KateNasser.com

Relationships can sometimes be damaged with ONE word. The word entitled is one such word. For some it conjures up images of pride, excess, privilege, and even laziness. Yet for others it uplifts and gives a sense of security.

However, if we change that ONE word from entitled to deserving, the negative connotations seem to disappear and the positives remain.

Perhaps because there is a balance to the word deserving.

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It suggests giving and thanks.
It describes effort and earning.
It connotes quality and trust.
It sustains and doesn’t drain.

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Which sits better with you?

A leader that is entitled to your trust or deserving of it?

A company that is entitled to your customer loyalty or very deserving of it?

An employee that is entitled to a promotion or truly deserving of it?

A parent that is entitled to your respect or deeply deserving of it?

A friend that is entitled to your attention or clearly deserving of it?

A spouse that is entitled to your love or certainly deserving of it?

As the leader, the company owner, the employee, the parent, friend, or spouse, which would you prefer to be — deserving or entitled?

Which means more to you? Which means more to those in your work and personal life? When people agree on this, it breeds harmony in organizations, teams, and families. When they differ, it can cause ongoing conflict.

I vote to be deserving not entitled. What’s your vote?

From my perspective,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach


©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, explores, learns, and teaches professional people-skills for workplace success. Teamwork, customer service, and leading change are her passions. Her natural intuition about people fills the gaps of diversity for business success. See this site for workshop outlines, DVDs, and customer feedback.

The best teamwork in the workplace requires great people-skills. What you say and how you say it impacts productivity and teamwork today and tomorrow and down the road.

Phrases that team members see as disrespectful (regardless of your intentions) can bury teamwork and your workplace relationship.

For all team members and leaders who like practical information for the best teamwork and people-skills, here’s a checklist of 4 phrases to bury and never use again!

 

Bury These Phrases for Best Teamwork

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1. “Whatever!” The current popularity of this phrase does not lessen its sting. You are basically saying to your team member: “your thoughts don’t matter to me”. This will leave scars that damage teamwork. It you disagree with a team member, then say I disagree. If you are frustrated because they are talking endlessly, then say “we are short on time today…”. Bury the phrase whatever and don’t ever dig it up!
   
   
2. “All you’ve done is ….” The culprit here is the word all. It packs whatever you are about to say with emotion — negative emotion. A colleague of mine was speaking with a networking contact who was a driver/driver personality type. The contact said to my colleague about her work “All you’ve done is invent a job for yourself.” The networking contact’s “all you’ve’ done is …” phrase is insulting and demeaning. On a team, this phrase could leave a scar between team members that never heals. Bury this phrase all you’ve done is … deep in the ground so it doesn’t ooze up during a flood!
   
   
3. “Don’t you think …?” Most of the time, people use this phrase to pressure someone into agreement. Much better to state what you believe (“I think”) and ask the team members what they think. “Don’t you think we should or …” is a passive aggressive way of expressing disagreement and often triggers resistance and emotion. To reach an end goal, put the issues on the table for the team members to directly discuss. Bury the phrase don’t you think … and replace it with what do you think?.
   
   
4. “I’m sorry you feel I have …”. This is one of the most common and is a most offensive phrase — whether you say it in the workplace or in your personal life. Said on a team, it is deadly. The culprit here are the words you feel. If someone has told you that you have offended, hurt, insulted … them, offer a simple direct apology I am sorry. If you want to go further, use and I am sorry for the impact this has had on you. Bury your fear of apologizing along with the phrase I’m sorry you feel I have …. You will be respected for your courage and your caring.

What other phrases would you bury?

From my experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops, keynotes, and consultations that turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. Leaders have booked Kate for 21 years to overcome the toughest challenges, activate service and teamwork, and channel people-skills extremes into business gains. See this site for customer results and book Kate now.

A great definition of teamwork includes a call to action to build and exercise change-ability skills for optimal teamwork in any situation.

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Picture your organization using this new definition of teamwork:

Growth and change within team members to achieve a common success.

It’s applicable to changing environments, is very clear, and defines teamwork as adapting to reach the common goal instead of working to reach the common goal. 

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This definition of teamwork creates startling results when you use it with these four precious gems.

