In 6 Keys To A Winning Team Part 1 we discussed the first two keys of Strong Leadership and Common Business Goals
Lets now look at Key points 3 and 4 out of my '6 Keys to a Winning Team'...
3. Rules of the Game.
Imagine if you can any sports team where the players (the team members) were not taught how to play the game properly and are not continually developed in order to improve. They do not know their defined positions within the team or what the responsibilities of those positions are, or what the overall rules of the game are that they are playing... Do you think that sports team would succeed?
Why then in my experience do many business owners and leaders do this very thing with their own teams in their businesses? Do you?
ActionTIPs:
- Individuals in a team can only take ownership and work as a team if they clearly understand their own and other team member's responsibilities as defined through job descriptions.
- Individuals can only truly contribute to the teams and business success when they are given the appropriate skills, proper procedures and support to complete the tasks defined by their responsibilities.
- Team members only know how to conduct themselves to the leaders satisfaction when we clearly set and reinforce our expectations as defined by the business culture, core purpose, core values, contracts and employees hand book, etc.
- As leaders our job is to provide a stable platform for everyone in our team to succeed as individuals in contribution to the teams success by defining our businesses 'Rules of the Game' and holding teams and individuals accountable to them.
4. Action Plan
A key element for any winning team is a strong action plan that is spelt out in clear and unambiguous terms to all members of the team. While the common business goals identify what the owners (business) ' want' to achieve, the action plan identifies how the goals' will' be achieved by breaking them into smaller goals or actions. A good action plan should be specific enough so that we know exactly what we are striving for, assign ownership of tasks, identify what resources are required, set timelines for when tasks should be completed, and provide measurement details of the current status of the tasks over the defined time periods. According to research a good action plan can increrase productivity and efficiency by 25% without increasing spending... Improved efficiency that results in more utilised capacity goes straight to the bottom line.
ActionTIP's
- Confirm each goal in our action plan is prioritised against achievement of our quarterly goals and 12 month common business goals or required in reaction to a pressing business need.
- Breaking down Goals into manageable Steps and indent each one as sub tasks in your action plan
- Lead by example and we will inspire Motivation and Commitment, which gives the team the push, desire, and resolve to complete goals.
- Ensure everyone understands the consequences of not achieving a particular goal. Commitment is what sets us on direct course to reach our goals and avoids costly negative consequences for failure.
- Reminders and Keeping on Track. We need some sort of system to keep us reminded and accountable. If an accountability system is not used then we are likely to lose sight and fail.
- Frequent Review and Re-assessment. This in itself forms part of your accountability system. The great thing about frequent review is that it forces us to make big decisions and determine priorities based on our constantly changing business environment.
In next weeks instalment we will pull all 6 Keys to winning team together.
