Team Building

Copyright 2019 by Roberta Cava

Team Building

Empowering a group to work honestly and affably with one another

Roberta Cava

Published by Cava Consulting

info@dealingwithdifficultpeople.info

www.dealingwithdifficultpeople.info

Smashwords Edition

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ISBN: 978-0-6485408-2-3

This book is focused towards those who must work in harmony with others and to be in sync with others. Easier said than done! We’ll discuss many ways you (the Team Leader) can make that happen.

You will learn about teamwork, leadership, delegation, motivation, problem solving, meetings, time and change management and interpersonal skills

Roberta Cava is the owner of Cava Consulting in Australia. She is the author of 38 books and will be writing more. 33 are non-fiction and 5 are fiction. Her book Dealing with Difficult People has been an international best-seller since 1990 with 24 publishers and in 17 languages.

BOOKS BY ROBERTA CAVA

Non-Fiction

Dealing with Difficult People (24 publishers – in 17 languages)

Dealing with Difficult Situations – at Work and at Home

Dealing with Difficult Spouses and Children

Dealing with Difficult Relatives and In-Laws

Dealing with Domestic Violence and Child Abuse

Dealing with School Bullying

Dealing with Workplace Bullying

Retirement Village Bullies

Keeping Our Children Safe

Just say no

What am I going to do with the rest of my life?

Interpersonal Communication at Work

Change? Not me!

Creative Problem-Solving & Decision-Making

Customer Service that Works

Team Building

Before tying the knot

How Women can advance in business

Survival Skills for Supervisors and Managers

Human Resources at its Best!

Human Resources Policies and Procedures - Australia

Employee Handbook

Easy Come – Hard to go – The Art of Hiring, Disciplining and Firing Employees

Time and Stress – Today’s silent killers

Take Command of your Future – Make things Happen

Belly Laughs for All! – Volumes 1 to 6

Wisdom of the World! The happy, sad and wise things in life!

Fiction

That Something Special

Something Missing

I can do it! The sky’s the limit

Trilogy: Life Gets Complicated

Life Goes On

Life Gets Better

TEAM BUILDING

Table of contents

Introduction

Chapter 1 – Teamwork

Questions

Team leader of former peers

Socialising with your new team

10 ways to better team building

Qualities of a good team member

Problem team members

Problems faced by team members

Getting commitment

Understanding team needs

Blocking behaviours

Steps to get people to act

Chapter 2 – Leadership

Leadership skills and traits

Use of leadership skills

Leading effective decision-making groups

Leadership styles

Theory Y vs Theory X

What is your leadership style?

Leadership behaviour

Alternative leadership approaches

Chapter 3 – Delegation

Delegating tasks to team members

Test yourself

Responsibility, authority and accountability

Delegation process

Rules of delegation

Delegation dos and don’ts

How much do you delegate?

Chapter 4 – Motivating your team

Some motivators are:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Common ways we see anger expressed at work

Keeping alive member’s desire to contribute

The productivity barometer

Obstacles holding members back

Chapter 5 – Problem Solving & Decision-Making

Three criteria for defining problems

Sample problem

Problem solving and decision-making guide

Dealing with your own problems

Dependency

Indecisiveness

Brainstorming

Tackling the wrong problem

Planning for problem solving

The importance of planning

Planning factors

Job skills inventory chart

Chapter 6 – Meetings

Conducting effective meetings

Dealing with problem participants at meetings

Always late

Procrastinates

Chairing a meeting

Chairperson’s responsibility

Preparing for a meeting

How to chair a meeting

Role of the team leader

Avoiding planning blunders

The use of questions at meetings

Types of meetings

Meeting traps

Chapter 7 – Time, Stress and Change

How to choose priorities

Bring forward file

The in-basket

Day Timers and to do lists

Swiss Cheese approach

Complex long-term assignments

Solutions to time wasters

How to manage interruptions

How to prevent interruptions

More ways to prevent interruptions

Are you a workaholic?

How can we tell if others are under too much pressure?

What is burnout?

Chapter 8 - Communicating with others

What kind of person are you?

Personality types

How these personalities react to change

How to work with other personality types

Introvert & extrovert personality types

Chapter 9 – More Communication Skills

Paraphrasing

Using paraphrasing in training others

Sensory language

Feedback

Examples of how to use feedback

Process of feedback

Feedback steps

Using feedback with very difficult people

Listening

Kinds of bad listeners

Blocks to effective listening

How do you rate as a listener?