RUBY. Passion for learning. When you create a learning (not training) culture, the team exercises its change-ability 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.

 

 

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.

 

 

 

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!

 

 

 

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.

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. For permission to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers team building workshops and innovative solutions for startling team results. See this site for more info and 21 years of testimonials.

Most leaders address tangible gaps that block success – gaps in resources, raw materials, knowledge, distribution mechanisms and the like.  Many have also learned to address generational and cultural gaps to ensure global success.

Great leaders mind the energy gap as well. They enable and empower team members to bridge the energy gap and plug into success.

The energy gap between team members can build walls, interrupt the flow of teamwork, and detour the team from its mission.  Great leaders see this as a true and tangible barrier.

They mind this interpersonal energy gap and teach team members how to convert it to a powerful connection.

Interpersonal Energy Gap

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Example #1
Team members who work harder or less hard than other team members yet all produce substantially the same results

The barrier to success: Teamwork and morale can falter if team members mistake energy levels for results. They begin to label the harder workers as inefficient and those that work less hard as lazy.

Great leaders focus on results.  They teach team members to work together to analyze inefficiencies, improve processes, and share talents for maximum success.  They spot team members who are capable of greater responsibility and guide them to collaborate and do more.

Distributed (virtual) teams embrace this end result focus early on because they are working from different locations and sometimes different time zones. The distance compels them to address issues of responsiveness, timeliness, and efficiency to deliver on the mission.

Great leaders remind shared workplace teams to address these issues instead of labeling the behaviors and detouring success.

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Example #2
High energy emotional temperaments interacting with more even paced dispositions

The barrier to success: Communication can falter when team members infer intention, intelligence, and/or ability just from the others’ temperament.

Great leaders see energy and emotion differences as natural. A team is a microcosm of the human population. They teach team members to assess contributions with tangible evidence not by inferences about others’ disposition. Great leaders respect the differences and find the fit.

Team building exercises can transform a team to work well with different personality styles. In these exercises, they learn to interpret emotion levels appropriately, understand the value of each temperament, and use the differences to fill their own talent gaps.

Here is a short video to illustrate: GPS Your Team to Work With Different Personality Types.

How well do your teams address these energy gaps? Do they know how to mind the gap and turn it into a powerful connection? Ask them … and let me know!

Yours in service,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. For permission to re-post or republish, please email info@katenasser.com.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, is well respected for her results in turning interpersonal obstacles into interaction success in leadership, teamwork, and customer service. See this site for keynote topics, workshop outlines, and customer feedback.

Leaders, do team members in your corporation or business speak up soon enough?  Long standing teams often answer yes to this. The comfort of knowing each other fuels, what I call, the voices of success in teamwork and business.

This is no little feat.  Social research in America shows that people often speak up less in groups – even in a crisis (When Will People Help in a Crisis).

The common response to this challenge is to get new teams to know each other more quickly and engage the voices of success faster. It’s a start. Yet it still traps success in the time it takes to know everyone.






It also fails in today’s environment of constant change and sudden (ad hoc) teamwork. Can you imagine the business wins possible with the voices of success working in every meeting and encounter — globally? In other words during every instance of sudden teamwork?

Encourage the Voices of Success
Why not spread these messages with signs throughout your business, with your prime vendors/suppliers, and in your new hire orientations? Add these to your performance reviews and see employee engagement soar.

1. “If you think of something possible, say something!” For people to speak up with ideas they have for success or with cautions of dangers to avoid, they must feel it’s OK to do so. Throughout airports and train stations, they now announce “if you see something, say something” — to get people to report possible dangers.
2. “You are getting paid to deliver success. Speak up!” People must feel that they are expected to sound their voices of success. It’s not self-evident in a group setting.
3. “An idea is a terrible thing to waste. Speak up!”
4. “For us to succeed, we must all risk and commit. Speak and listen.”
5. “Respect ideas, even when we disagree.” People fear responses to their voices of success. Reduce the fear by restoring civility and building respect for diversity. Nothing creates silence and lost potential more quickly than rude disrespectful responses to new ideas or key concerns.

If you want true success in your business, encourage your customers to speak their minds too and of course be ready to listen to their voices of success.

