KateNasser.com

By: Baliyou

Every minute of teamwork in the 21st century requires adaptation to each other, to changing conditions, and sometimes to changing goals. The traditional definition of a team, a group of people working together toward a common goal, sounds logical, is clear — and doesn’t work. Most people participate from their own perspective and the organization gets stuck performing based on how they are organized. Sometimes leaders don’t even consider business opportunities because of the current organizational structure.

Now picture an organization using this definition of team: Talent engaged in growth and change to achieve a common success.  It’s applicable to this century, is very clear — and it works. 

It creates startling results when you use it with these precious gems.

BY:Skistz

RUBY. Passion for learning. When you create a learning (not training) culture, the team exercises its change muscles. Learning is change and one that most people welcome since it enhances their careers and no one can fail. 
The startling result is a stream of new contributions because all are involved in continuous improvement.

Creativity increases and critical thinking improves. Athletic teams regularly exercise for improved performance and theater troupes explore new ideas for this same reason. Unfortunately teams focused on production often get locked in daily routines. Create startling new results with a learning culture.

Action Item: Pick one topic related to business, teamwork, service, sales, or technology. Have each team member Google/Bing on the topic and collate those results online.  At a virtual team meeting, take 15 minutes for team members to identify aloud what info they can use and how.  Make this a weekly event and watch the teams create, collaborate, and flex to changing needs.

By: ThisIsBossi

EMERALD. Leader with a confident ego. If you have a learning culture, the leader must feel confident even with constructive dissenters and creative strategic thinkers on the team. This confident leader is the emerald gem of teamwork reminding us all of The Wizard of Oz. Toward the end of the movie the curtain is drawn back to reveal there is no all-powerful wizard. He is instead a wise caring person.  His insights flow from there.

By: ThisIsBossi

SAPPHIRE. Human bonding on diverse and distributed teams.  The evil of isolation due to distance or differences undermines the full potential of teams. Picture world-wide technology rollout teams who have never met, come from different cultures, and rotate team members. If no bonding is addressed, the teams will fall short of full success. Use video-based virtual meetings to introduce team members. Build understanding on topics of personality type, generational differences, cultural norms, learning style, and pet peeves!

By: TambakoTheJaguar

DIAMOND. The I’s in Team. There are several I’s in teamwork – individual initiative and identity committed to the team. Respect and acknowledge individual talents contributed to the whole. It inspires greater contributions and willingness to share and teach. Some organizations call this the essential piece culture where each person knows how s/he contributes to the whole success.

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers team building workshops, distance bonding, and innovative solutions for startling team results.

By:Chaney14

Guest Blogger, Pattie Roberts, shares this leadership lesson: What are you dancing to? 

I met my friend Tracey’s Aunt Jane in a blues bar and she taught me an astonishingly simple lesson about the dance of leading and following. 

Tracey and I were there because our husbands are musicians and as loyal “groupies” we were supporting their band.  We’ve done this many times over the years and I thought this particular evening would be just another opportunity for us to catch up over a glass of wine.  I never expected to discover a plain, powerful truth about interpersonal skills in a dark cinderblock building that smelled like old beer. 

As the small and remarkably diverse crowd began trickling in, Tracey and I staked out seats at the bar and she introduced me to Aunt Jane.  Jane and her husband Steve were regulars of a sort here.  I wondered why they chose this place – dim and windowless, with wobbly tables, a three-item menu, and a large disco ball over a cleared space in the center.  I had my answer when the music started.  “We come here to dance,” Jane said, and was she ever right.  Almost everyone left their rickety chairs and headed for the glittering dance floor.  Every person there seemed to be Dancing with the Stars-ready on the floor.  “It’s like a club,” Jane told me.  She and Steve and the others would go from venue to venue, depending on where the music was, and dance all night. 

It was fascinating, watching the mismatched couples move perfectly in harmony with each other and the music. There was a tall young black man dancing with a small elderly white woman; a middle-aged woman in shorts and tennis shoes danced with a man in a baggy old suit and a flowing white beard; two women who looked like mother and daughter swung around each other, catching hands and releasing them like dancing together was all they had ever done.  One man who, outside of this venue, would have appeared to be homeless, walked in and made a beeline for a woman with long grey hair and a shapeless sweater.  In moments they were in the crowd under the disco ball, looking for all the world as though they were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. Or perhaps I should say Maksim and Karina?  I’m not what anyone might call graceful so it all looked like magic to me.  How can people who appear so unlike each other all dance together so smoothly, to song after dissimilar song?

Steve was working that night so Jane was happy to sit with me at the bar and narrate the scene.   “It’s all about knowing what your partner is dancing to,” she said.  I didn’t get it.  “Aren’t they all dancing to the music?”  Yes, she said, but some people dance to the melody of a song and some people dance to the rhythm.  She told me that when she and Steve first met, she couldn’t figure out how to dance with him.  No matter how hard they tried, they were always out of synch.  She couldn’t follow when he lead and he couldn’t follow her.  Finally she asked him what he was doing.  “Dancing to the beat” he said, “what are you doing?”  “I dance to the melody” she told me, “and once we realized that we were OK.  Sometimes he leads and I follow to the beat.  Sometimes I lead and he follows to the melody.”

Such a universal quandary.  Such a simple, elegant solution.  Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow. It’s all about knowing what your partner is dancing to.  I wish I had met Aunt Jane 30 years ago.

