Congratulations, You Have Completed Your Team Style Test!
(if you haven’t yet completed it, please click here to do so) and you have read about the team player styles for yourself and every team member.
(if you haven’t yet read this info, please click here to do so)
Your Challenge – Optimizing Team Performance
Once you have determined the styles of all of your team members (including your own), the challenge is to set team goals so that each person can become the best possible team player he or she can be.
To optimize the performance of your team, each team member must:
* Know their own style, including their strengths and their potential for ineffectiveness.
* Develop a plan to optimize their strengths and minimize their shortcomings.
* Look for ways to expand their repertoire by increasing the use of the behaviors of other team-player styles.
* Acknowledge that other members of the team will have different styles and be willing to work with others with different styles and to see this diversity as a team strength.
* Persist and persevere. Teamwork is work.
Your role as a team leader.
As your team leader, you have the added challenge of building an effective, high- performing team.
To accomplish this, there are several basic guidelines that you can follow:
* Communicate.
Tell people what is going on. Keep everyone informed and up-to-date.
* Spell out expectations for each team member and the team as a whole.
The more precisely you define your expectations, the more likely you are to achieve the results
you are looking for.
Since each of your team members may take a different approach to solving a problem,
it is important that they know exactly what the final outcome needs to be in order to
avoid frustration and conflict (not to mention rework).
* Keep an open, flexible atmosphere.
To be creative and innovative, people need to feel "safe" when sharing their point of view.
Too much structure can stifle your team's productivity and reduce morale.
* Define the ground rules (how the team will operate).
Although too much structure can lead to a lack of new ideas, too little may lead to chaos.
Without some basic ground rules, you may find everyone heading in a different direction
and little will be accomplished.
* Build Trust in your team.
Trust is built on the recognition that differences do not equate to weaknesses.
In fact, often times, we develop a new respect and appreciation for someone who is good
at doing the things we consider our weaknesses. As this mutual respect develops,
so does the trust each member has in the other members of their team.
A powerful way to achieve all of these goals is through a facilitated teambuilding and leadership event or team development training program.
Call us at 1-800-446-4742 to discuss your team building needs
so we can customize your team building or leadership event to achieve your goals.
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