Monthly Archives: July 2007

What takes the steam out of your team or puts steam into the adventure? Is your team going full steam ahead, or are you all stuck in a rut with your communicator bus hitting big bumps in the road, threatening to throw you all off course? There is hard data suggesting that many of our esteemed dream teams — those who have trouble sleeping at night — are worried in the workplace, for fear of crashing into or being thrown under the bus.

IN WHAT RUT MIGHT YOUR TEAM BE STUCK TODAY?

How does your team compare with normative data? Below are the top concerns quantitatively described by 100 teams in the Dayton region and around the country. Research consistently highlights specific challenges teams face today…team members’ own perceptions of team strengths and weaknesses. The data is valuable because these findings are what real work teams say stress them out.

AREAS OF HIGHEST TEAM CONCERN BY THOSE IN THE WORKPLACE TODAY

According to an interview with Craig Rider, many sources of pressure in the workplace are such interpersonal dynamics and missed communication opportunities as:

1. TENSIONS (agitation, anxiety, fear, worry) in the workplace ripple out like a huge rock dropped into a pond. Intertwined tensions, such as too much to do at work and not enough time to get everything done, and the “You should be able to do more with less!” pressures from higher up unnerve the good person who strives hard to please. Fear of the unknown, whether it be what’s coming up or what’s going on, stems from not communicating clearly enough.

2. LACK OF TRUST among team members is a fast way to bring down a project. Trust in action is the implicit faith that I won’t do something to further myself at your expense, by climbing over you or harming you outright. In short, it’s a basic, “Am I safe with you?” Example: “If I tell you something privately, will it come out later on, twisted, to haunt me?”

3. Employees report they do not receive accurate constructive FEEDBACK about performance. Without accurate and ongoing feedback, team members begin to feel, “I’m in this all alone!” Both managers and employees can be blindsided by undiscussed performance results…difficulties or extraordinary achievements. A balance of good and bad news — in about equal proportions — needs to be openly and carefully communicated.

4. FEAR OF CHANGE. Team members can feel unduly threatened by change. “I had all this figured out, and now the game has changed, and I don’t know what the new game is or whether I will be able to succeed with my new assignment, or even if I’ll have a job.” Although we all wish things would remain the same, we no longer feel we can count on someone saying, “We don’t anticipate making any major changes.” The team needs to talk accurately about transitions, even those which are thought to be seamless.

5. CONFLICTING GOALS. Common or impassioned goals and rewards are not cooperatively emphasized for congruency. Although we talk teamwork, we still reward individual performances. Levels of responsibility and communication expectations between levels are unclear, resulting in less motivation to just talk when things aren’t going well.

6. POOR COMMUNICATION. When open lines of communication are lacking, clarity on important goals is missing. Such a lack of timely information-sharing makes it hard to establish activities and timelines — goals are not met in a timely fashion, if they are met at all.

7. Uneasiness, stressed out, unhappy, disillusioned employees who do not feel connected to others, experience the LOW MORALE characteristic of discontented team members. “Here we go again!” cynicism results in low energy and an empty energy gas tank. The belief that “more of what doesn’t work will continue as the mode of operations” will continue to mess up project partnering. Employees think, “Why even bother trying something new because it won’t stick.”

Good communication is the sum total of everything that transpires in the workplace and beyond.

HOW TO VIEW THE WHEEL OF PROGRESS AND TEAMWORK IN TODAY’S MARKET

Each stress or opportunity category above is linked to a common charge, much like the spokes coming out of the hub of a wagon wheel. Team tensions stem from poor communication, causing less enjoyment as team members work together. In short, as team tensions rise, enjoyment of the creative problem-solving process declines, and project progress regresses or stops.

TURNING THE TOP TEAM WEAKNESSES INTO UNSTOPPABLE STRENGTHS

In rare private interviews, worried team members revealed what they’d like to improve:

1. BETTER COMMUNICATION, especially between departments, is at the top of the list. This stops chasms from forming between and among departments and teams.

2. Second on the list is BETTER LEADERSHIP communication, accentuating common-ground agendas with everyone pulling in the same direction, to eliminate the tug-of-war of hidden agendas.

3. BETTER FOCUS with a defined map that all can follow in their respective communicator cars, comes in at third place. Clearly measurable goals with defined purposes and timelines help prevent getting all fogged in on the two-way communicator highway, resulting in going the wrong direction…away from goals and project progress.

Teamwork relies on better communication among everyone.

ABOUT COMMUNICATIONS PSYCHOLOGIST DENNIS E. O’GRADY, PSY.D.

Dr. Dennis O’Grady is a Dayton region corporate trainer, keynote speaker, couples counselor, and relationship expert. Dennis is the developer of the innovative person- and results-driven Talk to Me© effective leadership and teamwork communication system. For 30 years, Dr. O’Grady has focused on improving effective communication, constructive team relationships, and change management. His latest book, Talk to Me: Communication Moves To Get Along with Anyone, is available at drogrady.com or at Amazon.

ABOUT THE RIDER GROUP

Craig Rider is a human performance consultant and president of the The Rider Group. His team surveys have been administered to teams in companies such as Huffy, Iams, Washington Inventory Services, Bank One, US Air Force, OhioHealth, Proctor & Gamble, and Goodrich. Data for this interview were obtained by administering the Rider Group’s Team Assessment Survey, which is equally effective with not-for-profit, professional groups such as legal, medical, government, court systems, financial institutions, and human services. Team survey results were evaluated for reliability and validity by Wright State University. Craig Rider can be contacted at www.RiderGroup.com or by calling (800) 648-8781.

Perhaps you’re thinking, “Here we go again, talking about teamwork — but leaders just talk the talk and don’t walk the walk.” Well, you’ve got a point. Teamwork begins with good communication — first, with yourself; secondly, with whomever you’re talking; and thirdly, with your identified customers. Open and positive communication creates satisfying interactions with everyone.

TEAM TALKS

Let’s take a quick look at each side of the teamwork coin, the negative and the positive. The answers below come from an Instigator-type extrovert, Jerry Rex, who is the president of Morris South, Machine Tools Systems, which is a thriving privately held company.

WHAT CREATES A STRONG TEAM?

Clear goals and open, honest communication, along with a willingness to give credit where credit is due.

WHAT DISRUPTS A SMART TEAM?

Lies and secrets, hyper-active egos, incompetence, lack of effort.

WHAT ONE THING MAKES TEAMWORK DIE?

Lack of fairness or failure to engage the team.

WHAT ONE THING HELPS TEAMWORK FLY?

A common goal or mission with which everyone can relate.

ARE YOU MESSING UP COMMUNICATING EFFECTIVELY, OR ARE YOU IMPROVING YOUR COMMUNICATION SKILLS A LITTLE EVERY DAY IN EVERY WAY?

Why can’t we just talk and listen to each other in a neutral mindset? We can when you use the Talk to Me© effective leadership communication system.

Let’s take a look at how to be negative. Here’s how to mess up teamwork with yourself and others:

1. SOMEONE ALWAYS HAS TO BE THE FALL GUY OR GAL. Making excuses and blaming others for failing to implement “little steps” to solve problems starves teamwork.

2. MENTAL RUTS AND TALK STALL-OUTS close your mind to new possibilities. Always needing to be right takes you down the wrong talk street.

3. EXTREMISM…either/or versus both/and thinking…is like putting your foot down on the accelerator as you near the end of a dead end street.

4. CHOKE HOLD ON THE STATUS QUO. This unfairness is created by infighting or by trying to unfairly control information, creative solutions, credit, partnering, or crucial resources.

5. You COMPARE APPLES TO ORANGES when you believe people should use your communicator style of Empathizer or Instigator, when in fact, they are your opposite communicator type who motivate and hear things differently.

6. UNPROVOKED CRITICISM occurs when someone you trust turns on you, dressing you down in public — a customer, boss, or coworker venting an angry spleen on you, leaving you upset and reeling.

7. MENTAL ANGUISHING clouds your mind with worries and woes and helps to spread the blues around at work, making you and others anxious.

8. By refusing to talk to people, or by holding back helpful critical feedback, you CUT OFF COMMUNICATIONS because you don’t want to hurt someone else or risk being shot down.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION ALWAYS LEADS THE PACK

Today companies everywhere realize that by using cutting-edge communication tools, they will have a greater edge over their competition. On what one thing does everyone agree? “If we can communicate better, our team will be able to effectively and creatively solve emerging problems, and our profits and team morale will grow.” Good teamwork begins with you and me…which means that you and I must first walk our respective talk.

WHO IS COMMUNICATIONS PSYCHOLOGIST DENNIS E. O’GRADY, PSY.D.

Dennis O’Grady is an effective communication keynote speaker and workshop leader who delivers corporate training which actually improves communication fast, from top to bottom. Dennis is the original developer of the powerful Talk to Me© effective communication system. You can experience the benefits of his communication system directly by interacting with the 12 dimensions of the 2 communicator types (and switch within the 4 talk lanes when one is closed) in his book by the same title. Talk to Me: Communication Moves To Get Along with Anyone is available at www.drogrady.com and Amazon.