Great listening and expressing harvests full potential.

What do you think? What other ways can we tap the creative and innovative ideas of business and corporate teams? Add your voice in the comments section below!

©2011 Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, Founder & President, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you would like to re-post or re-publish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach delivers keynotes, workshops, consultations, and DVDs to turn interaction obstacles into interpersonal success in business, teamwork, customer relations, and leading change.

Leadership, teamwork, sales, and customer relations hinge on great people skills and communication. Most business owners and corporate leaders agree that it is the great questions that develop rapport, build understanding, and unearth solutions and ideas. True — except questions that don’t ask.

Statements that masquerade as questions — that don’t ask but rather tell — are a true people skills killer.

Replace Questions That Tell with Those That Ask

1. Don’t you think … ? At best this question sounds like you don’t want to hear opinions and at worst comes across as passive aggressive or accusatory.  This is a people skills killer.
   The simple change to what do you think increases rapport and understanding.




2. Why don’t you …? Generally what follows is a statement of what you want the other person to do.  It also puts the other person on the defensive.  This is a people skills killer.
   People will respect you more when you state your ideas as a suggestion.  “Here’s one idea … what do you think?”




3. Wouldn’t it be better …? This question is actually a statement “I think it would be better …” posed as a question.  Although not as damaging as don’t you think, it still risks insulting the other person.  A people skills killer.
   Better to state your opinion and ask for opinions or combine the two with What if …? The latter doesn’t insult and invites other ideas.




4. Could you help me? Although it sounds harmless, it shrinks away from the true question “Will you help me? Show others you honor their choices by affording a true option to say yes/no.

Statements that masquerade as questions are people skills killers. They confuse, accuse, manipulate, and sometimes insult.

True questions honor others — even in disagreement. They communicate respect, openness, and a commitment to collaboration. Leadership, teamwork, sales, and customer relations gather momentum and dimension with true questions.

I think it’s well worth it. What do you think?


From professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2011 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish the content of this post, please first email info@katenasser.com for terms of use. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, customer service, customer experience, and teamwork. She turns interaction obstacles into business success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Diversity on teams generally breeds better results and more success. Is this now true of the generational diversity in the workplace? It can be if you as leaders provide team building across the generations. Maximize the value of generational differences and you can realize the potential and success of experience meeting youthful innovation.

There are light, fun ways for team members across generations to get to know each other.   If you want members of multi-generational teams to get to know how they each think, here is a proven approach that produces more substantive results than the purely lighthearted fun events.

I developed this exercise, Success is Ageless, to use with one of my customers and now use it in several variations with many other customers around the globe.

Team Building Across Generations

Benefits of the Success is Ageless team building exercise:

1. Common bonds built from both similarity and difference
2. Fewer fear-based hidden blocks
3. Respect from common struggles of different journeys
4. Success from experience meeting innovation

Setting: Simple office training or conference room that allows people to move around and work together.  The setup must encourage interaction. ( Do not do this exercise around one conference table or in a room with rows of tables/chairs.  These setups do not encourage interaction.)

A/V: Internet access, printing capability, flip charts/easels, videoconferencing (if virtual teams).

Approach: Step One – Have each team member select an image from online resources — one image from her/his early childhood or early teenage years.   They should select an image that made an impression on them, say something about them, or changed their outlook in some way.  If for some reason you will not have internet access, ask the team members to do this step in advance and bring the image to the team building workshop.  If you have team members that are not computer savvy, they can bring a copy of a picture from newspapers, books, magazines etc…

Once this step is done, break into groups of 3 team members each of mixed generations.  For the image from childhood/adolescence, each one tells a story about what was happening to her/him that coincided with that image.   How did it shape who they are today?

Step Two: Hand out a pre-printed image of a current event.  Team members in each group discuss the image. A current event that suggests both struggle and success/achievement tends to work best.

Here are the guided discussion questions for this segment:

1. What feelings do we share about this event?
2. Where do our outlooks differ?
3. What do differences represent to each team member — win/lose, right/wrong, need for collaboration/flexibility, chaos/order, fear/courage, hierarchy/teamwork, etc..

