Team Management

Through the skills, interests, ambitions, friendships, and motivations of the people in your team, so shall you achieve your business mission.

"Many leaders have personal visions that never get translated into shared visions that galvanize an organization. What has been lacking is a discipline for translating individual vision into shared vision" – Peter Senge, pre 1996

What are the skills of good management?

I don't claim to know all of them… I think management skills include business skills, project management skills, communication skills, leadership skills, and much much more.

Team building means strengthening an interdependent group of people for long-term effectiveness

Ken Blanchard uses the acronym PERFORM to explain the necessary characteristics of high performing teams.

Your role in management is to develop the skills necessary to facilitate PERFORM.

• Purpose and Values
• Empowerment
• Relationships and communication
• Flexibility
• Optimal Performance
• Recognition and Appreciation
• Morale

Any effective manager must pursue growth in these areas. Pick up a copy of my white paper on Team Management.

1. Your Team Must Be Clear

Peter F. Drucker, one of the worlds most revered management thinkers with Harvard Business Review saying 'his writings are landmarks of the managerial profession', says

"Effective Executives do not start with their tasks. They start with their time. And they do not start out with planning. They start by finding out where their time actually goes."

Therefore, ask each member of your team to record their activities and time spent on those activities for 3 consecutive days. Then once that?s done, help them define each of their responsibilities, roles and opportunities for growth, in relation to your teams purpose and overall objectives.

This will help get control over what they are currently spending time on… and what they ought to be spending time on.

2. Your Team Must Be Organized

If you ask your team members to show you how they organize their projects, they will be encouraged to get better organized than they already are.

It is the accountability they have to be better organized coming from you as manager that can have a great effect on how well organized they become.

3. Your Team Must Be Motivated

Fortunately, this one is easy to achieve once your team is clear, and organized. The best way to motivate your team is to make them accountable to achieving what they are clear on, and organized for.

No not dreaded staff meetings. A simple lightening-fast review meeting with each individual of your team. Let them show you "how its coming?" for each project they are accountable for.

When you make regular reviews (what is the next step?) for your teams projects, you help them to remain accountable and on-top of their projects.

Tell people upfront that you are going to let them know how they are doing.