For a team leader, feedback is an essential team development skill and key to understanding what’s really going on with the team. It’s important to build trust and vulnerability between all members of the team, including yourself.
One of the most powerful tools – for good or evil – in the team leader’s arsenal is feedback. It can be one of the most precise ways to measure the overall health of your team, identify problem areas, and find out if remedies are actually working. Used incorrectly, feedback can plant seeds of resentment among team members that may ultimately set everyone back.
One of the toughest team development tasks a team leader faces is motivating their team. Whether it’s hitting a stretch goal, meeting a tough benchmark or solving a difficult problem, a team that isn’t motivated to achieve or overcome obstacles can slow down everything.
There are eight team development factors that team leaders need to consider when evaluating the capabilities and readiness of a team. I call this the CR Factor.
Are you a new team leader or a leader who was recently assigned a team? Do you have a good team already and know that a challenging new project is coming up? Now is a perfect time to assess your team's development, their capabilities, and their readiness level.
An important factor in successful team development is for team leaders to know who their “followers” are – the team members they’re leading. Understanding that each person falls into a general personality type can go a long way toward resolving interpersonal problems and motivating the entire team.
Football season is in starting up, and what better example of team building than watching two teams of 11 men each demonstrate not just physical prowess but their ability to communicate and react to a changing situation on the field?
Teams, like house plants, also grow and change. As a leader, being aware that change is occurring and taking note as team members grow in their roles and become more advanced in their skills is critical to your team's development.
Having conflict in a team is not a bad thing. In fact, healthy conflict around ideas can build team dynamics and galvanize productivity. Learning to identify and promote healthy conflict is a critical team development skill.
How many times have you felt that your communication was clear when communicating something to a team member or the entire team, only to find that you were misunderstood? And how often have you heard what a colleague said, thought you understood their meaning, and later discovered that you didn’t quite hear it right?