To end this team building exercise, highlight how team diversity can breed great success.  It may take longer for teams to gel and get along.  Nonetheless the different talents, knowledge, outlooks, and innovative ideas are essential readiness tools to handle any challenge that comes to the team. Diversity also helps prevent the terrible plague of groupthink.

Pair up one last time.  Write and read aloud one positive statement about the talent, knowledge, and insight that your partner brings to the team’s projects and success. This final step secures the lessons learned of respecting differences and carries them into daily teamwork.

Respect the Differences.
Learn to Love the Differences.
Find the Fit.

What variations or additions to this team building exercise would you suggest?

©2010 Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. All rights reserved.

If you would like to re-post or re-publish the content of this post, please email info@katenasser.com for permission.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers team building and customer relations workshops that bridge the gaps and deliver the benefits of diversity. Contact her now to deliver custom team sessions that bring your diverse teams to the heights of success.

Teamwork in western cultures, especially in the USA, recognizes individual contributions to the team. Contrary to the old myth, there is an I in team.  In fact there are a few I’s – individual initiative and identity fueling team results.  Recognizing the “I’s” inspires greater effort, contributions and the willingness to share and learn.  For non-American leaders of American workplace teams, this information is critical for results.

Great Leaders Inspire Teamwork Through Recognition

1. Learn and understand what essential pieces each team member delivers to the team.
2. Make it clear that the focus is the team results through initiative and contribution.
3. Establish this two step dialogue as the team culture: What do you bring TO the team? What are you learning FROM the team? Introduce this concept at an all hands meeting. Once all understand the purpose of it, do it formally at the end of each week; collate and post the results. It offers individual recognition that simultaneously reinforces contributions to the team. You can recognize and boost morale while avoiding the negative contest aspects of many recognition awards.

It takes individual efforts to produce a team result. Those individual efforts need fuel and recognition is one very strong fuel. Having team members highlight what they learn from each other, keeps that fuel flowing in the direction of team results!

Whether you are new to leadership or a non-American leading USA teams, using these steps from the beginning puts the team on a path to long term success.

What else would you add to this list to fuel zealous effort and contribution to team results?

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers workshops to develop service and teamwork that bridges the gaps of diversity. Her new DVD on regional differences in USA is a “must see” for any teams selling or delivering service to American customers.

Nuts-and-bolts teams (also known as infrastructure teams) are often out of the spotlight and sometimes off executives’ radar screens.  

Clearly, the work of these infrastructure teams including information technology (IT), facilities, security, training, records management, to name just a few, is integral to the daily and long term success of organizations. 

Yet leaders must inspire and engage these nuts-and-bolts teams to greatness without the boost of recognition or event hooplah that bottom line teams enjoy.

The sales and marketing teams in for profit companies can easily see their contributions.  In scientific research organizations, diverse scientists know how they fit into the core purpose.  Programmers and graphic interface designers are at the pulse of success in tech companies big and small. There is inspiration in knowing that your work really counts.

So it is worth asking how do you inspire and engage nuts-and-bolts teams whose work doesn’t seem to be the heart of the core purpose?

Support Makes It Work
I have spent 20 years inspiring nuts-and-bolts teams to greatness and one theme continues to resonate with all these infrastructure and support teams — “you keep the organization running”. Support makes it work!


Engage with Images
To inspire these teams, leaders, initiate this discussion with your nuts-and-bolts teams. Ask them to give examples to illustrate it. Have a computer hooked up to projection and find online images of each example they give. Some common replies include: pillars, suspension cables on a bridge, supply lines for front line troops.

Add even stronger, more exciting images like:

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The “catcher” in a flying trapeze act who hangs there ready to grab hold yet doesn’t get the “wow” applause of the fliers doing triple flips. Show the safety net to illustrate the importance of those teams who are providing back up and securing resources.

Electrify your infrastructure teams with images of road crews for rock bands or pit crews at a race track.

Tap their personal needs with images of cleaning crews in hospitals. Would you want to be sick in a dirty hospital?

Highlight the backstage theatre crews who are moving props, working the curtain, applying makeup, fixing costumes.

For sports success, there are many supports teams — those who maintain golf courses, drive the Zamboni that smooths the ice rink, prepares the football or baseball field.


