You are new to Internet Marketing, you join one Affiliate programs, you have your promotion tips, marketing tips, also the affiliate will provide you with the commission plan, and they will give you a personal website just like they are. Now the big question is "Where am I heading??? "
"People already know how to heading no where" what you need is a "team to guide you to heading somewhere"
"Why TEAM Has a 4 figure income"
1. You will not working alone
2. Power of testimonials
3. Do's and dont's
4. Friend's all around the world
5. Up's and down's
1. You will not working alone
How does it feels when you work as a team and achieved your goals with Friends that helps you, you can use the power of mailing list by Yahoo Groups to create your own personal team within your business to provide your team with
A. The newest Information within your Affiliate
B. Tips and Tricks to boost your traffics
C. You can help each other, between your sponsors and your downline to share what problems you have while setting up your business.
2. Power of Testimonials
Increase your "Closing Ratio" by giving your prospects testimonials from other members in your team. They can provide your prospects with the truth. If they don't trust you, perhaps they will trust your upline, or your sidelines, or even tagging your prospect by phone, if they are on the same country. This will BOOST your prospect's trust ! No question asked.
3. Do's and Dont's
Try to consulting with other members about your promotion tools, what works and what doesn't
A. Hey i've tested that classified's,
B. It doesn't works,
C. They cost to much,i've tried it
D. This classified is good
E. Try this it work
4. Friends all around the world
Do you know how much does it cost spending your money to sleep at "Hotel" while you are travelling to other countries. You can save big bucks, also when you have a prospect living near your friends, a few phone call from your friends might help your prospects to make up their mind. Also it can save you a lot of money.
5. Share your UP's and Down's
Hey, that's what friends are for :-)
Jumat, 11 Juli 2008
5 Reason Why Team Has A 4 Figure Income
Team Building Celebration Plan -- Perfect For Any Time of Year
When was your last team celebration? Have you been way too busy to bother? Sometimes we get so caught up in day-to-day work that we don't take the time to step back and celebrate success. Some teams may even consider team celebrations as "silly."
It's critical to celebrate success if you want your team to maintain their high performance. Successes are the "motivating fuel" that keeps all of us pushing toward achieving the "bigger and better" goals that we set.
What types of team interaction and discussions normally occur on a day-to-day basis with your team? If you're like most businesses, it's along the lines of the following:
- What's going wrong with the current project.
- Recovering from changes that impact your product or service schedule negatively.
- How to satisfy a disgruntled customer.
If all of your team interactions focus on what's wrong with your business, what happens over time? Team members lose sight of the positive things they do. This can have a demoralizing effect on a team and your business.
Team celebrations help a team bond together. This helps the members maintain focus on their common goals and direction. And, celebrations often help team members deal with stressful changes and prevent "burn-out." They provide revitalization for the team.
Has your team celebrated any successes lately? What did they celebrate? How did they celebrate? For some teams, it's necessary to add structure to the celebration process to ensure that they make the time. To do this, use our three-step process:
1. Identify What To Celebrate
2. Determine How To Celebrate
3. Create A Celebration Action Plan
1. Identify What To Celebrate
It's important to determine what events or activities the team should celebrate. These can be major events or events that help the team reach a milestone. Get your team together and brainstorm a list. Your list might look like the list below.
- Identifying and solving a major roadblock (e.g., customer or quality related issue).
- Taking on added responsibility.
- Adding new team members.
- Dealing with a project crisis.
With the group together, determine the activities your team wants to celebrate.
2. Determine How To Celebrate
Next, identify how you could celebrate. Again, with your team together, brainstorm some celebration activities. These don't have to be major. They could be fun stress relievers or activities that help make your team more visible to upper management. Some ideas are included below:
- Create a presentation for upper management highlighting the team's achievement. Present with all team members in attendance.
- Have the entire team meet with a customer during an on-site visit.
- Invite a senior manager to your team meeting.
- Bring snacks to a team meeting.
- Put congratulatory posters on the wall.
Determine how your team would like to celebrate. Remember, team celebrations don't have to be expensive, time consuming, or difficult to plan. Team celebrations can be formal or impromptu. The key of the team celebration is that it must be sincere.
