see results.
Allow time for change to happen naturally – don’t demand it instantly.
Encourage ownership of performance by demonstrating it yourself. Set an example to your employees about how to be active in your own improvement.

At Organic P&O Solutions, we specialise in helping managers understand the review process, and learn how to adapt their leadership style to get the best results from their teams. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help with your leadership style, approaches to performance processes, or training and development programmes for you and your teams, please get in touch today. We’d love to hear from you.

6 Ideas for Engaging Your People all Year Round

It’s amazing how many employers focus on employment legislation when it comes to making people decisions. I haven’t met anyone yet that expects to grow customer loyalty by explaining the consumer protection regulations first.

‘People buy people’ as the saying goes and this translates directly to why people work with people.

Here are six ideas for creating healthier working relationships that will bring benefits all year round:

Focus on what’s important – if you’re too busy to solve why Sarah didn’t present as well as you expected, or why Charlie didn’t get back to you when you agreed, you’re going to stay busy dealing with poor presentations and missed deadlines.
Converse, in person, on purpose – pick up the phone, walk to another part of the building. Invite someone for a coffee. Check-in with the team every day.
Have you read your employee handbook recently? – I’ve read a few and I continually wince as I move past the welcome page into an almost never ending list of what I must not do. Rules are important, so are boundaries, clear expectations and consequences. Set up and maintain a balanced two-way dialogue with your people and you’re more likely to stay ahead of the legal requirements.
Look at how you use your HR resource? Whether in-house or outsourced, how do they spend their time? Are they equipped to identify how your people can best serve your customers now and in the future? Do they actively engage and inspire, or are they overly focused on procedure, policy and performance frameworks?
Don’t wait for your next employee survey. A great barometer is to ask whether your people would recommend working with you to their close family and friends, and why? If you’re not comfortable asking the questions, then you probably already know at least some of the answers.
Notice and nurture your leaders. These are your business advocates. The ‘go to’ people that others gravitate towards when there’s a problem to solve or a challenge to chase. Guess what? They’re not always the ones in the decision-making roles.

In summary

Successful businesses have a clear strategy, based on a clear purpose, delivered by people who are connected to their vision through their values, and who have both the competence and confidence to deliver. They also make sure they follow the statutory regulations.

For more information about how we work with people and organisations visit our Organisation Design and Leadership & Development pages.

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