Main Point: Very little of the bottom line or core activity in organizations succeeds without infrastructure support teams. Take pride in doing the job well for when it is done poorly or not done, it effects the bottom line.  If time allows, schedule your teams to visit and talk to these teams noted in the above examples. It can re-energize a team to speak with other support type functions that take pride in their work.

QUESTION: What other images or inspiration would you add to this list to help nuts-and-bolts support type teams feel more valued?


Next Post on This Topic: The Tough Question
Leaders, how do you keep them inspired as they continue to see so much outsourcing and off-shoring of infrastructure and support functions?

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, has established her reputation over 20 years as a gifted speaker, trainer, and inspir-a-tor who delivers transformational results in team spirit and performance. See footage of her in action at this site http://katenasser.com.

One of the more recent workplace concepts is employee engagement. Wikipedia notes, Employee engagement can be seen as a heightened level of ownership where each employee wants to do whatever they can for the benefit of their internal and external customers and for the success of the organization as a whole.

Most everyone would agree that the business results of engaged employees are positive. The question is: How much time and energy should businesses spend to ignite this employee engagement and do you expect employees to keep the engagement going once you light the fire?

Great leaders inspire. They have engaged employees. Yet great leaders also expect engagement from employees. They avoid the mistake of becoming the perennial entertainer who sees lapses in employee engagement when they are not entertaining.

As a consultant, leaders bring me in to help light the fire for employee engagement. Often they ask me when engagement is low. My success in re-igniting the fire in various organizations for 20 years includes the steps noted below. As a leader, you can use this approach to do the same.

1. Highlight unique talents. Have the employees identify their unique talents. Share your view of it as well. An employee initiates and sustains engagement when s/he believes they make a unique contribution or difference.




2. Identify the impact of their efforts and their lack of effort. A common problem among employees is limited sight distance. They fall into the rut of daily routine and become more and more detached from the big picture. Use specifics from the business instead of generalities.




3. Handle the chronic complainers (aka perennial naysayers). There is nothing wrong with intelligent disagreement nor with venting some negative emotion. Employees are people not robots. Yet chronic complainers and naysayers have a strong erosive effect on employee engagement. They do not contribute ideas, innovation, nor solutions. Over time they stop others’ who would otherwise engage yet who no longer want to engage and interact with the complainers.




4. Focus on and recognize learning. When you build a learning culture, you breed long term employee engagement and long term organizational success. Learning from mistakes. Learning about customers. Learning about themselves and each other. Learning how to deal with seemingly unfair conditions and turn them into huge successes. Build pride in doing tough jobs well!




5. Have a zero tolerance for lack of engagement. An employee chooses to work for you and get paid. Engagement is expected. Great leaders quickly address lack of engagement with a clear statement of what is expected and with openness and discussion on how to make it happen. They do not debate if it should happen and don’t get sidelined with endless discussions of obstacles, barriers, and complaints.

What other steps are in your critical plan for employee engagement?


©2010 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, is widely known for her success inspiring zealous employee commitment and engagement in diverse industries. See this site for what leaders and other session participants have said and accomplished with Kate’s contributions.

Do you dislike being around a jealous office teammate? Do you wonder how to handle jealousy in the workplace? Before jealous office teammates affect your morale, consider these smart answers to handle the jealousy. The goal of these answers – minimize the affect the jealousy has on your attitude while still maintaining team spirit. Note that these answers don’t even use the phrases jealous or jealousy.

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1. There is no shortage. This wonderful little saying, from the book The Secret, gives you and sometimes the jealous teammates, reassurance that opportunities for success abound. Whether you say it or just think it, it levels the emotion.




2. I have learned from many. I hope we learn from each other. When you speak about the path to success, it reminds others that you are still working on success. It shares your secret to success and invites them in.




3. Success is all of us, not either/or! We can all succeed at the same time. It’s not you or me.




4. Looks don’t create great results. Teamwork does. If the jealousy is about your looks, state your focus on teamwork. It may not take away the jealousy. It will remind you and tell teammates that results of the team depend on everyone.




5. I like working with you yet I find this topic distracting. When someone gives you a compliment, a simple thank you works well. When jealous office teammates fish around for personal info, give you specious compliments, or even passive aggressive digs, setting limits and refocusing discussion on work — works well.

What other answers have helped you deal with jealous office teammates and kept your morale high?

From my professional experience to your success,
Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™

©2010-2012 Kate Nasser, CAS, Inc. Somerville, NJ. If you want to re-post or republish this post, please email info@katenasser.com. Thank you for respecting intellectual capital.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach™, delivers coaching, consulting, training, and keynotes on leading change, employee engagement, teamwork, and delivering the ultimate customer service. She turns interaction obstacles into interpersonal success. See this site for workshop outlines, keynote footage, and customer results.

Individual strengths and teamwork are not at odds with each other. In fact, they are innately connected.  Why then do so many leaders think that appreciating individual strengths will hurt teamwork?

This is an important issue in this time of asking people at work to do more with less. Study after study shows that appreciation/recognition is the one key thing management can do to inspire and motivate effort and performance – http://fb.me/HgG7O52r.

Leaders, you could argue that the appreciation could be given to the whole team and not the individuals. Yes that is true.  Yet, you run the risk of the appreciation sounding shallow and repetitious if it lacks specifics.

You could argue that the individual appreciation could be given in private and team kudos in public. Yes that is true.  Yet it cheats the entire team out of the chance to:

1. Participate in building a culture of identifying and appreciating the strengths that individuals contribute to the team’s results
2. Learn what individual strengths exist on the team for future success and
   
3. Witness the joy that their individual teammates experience when honored for their strengths.
   

As a leader, what can you do to ensure that individual appreciation won’t hurt teamwork?

1. Honor diversity. Don’t fall into the trap of honoring only those individuals who are very much like you.
   
2. Highlight how the individual strengths contributed to the team’s results.
3. Recognize both the individual strengths on tasks and also on the interpersonal skills which contribute to the team’s results.
4. Applaud the effort of all who blended the individual strengths into team results.

What else helps the team value each individual’s strengths as well as the total results? Or do you think that this is all very risky? I welcome your comments below.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, delivers transformational team building workshops and advice that empower you to remove teamwork obstacles — big and small. See this site for more information http://katenasser.com.

15 Comments »

Leaders can easily see the impact of people who chronically complain and contribute less than what is needed and less than their potential.

What do leaders think about about action-oriented team members who do not accept input and help? Do you prefer high performing self-sufficient team members even if they resist input and help from others? What if one of them is highly experienced like a senior network engineer?

Traditionally, most believe that teamwork needs people who both offer and accept input and help. I thought about this as I remembered an IT project teammate from many years ago who did not accept input or help from others on the team. He did a great deal of work on the project, gave brief status reports of what he did, and that was it. The leader of the project did not see it as a problem.

What do you think? What is the impact on the organization’s current goals, on the future success of the business, and on teamwork overall?

As a leader, do you generally ask the action-oriented self-sufficient team members to handle the more critical areas because you feel confident they will deliver?  Not all refuse input and help. What about the ones who do?

There are some effects of this behavior:

• Solutions that cover only that team member’s perspective
• Blind spots and exposures if that team member is unavailable or leaves
• Less knowledge and readiness for future organizational goals and needs
• Change in team dynamics and possibly less willingness to ask for help

This issue is quite prevalent on teams yet is often not discussed nor addressed. Is it a silent toxin? Or is it irrelevant to the success of the business? What do you think?

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, works with leaders and their teams at the Fortune 500 on developing the optimal teamwork for today’s changing global business needs. See team workshop outlines at Team Building Workshops.

“Finding fault stops progress; finding solutions ignites success.” I recently wrote and posted that thought on Twitter. Many re-tweeted it and sent various replies. This particular reply caught my eye:

What  do  you  do  when  those  around  you  want  to  find fault  instead  of  finding  solutions?

A great question. Dealing with chronic naysayers can demoralize a team. Dan Rockwell, The LeadershipFreak, notes “Negative people always work to solidify the status quo.” He offers an except from Dr. Robert Sutton’s new book Good Boss, Bad Boss: “Teams with downers produce 40 to 60% less than teams without whiners and complainers.” That rang true to me. When I am around chronic naysayers, I feel like I am pushing a truck up a hill without a motor.

