Category Archives: team roles

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics, team roles

The 7 Things Great Teams Execute Flawlessly

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As business school students, we’ve all had a great deal of team interaction with classmates with a variety of backgrounds and experiences.  Undoubtedly, this has made for a richer experience both inside and outside of the classroom; I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this aspect of the Goizueta program.

Over the tenure of my career, I’ve had to work on teams of various sizes with various backgrounds and skill-sets.  Recently, our team at work has been growing to meet growing business needs.  As one can imagine, the larger the team, the more complex the relationships and the more difficult it is to coordinate all the moving pieces and players.

I came across this article that speaks to how best to maintain a cohesive unit.  I found the list to be not only insightful for me as part of the larger work team, but also beneficial as I lead my own growing team, especially as we prepare to be MBA professionals.

The article uses the San Antonio Spurs NBA championship to illustrate the importance of teamwork and states that, “Teamwork occurs when every member is in the zone, working in unison with one another.”  As we lead our own teams, here are seven points to keep in mind per the article:

1) Remain Poised; Don’t Panic – When things get tense try to keep calm and proactively diffuse any uneasiness.

2) Stay Focused; Execute the Plan – It is important to stay focused on the task at hand.  This is more assured when leaders assign tasks according to their team members’ interests and passions.

3) Accountability; Deliver Your Role – Be accountable to yourself and to members of your team.

4) Trust One Another; Treat Each Other Like Family –  In essence, value each member’s contribution to the team.

5) Support Diversity of Thought; Embrace Differences – This can help challenge status quo and encourage innovation.

6) Expectations are in Alignment; Adjust to Each Other’s Strengths – Strong teams  adjust to the strengths of each team member, evolving as they go.

7) Great Leadership;  Strong Culture and Identity – The team’s leader is ultimately responsible to set the tone for the team. They never stop leading, coaching and teaching. 

As a part of a fast paced work environment, I find item #7 to be the most challenging.  It’s hard to make the time with so many competing priorities.  I’m particularly curious about other’s experiences as it pertains to being “coached” at work.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2014/06/20/the-7-things-great-teams-execute-flawlessly/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

team roles

Key Players That Make Your Professional Circle Well Rounded

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http://www.businessinsider.com/the-6-people-you-need-in-your-network-2014-7

I recently attended a professional leadership forum conference with my company focusing on networking and skill building. My biggest take away from the conference was me thinking about how do I keep my network right sized and diversified within my company. I knew that certain skills, whether soft or technical, needed to always get sharpened, but I had never really reflected on how well rounded my network is until after the conference.

This article describes  6 key players that everyone should have in their professional network. This network really applies to a network beyond your workplace. For us, this certainly means our classmates. Here are the 6 key players the article describes:

The Finance Guru 

This is someone who has greater financial literacy than you. They are someone who will encourages you to be savvy with your finances and make good financial decisions.

The Connector

This is the social butterfly. The one who is always interconnected and can introduce you to other people. He/she is the relationship developer.

The Mentor

The article describes this best with a quote from Christine Hassler “It’s important to choose a mentor who is living a life you respect and want to model — not just someone who has a job or career path you would want,”

The Innovator

This is someone that is always up to date with your industry trends and forward thinking

The Leader

This is someone who you look up to the most professionally. They are people that should be picked very selectively and are utilized for the infrequent major work situations you need consultation on.

The Frenemy

This is someone who has the same career path as you. Its good to have that because competition forces use to be better. In this case your antagonist is your helper.

Check out the article and see who is and who isn’t in your network and try to fill those gaps.

 

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics, team roles, Uncategorized

How to Give Constructive Feedback

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Giving feedback can be one of the hardest things we do as managers or employees. Somehow the word “feedback” has taken on a negative connotation. But getting or giving feedback doesn’t have to be painful — and it’s a skill we are all going to have to learn.

One of the biggest complaints I’ve heard at my company is the fact we don’t get enough feedback throughout the year.  Many people joke that if they don’t hear any complaints, they just assume they are doing a good job.  But feedback is essential for mitigating problems — and helping employees realize their full potential.

Forbes has a great article on tips to how to make the feedback process better for you and your employees. Here are some of the key tips I got out of it:

1. Be honest. Employees can spot a manager that’s not being straightforward a mile away. Just keep your comments short and sweet.

2. Give real-life examples. Keep track of what the employees is doing wrong or right. It helps you to understand where they’re coming from, and why they’re doing certain things.

3. Lay out a plan of action. Figure out ahead of time how to mitigate negative behavior or reward good work.  It doesn’t help to say “You need to work on this,” or “Great job!”  You and the employee need to put a plan in place that’s actionable, achievable and will help them move forward.

4. Be willing to accept feedback yourself. Employees aren’t perfect. And neither are managers. This helps foster trust between employees and managers if you can take your own advice!

So what’s been your best or worst experience with feedback?

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ekaterinawalter/2013/11/19/how-to-foster-employee-trust-and-growth-through-constructive-feedback/

04-Managing a project team, team dynamics, team roles

Exerting Influence Without Authority

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In the business environment today the “I leader, you follower” mentality may not always be the most appropriate approach anymore.

With so many business structures relying on partnerships and working with teams inside and outside the company, the traditional leader tactic will not always work. Many managers and executives need to be able to adopt a more lateral style of leadership in order to coordinate, communicate, and complete work with these interwoven relationships.

The article explains lateral leadership as the ability to combine multiple essential skills. The article explains 4 essential capabilities to assist you with understanding how to use lateral leadership to your benefit.

1) Networking – “Cultivate a broad network of relationships with the people inside and outside your company whose support you need to carry out your initiatives.”

2) Constructive persuasion and negotiation – Look at persuasion and negotiation as a way to  heighten your influence not as way to manipulate.

3) Consultation – “Take time to visit the people whose buy-in you need. Ask their opinions about the initiative you’re championing. Get their ideas as well as their reactions to your ideas.”

4) Coalition building – “It’s a fact of human nature that several people who are collectively advocating an idea exert more influence than a lone proponent.”

A few more take aways:

  •  Lateral leadership can be challenging for managers to execute. It is difficult to master many of the capabilities that go into achieving lateral leadership. It may take time.
  • It is important to find the people in your company that have a lot of influence. Take the time to meet these people and get to know them before jumping into a project with them.
  •  A natural positive environment can help bring relationships together. A company should encourage opportunities for people to meet, but let the relationships form on their own and not be forced.

Exerting Influence Without Authority

 

04-Managing a project team, team dynamics, team roles

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership

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This Harvard Business Review  article outlines how to be an authentic leader and explains that you do not have to be born with a specific set of characteristics that labels you a leader. Rather authentic leadership develops from a multiple of facets that make up ones life. Their study shows that you do not have to be in a high position at your organization or wait for that tap on the shoulder to be recognized or portray authentic leadership.

The authors and their research team surveyed over a 125 leaders at multiple levels. This proved to be one of the most extensive study on leadership development.  The team wanted to know how these leaders developed their leadership skills. They found that after “Analyzing 3,000 pages of transcripts, our team was startled to see you do not have to be born with specific characteristics or traits of a leader. Leadership emerges from your life story”.

One of their interviewees was Ann Fudge, Chairman and CEO for Young & Rubicam. She stated, “All of us have the spark of leadership in us, whether it is in business, in government, or as a nonprofit volunteer. The challenge is to understand ourselves well enough to discover where we can use our leadership gifts to serve others”.

There are 7 areas in which the authors express make up authentic leaders. Please read below for a brief description of these 7 areas.

1) Learning from Your Life Story – Many leaders use life experiences and happenings to help motivate their leadership. They use these experiences to give meaning to their lives and find the inspiration to lead.

2) Knowing Your Authentic Self -This article expresses that one of the most important capabilities of a leader to possess, is to have self awareness. As time goes on many leaders who may find benefits from the outside world such as money, fame, and power will eventually feel like something is missing. These leaders have left no time for them to understand and develop the inside part of their leadership.

3) Practicing Your Values and Principles – The article explains “leadership principles are values translated into action. Having a solid base of values and testing them under fire enables you to develop the principles you will use in leading”.

4) Balancing Your Extrinsic and Intrinsic Motivations – It is easy to get caught up in the external motivators such as promotions or financial rewards, but in the end of the day intrinsic motivators work closer with your values and will be more fulfilling then extrinsic motivations.

5) Building Your Support Team – Authentic leaders maintain strong relationships in multiple forms. These relationships help them continue their forward movement. These relationships can include family, mentors, colleagues, and close friends.

6) Integrating Your Life by Staying Grounded – This can be very challenging for many leaders. It is important to integrate a balance between work, family, friends, health, and even spiritual practices. This allows leaders to maintain an authenticity.

7) Empowering People to Lead – An authentic leader recognizes that leadership is not defined by their success but rather the success of an organization by empowering leaders at all levels. Authentic leaders will motivate and encourage people to lead.

I found that this HBR article offered a great perspective of what we can focus on to develop our abilities as authentic leaders. We do not have to wait to start becoming the leaders we want to be, the best time to start is now using our life stories and experiences to lead the way.

I want to end with my favorite quote from the article.

“Authentic leaders demonstrate a passion for their purpose, practice their values consistently, and lead with their hearts as well as their heads. They establish long-term, meaningful relationships and have the self-discipline to get results. They know who they are.”

Here is pdf version of the article

Discovering Your Authentic Leadership 

team dynamics, team roles

What makes great boards great

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This article from HBR applies to almost everything we’ve been doing in MP from a group standpoint, and yet at one of the highest levels of business responsibility.

In today’s corporate society, it seems that Boards of Directors are sometimes viewed or regarded as just “guys sitting around a table”.  But this article deals specifically with the fact of how boards need to work, because there were lots of “smart people” in some of the most successful companies, while at the same time some of the most disastrous and unethical ones.

This article closely reminds me of the colored hat activity we had in class.  Who’s a black hat, causing all the trouble… It reminds me of a couple of conversations we had in our fall and spring MP groups, since in the first meetings we had, we all discussed who was strong in certain areas, who was the black hat, etc, and what other hats we purposely wanted to try on.  Instead of being complacent individuals to go with the flow and not challenge major initiatives, board members need to be engaged, involved, and asking the questions, the real ones, not just agreeing or disagreeing to a topic.

The article also noted that even though fierce discussion and disagreement is necessary and just, once the group decision has been made, the most successful boards also put up a united front on the action.  There is no “I told you so”, or private dissention if a decision was good or bad.  The board unanimously backs the forward motion of the decisions of the company.

http://archive.excellencegateway.org.uk/media/FE%20Governance/What_makes_great_boards_great.pdf

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics, team roles

How to Motivate Employees

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There have been quite a few blog posts regarding effective management styles and how to be a good leader. In addition to these tips, one thing I find very relevant is how to motivate your direct reports and ensure your team is engaged every day. We’ve probably all been rewarded at some point or another with trophies, bonuses, etc. While those are all nice to receive, do they really keep us motivated and energized to deliver great work on a daily basis?

In a recent Inc. article, the author highlights some of the most effective things you can do as a manager to motivate your team:

1) Interesting Work

2) Information

3) Involvement

4) Independence

5) Increased Visibility

I wholeheartedly agree with the tips of being transparent and supporting employees with independence. I think one of the most demotivating characteristics a manager can have is to micromanage his or her employees. In my experience, having a manager who empowers you to make decisions on your own is by far more motivating than anything else. As we all advance in our careers, I think these are great tips to ground ourselves in how to keep our employees engaged and delivering great work.

 

 

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics, team roles, work plans

The Importance of Trust and How To Build it

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Often in our workplace we think of our success as being dependent upon our skills and ability to perform in a timely manner. I thought the same until I stumbled upon this article and it really changed my frame of mind. Honestly, now that I think about it, before my performance and skills even come into play, it is someone endowing trust upon me to even utilize my skills.

In undergrad I was taught that business is a system of integrated relationships of skilled people that are working to achieve personal and organizational goals. As this article points out, trust is at the center of every relationship.

I, like many of you, am constantly working on a project teams and in some cases, managing a project team. The author of the article Roger Dean Duncan states that “With high trust, teamwork is more of a reality than a hollow buzzword. Innovation is vibrant. Productivity tends to be strong and is typically more sustainable.”

This article begins by discussing what it really means to have trust. Later in the article Duncan begins to have a conversational interview with Barbara Brooks Kimmel, the executive director of Trust Across America. In the conversation Kimmel mentions a model that can be used to facilitate the earning of trust. She calls it the VIP Trust Model™.

Below are the attributes of the model to gain trust:

Vision and Values

Integrity

Promises

See article below for the full conversation on trust and how to use the VIP Trust Model.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/rodgerdeanduncan/2014/07/14/how-do-you-build-trust-in-a-trust-deficient-world/

04-Managing a project team, feedback, team dynamics, team roles, Uncategorized

Effective Team Building

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The main ingredients of building an effective team are:

  • Defined Goals & Roles
  • Decision Making
  • Commitment
  • Good Leadership
  • Communication
  • Organization
  • Collaboration
  • Competence
  • Respect
  • Passion

From our past two semesters, I have learned that in order for a team to succeed we need all these ingredients. You don’t have to be an extraordinary personality to have the skills you need to build and lead high performing team. People must work closely together, wear many hats and work effectively across the organization to get tasks accomplished quickly enough to remain competitive.

There is an article I read, which very well explains the characteristics of an effective team, such as:

  • An effective team understands the big picture
  • An effective team has common goals
  • An effective team works collaboratively, as a unit

Build a Team for Success

03-Planning the work of a team, 04-Managing a project team, 07a-Crafting an effective formal presentation, 07c-Telling stories, 99-Applying business intelligence, team dynamics, team roles

Are you a Leader or a Manager?

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I took a class in undergrad about “Servant Leadership” by Robert Greenleaf. I started questioning the difference between a manager and a leader, and have been intrigued by the concept ever since. As I was interviewing for my current position, I was questioned as to what type of leader I would be in the organization.

I pondered, and proceeded to explain the type of manager I would be and the skills that I would bring to the table. I described that I did not feel that someone could place me in the role of “leader”. It was a position that others saw me as based on how they felt about my abilities. They would make the decision to follow, I could not decide that for them.

I stumbled upon this article in the Wall Street Journal regarding this very topic. It discusses the importance of differentiating between a manager and a leader as the concept of the knowledge worker becomes more profound in our society.

“The leader originates, the leader challenges, the leader is an individual, the leader focuses on people.”

Take a look at the article and see how your natural characteristics fall into the spectrum. I believe that leadership is a way of life. It’s a characteristic that exudes from you, both in the professional world and your personal life. Leaders are the people that I select as mentors. The fact that I have placed them in that position in my life re-iterates how I feel about their ability to lead and challenge me.

My father is a mouthy, Italian businessman with salt and pepper hair. He has drowned me in the business world from a very young age. Along the way, I have gathered a few Tony-isms from him about this matter:

“You can promote people and make them managers, but you cannot make them leaders. That trait is who you are. When it comes out, people will know.”

“The person who knows how and why will always have a leg up on the person who only knows how or why.”

He’s a deep fellow.

Decide the type of position you want to hold in the lives of your co-workers, and work towards being looked at in that light. These abilities will alter the way you present, the way you communicate, and the way you analyze situations.

I leave you with one final Tony-ism: “Be cautious not to take too much advice.”

Christine