3. Create A Celebration Action Plan
Create a celebration action plan for the team for (at least) the next six-month time frame. Once the action plan is created, have your team plan the first celebration that will occur in the coming months. This gives them something to look forward to while accomplishing team objectives.
It will take a little effort on your team's part to complete this process, but the pay back in productivity will be worth it. Get going. It's time to celebrate!
By Denise O'Berry
5 Reason Why Team Has A 4 Figure Income
You are new to Internet Marketing, you join one Affiliate programs, you have your promotion tips, marketing tips, also the affiliate will provide you with the commission plan, and they will give you a personal website just like they are. Now the big question is "Where am I heading??? "
"People already know how to heading no where" what you need is a "team to guide you to heading somewhere"
"Why TEAM Has a 4 figure income"
1. You will not working alone
2. Power of testimonials
3. Do's and dont's
4. Friend's all around the world
5. Up's and down's
1. You will not working alone
How does it feels when you work as a team and achieved your goals with Friends that helps you, you can use the power of mailing list by Yahoo Groups to create your own personal team within your business to provide your team with
A. The newest Information within your Affiliate
B. Tips and Tricks to boost your traffics
C. You can help each other, between your sponsors and your downline to share what problems you have while setting up your business.
2. Power of Testimonials
Increase your "Closing Ratio" by giving your prospects testimonials from other members in your team. They can provide your prospects with the truth. If they don't trust you, perhaps they will trust your upline, or your sidelines, or even tagging your prospect by phone, if they are on the same country. This will BOOST your prospect's trust ! No question asked.
3. Do's and Dont's
Try to consulting with other members about your promotion tools, what works and what doesn't
A. Hey i've tested that classified's,
B. It doesn't works,
C. They cost to much,i've tried it
D. This classified is good
E. Try this it work
4. Friends all around the world
Do you know how much does it cost spending your money to sleep at "Hotel" while you are travelling to other countries. You can save big bucks, also when you have a prospect living near your friends, a few phone call from your friends might help your prospects to make up their mind. Also it can save you a lot of money.
5. Share your UP's and Down's
Hey, that's what friends are for :-)
How To Encourage Ideas From Your Team At Meetings
You're at a meeting with key staff. You want some new ideas to address the topic. Looking around at this group of creative, ambitious, bright people, you say, "Let's get some fresh ideas on this. Who's got something?"
Suddenly,you feel like the high-school teacher who has asked a question about the homework no one did. People find their notepads fascinating, others fumble in their briefcases muttering things no one can hear, still others stare into space seeming lost in thought. No one is looking at you.
What's going on?
There are many reasons for this unproductive response to your query. In my many years of working with groups,I've found the reason most often is one of these:
1. People are afraid of looking like idiots in front of bosses and peers.
2. They don't entirely understand the question or the topic itself.
3. They worry their ideas are not "fresh" enough or "new" enough for you and offering them will subject them to criticism (and might even show up on their performance review).
4. They've seen others who gave ideas be attacked and embarrassed and don't want to join that elite club.
5. They didn't realize this was to be an interactive discussion and were thinking about other work and waiting for the meeting to end. They're now caught unprepared.
6. Caught off-guard, their minds are blank.
What can you do to change this situation?
If you could re-do the meeting from the start, you might send out an agenda and indicate on it or the cover note that you'd like people to bring ideas with them on,for example,topic #2. Thus,you'd give the group advance notice and they can consider the task ahead of time. Or at the start of the discussion, when you're explaining why this topic is important and how the company got to this point, you could warn the team that you'll be asking for ideas after sharing information. Thus, they'll gear up their listening and be ready with some ideas when the time comes.
So,that's what you'll do next time. But now, here you are, trying to make eye contact with your team and wondering what happened to all the bright-eyed thinkers.
Creativity requires two important things: a safe climate and good thinking. People may have insightful and innovative ideas but if the perceived risk of offering them is high, those ideas will never see the light of day. There is the rare chance that you are simply hiring the wrong people - but that's another issue! So let's examine the first, far more common, situation.
Why might employees perceive offering ideas to be risky? Look around your company. Are people rewarded who try new things? Are mistakes severely punished? When people make suggestions that seem patently impossible, are they met with groans or rolling eyes? In meetings, like the one you're in, do ideas get ignored, met with silence, discounted? Do status and hierarchy games get played where the lower level people are not heard? Are ideas stolen and presented later as someone else's?
As the start of this meeting, you can manage the climate. Here are seven things you can do to encourage and elicit ideas:
1. Say something encouraging like, "Let's get a range of ideas up here on the flipchart. All ideas are good ideas and I'd like you all to hold off on negative comments or judgments. Later on, we'll select from the big list."
2. Give a brief summary of the topic (again, if necessary) not only to remind them of the situation but also to give them time to think.
3. Welcome each and every idea, even if it seems you've heard it many times before. Your behavior will be closely watched and how you treat ideas will invite more or shut them off.
4. Either you or someone else write up the ideas (on a flipchart if possible) in the words of the giver. This gives encouragement and assurance that their idea is valuable.
5. Notice if ideas are coming from only a few people. Some individuals find the hurly-burly of a fast-paced meeting to be uncomfortable. Consider having the group take a minute or two to write down some ideas. Then, first ask for people to talk who haven't yet had a chance. The quieter, more introspective people will appreciate this open invitation.
6. Rather than evaluate each idea as it is offered, add it to the list for later selection. You'll have a wide mix of ideas and can then choose among them for intriguing ones that could benefit from further development.
7. Be patient. It's rare that brilliant ideas emerge right away. In fact, many breakthroughs come from the combination of smaller ideas. Remember that people often give "safe" ideas first and only offer the more creative ones when they've gauged the climate to be open-minded.
So, that's what you can do this time. And use these ideas for next time, so you won't get the "caught in the headlights" look. It's really simple, if you're willing to make the effort. Your staff will thank you for it.
Peg Kelley, MBA
Powered by Qumana
3 Steps To Successfully Build A Team In Any Program
Any x by y matrix plan has one big risk... but also one big advantage.
The biggest risk: People in your downline might think they don't have to promote and just wait for your spillover.
The biggest advantage: Still, it's a great way to build a deep team quick... if you and the people in your team understand that they shouldn't just sit and wait for it to happen.
The following 3 steps you need to follow and teach to build a successful team:
1. Find 2 people... It doesn't really matter if it's e.g. a 2x15 forced matrix or wider. If the matrix is wider than 2, or even unlimite^d wide, I recommend to start with 2 and then go wider when your team has been fully build at least 4 levels deep.
2. Next build a relationship with them, teach them this 3 easy steps and motivate them until they find 2 people on their own.
3. Then motivate your 2 people to motivate their 2 people to also find 2 people ... etc.
I believe this is a much better way to build a successful team. And not to mass promote and hope that a few in the masses you sponsor build a team on their own... but instead motivate to motivate to build the team... all the way down.
If you mass promote... you might be able to initially build a big downline... but since there will be no relationship, it will fall apart fast as well.
If you or somebody in your team has a big list of people to email to, then you or those people could send a message to all, telling them that you are looking for 2 leaders only. Ask them to email you back and tell you "why" you should choose them. Then pick the 2 best ones... and move one with step 2 above.
Also if a downline member is struggling... and no matter how hard he or she tries, he or she is not able to find two on their own... e.g. due to lack of people he or she knows... then you could do such a mailing on their behalf.
The primary approach that works best is to talk via chat first with the people you know already. Those, that we already have a relationship with.
If that doesn't generate your 2 leaders... then you could use the mailing approach looking for two leaders as I described before.
But what should you tell people during the chat or in the email message you write to find your two leaders?
This is the point where you need to do your homework. Look very closely at the program for which you want to build a successful team for. Answer yourself the following questions:
1. What is the product or service that this program sells?
2. What main benefits does the product or service provide the customer with?
3. What makes the product or service better then those offered by the competition?
4. How much does the product or service cost?
5. How does the products compensation plan work?
6. What is necessary to break even and get into profit?
You noticed that I mentioned everything related to money at the end? Yes, I did order the above list by priority on purpose.
When you answer yourself those questions, keep always in mind to answer to most elementary question everybody has... which is:
What is in it for me? Also often called WIIFM. Once you learn to answer that question, you will be easily able to find your two leaders.
BTW... there is a shortcut to your homework assignment. :)
Ask your sponsor to answer the six questions above... then check an confirm those answers are accurate and match your own opinion about the program. This can save you time and strengthen the relationship with your own sponsor as you work with him together to answer them.