Conversely, when I am around people who focus on finding solutions, they ignite other innovative thoughts that can lead to success. When you watch teams of inventors, they actually highlight failures as steps toward success. They don’t wallow in finding fault with the ideas. They highlight the faulty ideas as a pathway for success!

So what professional people skills would you use with a peer who always finds fault and complains rather than offers solutions to problems?

Awareness, Attitude, & Personality Type

1. Are they aware that they come across as negative vs. positive? You might think this is a ridiculous question yet many people never think about how they come across. One safe yet effective way of showing this to a peer is to ask them a “how to” question when they are simply complaining. If they reply “I don’t know how to fix it but this won’t work”, let them know that you would value their ideas and solutions. Continue on to say that you “respect their right to focus on what won’t work yet you find that it demoralizes you. Perhaps they could share those thoughts with someone else.” If someone is going to change their attitude, they must first be aware of how their attitude is impacting others and the bottom line.
2. If the complaining continues, say “I may be wrong about this yet I perceive your remarks as an attempt to slow the change. Is that correct?” I did this one day and the complainer said “yes”! Once his attitude was out on the table, the leader addressed the change resistance with the complainer in private.
3. What personality type are they?  Driver types are so focused on the end result they assume that others are too. They often skip telling you the positive aspects of your idea and jump to the faults with the intention of reaching success more quickly. If you are not a driver personality type, you may likely see this as negativity or a personal slight to your value. Drivers are not the classic naysayer type. Nonetheless, their abrupt approach can demoralize and slow a team’s progress just like a chronic naysayer. Tell the driver type that you also are focusing on the end result. Yet you need to hear the positives as well as the faults to innovate and reach success.

Achieving success requires a great attitude, communication, awareness, and action.

Attitudes of fear and selfishness breed pure fault finding that can derail success. Awareness of those attitudes is the first step to return you all to the success track. Communicating only the negatives when you see the positives robs some teammates of the inspiration to continue innovating. If you are a driver type, don’t mistake the need to hear the positives as a lack of action. It spurs many non-drivers on to the finish line!

What else would you say or do with a peer who is always finding fault instead of solutions? I welcome your ideas in the comment section below.

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, develops teamwork through workshops that bridge the gaps in communication. Participants in global corporations have remarked, “It was a revelation that transformed our results once we understood each other.” Tap Kate’s people-skills experience in webinars, workshops, blog posts. and DVDs.

Teamwork brings to mind images of people interacting to achieve some goal.  Generally they develop a closeness, a tight bond, if for only a brief period as they exchange ideas, use their collective experience, and take action.  If the team is to stay together as a unit, the tight bond grows tighter. Sounds good right? Yet today’s fast changing business landscape needs agile teams that embrace diversity.

The key question is when does that tight bond become a clique that shuts out new team members, new ideas, and change?  Leaders, do you know the warning signs?

If you want to prevent a clique growing in the shadows of your organization, look for the following signs of team health and the potential for a clique and its destructive limiting force.

1. Do team members openly disagree to reach the common goal? This is a healthy sign of a team whose bond can withstand pressure without cracking. Or do you sense that team members are pressured to conform to be accepted? 




2. Does the team avidly and positively welcome new team members when they first arrive?  If yes, what do they say and do with the new team members? Healthy signs: “Jump in, ask questions, contribute your strengths, we like diversity …”.
   




3. Does the team reach out to all (especially new team members) for lunches, breaks, etc…  The action to include is a healthy sign of a tight bond that can stretch without breaking.
   




4. Do the team members take steps to get the new team members up to speed quickly to make every teamwork moment the most it can be? Or do they expect new team members to prove themselves. If you witness the latter, it is a sign of ill-health.
   

Leaders, what do you do to promote team health and prevent cliques? What steps have you taken to build agile teams that accept diversity?

Would love to hear your insights and questions below!

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Kate Nasser, The People-Skills Coach, consults to leaders, teams, and organizations for the healthiest teamwork and agile teams that embrace diversity to meet the quickly changing business landscape. Her workshops, blog articles, and DVDs make a unique contribution to teamwork, customer service, and leadership success.