How to improve your listening skills

Qualities of a good listener

Speaking

How do you rate as a speaker?

Reasons why you may not be a good speaker

Understanding non-verbal signals

Lying

Space bubbles

Territorial supremacy

Eye contact

Clear communication

Arguments

The way to win arguments

How to negotiate to obtain what you want

Avoiding ambiguous messages

Different interpretation of words

Male and female interpretations

Training of others

Chapter 10 – Behaviour

Approaches to conflict resolution

6 Styles of behaviour and their effects

How passive/aggressive/assertive people feel about

Themselves

Consequences of these behavioural styles

Who wins?

Coping strategy

Conclusion

Back to Top

INTRODUCTION

This book is geared mainly towards those who must work in harmony with others and to be in sync with others. Easier said than done! We’ll discuss many ways you (the Team Leader) can make that happen.

You will learn about teamwork, leadership, delegation, motivation, meetings, time, stress, change and communication skills. You will also learn more about your behaviour and that of others. Are you a workaholic? Or is one of your team a workaholic?

Learn about these areas of team building.

Back to Top

CHAPTER ONE

TEAMWORK

Teamwork is a group of people working honestly

and affably with one another.

Teamwork must be the expectation for employees’ conduct. Productivity and profit-ability are closely tied to how employees work together, and companies invest millions of dollars in the latest training programs on teamwork. Employees who work together frequently and intensely – or who should – need to see the world in somewhat similar ways. They need to view themselves as important parts of an important group, as cogs in a gear, and they need to like and trust each other.

Fun is essential to both individual and group strength and health, and it’s possible to work at team building while enjoying it. Because having fun together is one of the most effective ways of building bridges and bonds between people, there are almost as many ways of having fun as there are different groups.

Sharing meals together is one of the most common ways different groups enjoy time together. It includes getting the group together in a lunchroom and arranging special meal times. Sharing meals together is a traditional team-building effort that goes back to the frontier days, when sharing meagre foodstuffs with others, was a way to show trust and care for the other person. It still works that way today.

Laughter is another team builder that builds understanding and empathy - essential ingredients to group cohesiveness. Shared laughter and team symbols are signs of oneness. For example: daily calendars with humourous stories, pictures or words hung on the walls of the entrance hall or over the time clock. Little things provide the laughter that permit people to enjoy their time together. Jokes that are NOT at the expense of one person, race, sex or ethnic group can be shared to promote healthy, happy laughter.

Authentic praise given for a job well done, especially when given in public and in writing, can raise the self-esteem of all present. Special recognition for birthdays by small shifts or the team’s guest at lunch, is one way to distribute positive strokes at low cost and even lower risk.

Company athletic teams that include all employees is a good team-builder. The aim of the teams is not to win - but to bond the group. Along with company barbecues, these can be happy non-stressful events.

Organize a ceremony announcing the successful introduction of a new product or effort that was the result of a team effort and identify the team of the month.

Rotating important and unimportant responsibilities as well as leadership roles on a regular basis convinces teammates that each person is an important member of the group.

Physical proximity is an important ingredient to teamwork, yet if it’s impossible for work stations to be located adjacent to one another, a team planning room can be arranged. Team building and attrition work against each other. Relationships and productivity respond positively to long-term interpersonal relationships and each suffers when effectively working groups are split up. The promise of performance is important; no amount of money or time spent on formal team-building efforts make up for shredding interpersonal fibres by upsetting and separating the team too often.

For compatibility, it’s critical to involve team members in the recruitment and selection process of new members. Likewise, warm welcomes and effective induction of new members hastens their commitment to the team.

Questions:

1. What is a team leader’s main function?

You have probably given a long paragraph describing all the things that team leaders do, but you might have missed the most important function which is:

To provide all the training and guidance employees need to do a good job.

2. What is an employee’s main function?

Again, you might give a long paragraph, but an employee’s main function is:

To make their team leaders look good!

Many team leaders make it very hard for other team members to make them look good.

How to motivate your staff to do a good job

Employees act and are stimulated to do good work if we understand what motivates workers in different age brackets.

The Silent Generation

Born 1925-1946 – the ‘radio’ generation.

Recognition Strategies:

Individual rewards including certificates, plaques, or badges, honour board.

Group rewards including morning teas or social get-togethers.

Important to use smile and personal greeting.

