Creating a Great Team Culture – Part 2 of 2

What do you need to do as a business leader?

Well the obvious answer is all the things we’ve mentioned above about giving your team a lift and these three were thought the most important

• LISTEN! – Take interest in them and let them have an opinion.
• SMILE! – make the work environment a happier place by encouraging some Fun with a Serious Intent
• WALK the office – be visible and available to the team at agreed times.

 but some other suggestions are: -

Have a better organisation chart with roles and responsibilities -people like to know what they are accountable for and how they can measure themselves to see how well they are doing.

• If you are using Team Matters you MUST acknowledge and deal with EVERY piece of feedback you get. If not your team will stop using it.  You need to track those that just put the same score every time to see if they are hiding something and you MUST review the monthly feedback with every team member and discuss the 3 key words they have chosen to describe their month (these are usually the most insightful)
• ASK – how can I help?
• Bring in cakes or chocolate.

But the most important thing you should do is: -

              Recognise how the team are feeling and TAKE ACTION.  (Do not allow things to fester.)

How can we help the team to see situations differently?

We are all human and when things don’t go to plan we often take things personally - so here are some ideas of how, with a little help and redirection, we can help our team position challenges in a different light.

• Create a culture were the team are allowed to take some initiative. Ensure that the team understand that mistakes are an acceptable issue and should be used as a way of learning. 
• Be a Win together/Lose together team – where the team support each other and share.
• Show that you are human too – be open about consequences when things happen in the business, and give the team the ability to help you.
• Have an open-door policy – or if this majorly affects your own production have a daily open-door session (often allowing your team time to reflect before coming to you can help them.
• Ask your team to come to you with suggestions not just frustrations.  So if something is bothering them they think of how it could be solved and feel part of the solution.
• Help your team to put things in perspective. 
• E.G. you lost a client.  Ask… was that client a profitable client? Did we like working for them? How much time has it really freed up now they have gone? (allow for time spent answering phone calls and email and chasing for information) What can we do with time now that would be more profitable for the firm? (who could we approach with one of our additional services to?)
• E.G. a client has complained.  Ask… was this a valid complaint?  What systems need to change to make sure this doesn’t happen again?  If the complaint is valid what can we all do to make the client happy?  (think outside the box – it doesn’t have to be putting a huge amount of extra time into the client -sometimes just letting them talk and acknowledging the issue and thanking them for highlighting a failing in the system - can be enough)
• Brainstorm with your team the things that upset them at work or causes them stress and encourage them to come up with systems that can help relieve them.
• Let the team role play being in the clients shoes – “what if you were in this situation, how would you feel?”
• (Try something – even if you fail, you will have learned)