Author: Pattie Roberts.
Guest Blogger, Pattie Roberts is a freelance writer and researcher specializing in business -related writing.  Her analytic side loves to find the patterns that live in the numbers.  Her expressive side tells a compelling story in the analyses, plans, briefings, and presentations she writes for you.  She is currently writing strategic plans and developing research audits for trade associations, and is taking on new clients.   Pattie lives in Annapolis, MD, with her husband, the musician Hugh Feeley, and their two rescue Yorkies.   When she is not writing for your business,  Pattie fusses over her roses, nurses her addiction to Yankees baseball, and avidly follows her soon-to-be- married stepdaughter’s career in the USMC .  You can Tweet her at http://twitter.com/pavroberts email her at pavroberts@comcast.net , or visit her at http://www.linkedin.com/in/patriciaroberts.

Flickr:Djenan

Posing questions to job candidates in interviews, no matter how behaviorally based, doesn’t show you what they will contribute.  Perhaps this is one reason temp-to-perm positions became so popular even with the buy-out fee the employer pays.  The employer has seen the temporary staff in action.

Yet you can achieve a similar success by engaging job candidates in action interviews.  If you are looking for candidates with 21^st century skills like creativity, conceptualizing, synthesis, re-invention, and true empathy/customer service, action interviews will get you there.  You can do them in-person or via videoconferencing.

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To find creative problem-solvers …

Hold a mock meeting on solving a generic problem.  Have the job candidate participate.  See if s/he offers out-of-the-box or safe ideas.  Does s/he contribute any ideas or simply listen?  You can assess the people-skills as well as creative problem solving. 

To spot empathetic staff for customer service …

Have your best customer service staff role play true-to-life scenarios with the job candidate.  Use blatant and subtle examples needing empathy and see what the job candidate responds.  It is one thing to discuss how you would handle a customer interaction and quite another to do it. 

To find synthesizers who can see new ideas in disparate details …

Pick a recent example that you solved through synthesis of different ideas. Give the different ideas to the job candidate and see how and what s/he synthesizes. 

To tap the pool of reinvention talent …

Give the candidate 2-3 everyday objects and ask them to make a new useful object out of them.  The useful object can be anything; it does not have to relate to work.  You are tapping innate abilities with this activity that you can later apply to work related challenges.

To find conceptualizers …

Have the team of interviewers and the job candidate play “What If We”.  You can use a hypothetical product or service that relates to your industry or customize it to relate to your organization’s products and service.   State the product or service in question.  Then each person states aloud “What If We …” to conceptualize a new angle or improvement.  This is also a great way to find out what the candidate knows about your industry and company.

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Remember: To find the best talent in the 21st century, engage candidates in action interviews.  Replace the bad surprises you get after hiring with happy surprises about job talent you find during action interviews. Combine them with resume/references and certain skill or interests tests where appropriate to get a fuller picture of the job candidate’s potential and interpersonal style.   

I welcome your comments, new ideas, and questions below. 

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

As a leader, your vision and focus affect, perhaps even determine, the ultimate outcome.  How is your vision of the organization?  Is it a perfect 20/20?  Well I hope you are multi-focal corrective lenses to sharpen your daily vision because many things can cloud the picture.

Personality type. 

If you are a driver personality, you may miss seeing the potential in people if it isn’t straight at you.  Caring primarily about the end-result, you often see the distance better than anyone yet your close vision is blurred.

If you are an analytic personality type, your vision of details is superb yet you may miss the ultimate destination because you aren’t looking far enough ahead to steer others to success. 

If you are an amiable personality type, your desire for harmony seeds great bonding yet your team may falter in the completion of tasks.

If you are an expressive, your team will know what you want yet you may not necessarily hear their questions or input.

If you are wearing corrective lenses, you can balance out your dominant trait with focus on these other important aspects.

Economic Conditions.  Do you make the same wise decisions in tough economic times as you do in good times?  Or is your vision blurred by the pressure of financial impact?  The corrective lenses to wear in this case – a checklist of the questions that have guided you to wise decisions in the past.  Update the list and use it!

A New Team Given to You.  Picture it – you have accepted a leadership position of an existing team you did not previously know.  As you do a quick assessment you sense they are not the right people for these jobs.  If you are thinking, “I would never have hired these people”, your thinking will block your vision for success.  The corrective lenses to wear in this situation are discussions with each person to truly understand what they have to offer.  It is very possible that conditions have buried their talents.  If it isn’t true, your vision for success will still be clearer than had you not worn these corrective lenses.

You Get a New Boss.  There is a shake-up above and a new leader is over your organization.  What is your reaction after you hear her/him say that there will be big changes in how things are done?  Do you sub-consciously or consciously think “Oh s_ _ _ !”   Get those corrective lenses on your thinking quickly and go into creative exploration mode.  You and your teams will enjoy the journey through the changes and your new boss will have an exponentially better view of your value!

Your Customers’ Business Changes.  They say that businesses fail when the market changes and businesses don’t.  Are you in touch with where your customers’ businesses are going?  Are their markets changing?  As a leader, you need to be wearing multi-focal lenses to see far ahead so you have time to re-focus your teams.  For example, if your customers are scientific researchers and their results take them in a completely different direction – it can have far reaching affects on your organization as a supplier or service provider.  Keep your corrective lenses focused on your customers to stay current with their needs.

Remember, multi-focal corrective lenses sharpen your leadership vision and remove the clouds that can block your success.  Is it any wonder that these lenses are known as progressives?

Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach