In the previous article, we discussed how to start building your team. Recruiting the right people for your team is the first step to cultivating a good team. However, the road to a solid and productive team is not an easy path. In fact there is so much effort involved that most managers just give up and let consultants step in to conduct a sophisticated team building program for them, a program that is designed specifically to serve one goal: to make the consultants richer.
In order to build a great team, a manager must continuously remind his team about the organization's vision, the strategies implemented to achieve that vision and why that strategy is the best. You always need to do that because your team members will usually stray toward their own actions and goals, which usually consist of finding other companies that pay higher salaries.
So, what can you do as a manager to boost team cooperation? Following are several ways.
1. Group meeting
If there is a decision to be made regarding the team, invite the team members to a brainstorming meeting. This is a good practice that you should undertake to make your team members feel that they are an active part of the team. In addition, it will be easier for you to blame them if the decision made turns out to be faulty.
2. Special gathering
You need to create several activities in which your team has time to meet outside the usual working environment. Having a get together will give them more time to mingle and to get to know each other better, as well as to build a feeling of solidarity within the group.
Celebrate team members' birthdays. Buy a birthday cake and a gift and throw a surprise birthday party. This will make the person appreciate his other team members more; because now he knows that the team is willing to go the extra mile to memorize his name (which they often forget) to get a free beer.
3. Open-plan office layout
Imagine your office with fewer separated rooms and cubicles. Imagine overall visibility in the office. Imagine if you could easily communicate with your team members anytime in your office. That scares you, doesn't it? You would no longer be able to play solitaire on your computer or chat with your friends as your team would catch you out.
But on the other hand, you would feel closer to the team as you could interact with them all the time. You could share the same jokes, hear the same gossip about who's dating who in the office, and you could be disgusted at the same person's burping out loud.
4. Performance plan
Consider these two persons. John is a team player. He cares about other people and tries to help his teammates achieve their targets. For him, the team's goals are more important than his own. Peter on the other hand keeps more to himself. He pursues his own goals without stopping to help others. The result is that Peter's sales numbers are higher than John's. Now, who do you think will get a bigger bonus?
Of course YOU will be the one to get the bigger bonus, as you are the manager whose responsibility is to claim all the credit for work done by the team. But imagine if Peter got a bigger bonus. How do you think John would feel?
Well, you won't know how John feels because he would have left your team and joined another company that appreciates him more. So, you need to create an incentive plan that is based on team goals, such as group profitability or group turnover. Your performance appraisal system must also include teamwork or team interaction as some of the performance factors, so that your team members are more encouraged to act selflessly, in order to get more money for themselves and less money for others.
5. Special projects
If you have team members who are not very close to each other, you might want to assign a special project for them so that they have the chance to get to know each other better. You need to find a project that is less stressful and demanding so that they will have fun instead of trying to kill each other, such as organizing an office party, planning a group trip, or experimenting with the effects of the office stapler on your competitor's forehead.
So there you are, several steps to build your team so that your team can develop to work better and produce greater results without supervision or help, until they reach their peak point where they show their appreciation to you by saying, ""We don't need you on this team anymore.""
--E. Effendi/Contributor empy_effendi@freshmindsgroup.com
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