Willing to wait for rewards.

Recognise through greater responsibility in role (e.g. coordinator, training presenter).

Value: Hard Work

Views on Authority: Respect authority and will rarely challenge it, even though it may frustrate them.

Autonomy: Conforms and plays by the rules; limited if any questioning of the rules. Can live with limited choices.

Organisation preference: Generally, have faith in and support mainstream organisations. Support causes and children/poverty in overseas countries. Give time and money

Identity: Proud of achievements; honour and integrity valued. Interest in family and community.

Sense of obligation: Outward face to other matters, support for community activities, external focus.

Technology: Generally wary of technology; tentatively embracing it and safer if people are involved. Some opt out as being ‘too old’ to learn about new technology.

View of others: Pre-judge Boomers as self-oriented.

Time: Patience for quality outcomes and see patience as having its own reward. Willing to delay gratification. Feel they have time.

Work: High degree of loyalty; duty before pleasure. Will maintain dedication to a job once they accept it.

Family: Desire stability. Preservation of family and community values are to be respected.

Learning: Need a learning environment that is structured and stress-free. Require full orientation and motivation to learn when it is for the good of the organisation.

The Baby Boomers

Born 1946-1964 – the ‘television’ generation.

Recognition Strategies:

Recognise individuality through newspaper or newsletter article.

Reward with greater autonomy and responsibility.

Give opportunities to generate own roles after specified time.

Value: Loyalty

Views on Authority: Are willing to challenge the status quo. Some concern for how this is done. Want accountability in others.

Autonomy: Personal freedom and self-expression are important. Want choices. Many are used to authority.

Organisation preference: Support organisations they can trust. Interest in diversity/inequality issues. May be juggling time and money and are interested in alternative ways of contributing. Shifting lifestyle choices with impending retirement.

Identity: They have a general sense of optimism. Have both a serious hardworking side and a frivolous, indulgent side. Want personal happiness and internal fulfilment.

Sense of obligation: Obligation and responsibility to self, personal development and self-esteem; and nurturing are important.

Technology: Difficulty adapting to constantly changing technology. Recognise the value of technology but need good support and are constantly in learning mode.

View of others: See the Silent Generation as limited in views and experiences. Often perceive Gen X’ers as negative but interact well with energetic Y’s.

Time: Time is precious, highly valued and in short supply. They seek quick outcomes or milestones. Tend to be impatient when they don’t know if progress is being made.

Work: Known for overworking to climb the corporate ladder. Increasing need for personal satisfaction. They’re troubled by rapid change and will likely change their career. Loyalty to work is questioned. Wonder if company is loyal to them.

Family: Fragmented families through separation, divorce and re-defined family situations. Both parents working and struggle to keep family together.

Learning: Need a learning environment that is interactive. They respond well to brainstorming and group discussions.

Generation X:

Born 1964-1980 – the ‘computer’ generation.

Recognition Strategies:

Use rewards that help with work/life balance (e.g. massages, tickets to show, pot plant).

Rewards that could help with career advancement or returning to the workforce.

Personalised approach including card, mug, or letter of appreciation.

Value: Work-life balance.

Views on Authority: Tend to mistrust authority, cynical of authority and large organisations. Authority is to self and peers. They expect accountability from others.

Autonomy: The chance to make choices is expected. They’re highly self-reliant.

Organisation preference: Have more global interests, humanitarian and social justice causes. Interested in innovation and pragmatism, and less interested in mainstream organisations.

Identity: Cynical yet pragmatic. Perceive themselves to be different from other generations especially parents.

Sense of obligation: Detached from self-absorption of both the Boomers and Gen Y; but are interested in doing things that work for them and align with their values. Get on with it and get over it attitude.

Technology: They’re technologically savvy. Adapt quickly to change when it brings convenience. Boundaries blurred between actual and virtual experience.

View of others: They see Boomers as inflexible to change. They respect the lessons to be learned from the Silent Generation but are less patient with the ‘cut through’ approach of Y’s.

Time: Time is highly valued, and convenience is a priority. Innovative shortcuts and efficiency are important They’re attracted to pragmatic approaches.

Work: ‘Work to live’ attitude. Open to contracts and want clear expectations from employers. They feel responsible for own satisfaction and likely will change careers. Don’t expect loyalty.

Family: Single parent, blended family, sole living are popular options. Alternatively, full-time parenting (that they feel