Tip: There are millions of programs out there on the net and many people, including me, fall easily prey to start joining too many at once. The grass always seems to look greener on the other side. ;)
I live now by the following rule... Earn with two programs (meaning: be in profit) before you even consider to join one new one. And I recommend that you too do that.
By Frank Bauer
12 Tips and Reminders for Team Members To Enjoy Their Team Experiences More
12 Tips and Reminders for Team Members To Enjoy Their Team Experiences More
Warning: The ideas that follow work. Don't be fooled by their simplicity. For experienced team members and team leaders some of these tips may seem obvious. Sometimes however it is the obvious things we forget about or don't apply. As you read the list think about your past experiences and determine which of these ideas would have made your team experiences more effective and productive.
1. Know your roles, purpose, boundaries and resources. Teams need to first know their purpose, the role of each team member, what they are responsible for (and what is outside their scope) and what resources they have at their disposal. Once they know these things they need to remember them! Team Leaders can help by setting a clear purpose up front. The team can build processes to keep their roles and scope in focus. And as a team progresses, the resources required may change. Teams should try to succeed with their original resources, but should engage the team leader to provide additional resources when needed.
2. Assume the best about people. People on teams will do and say things you don't understand or agree with. Always start from an assumption that their motives are team-based and their goals are consistent with team goals. Too often a comment or action will be misinterpreted leading to rifts, factions and dysfunctional behaviors. If you don't understand a person's perspective or comments, ask them for clarification rather than making your own assumptions based on your biases.
3. Be patient and caring. Teams sometimes need time to get going or get unstuck. As a team leader or any member of the team, be patient. Individual members of the team might not get on board with an idea or decision as rapidly as you so be patient and give them some time.
4. Maintain a sense of urgency. Patience is important, but teams also need to maintain a sense of urgency. Too often teams get bogged down in the process, spend too long on small points, or languish for any number of other reasons. Give the team time to work things out, but always keep the timeline in mind - and move towards completion.
5. Take time to plan your meetings. Want the best way to increase the productivity of your team? Spend more time planning your meetings. Meetings cost time, money and emotional and physical energy. Improve the return on that investment by having clear objectives and plans for every meeting - and by letting everyone see that plan (agenda) before the meeting so they can be prepared to succeed.
6. Be willing to ask for and accept help. Being on a team means being a part of the team. Be willing to ask for help on a particular task or decision. When help is offered don't be proud - let people help. It will build relationships and help the team succeed more quickly.
7. Share. Your ideas, your thoughts, your experiences. Sharing these things are critical to a team developing synergy. Without the willingness to share, a team is just a collection of individuals. And as the work is completed, be willing to share the accolades and success as well.
8. Be willing to give feedback. Sometimes people will do something that bothers you or other team members. Be willing to give the person feedback on their behaviors. Equally important, when people shine or have done something very valuable, let them know that too! Effective timely feedback helps a team avoid breakdowns and provides the information needed for continuous improvement.
9. Fix the problem, not the blame. Problems will occur. Use them as a way to assess progress and as an opportunity for learning, rather than as a chance to assign blame. After learning what can be learned, let the situation go and focus the team's energies forward, not on the problem or issue.
10. Involve the right people at the right times. Sometimes teams need outside help and expertise. Go get it! Get the right people involved to make decisions and the right people involved to implement those decisions.
11. Keep the big picture in view. Teams often get lost in procedures, small problems or on any other sort of "rabbit trail". Don't lose track of the big picture. Remember the goals and purposes for the team and continue to bring yourself and the team back to those purposes. Keeping the big picture in view will smooth out many of the bumps in a team's road and reduce the time and effort required to reach success.
12. Be proactive. These tips are for team leaders but not just for team leaders. Everyone on a team has a responsibility for team success. Be willing to ask the hard question, encourage the team to have better meeting planning, give the feedback and more. Highly effective teams are made up of highly effective, proactive team members.
As I mentioned at the top of this article, think about which of these tips you could apply with the greatest immediate impact. Resolve to take the appropriate action based on that determination and you will be taking positive step towards more effective teamwork.
By Kevin Eikenberry
7 Key Dimensions of High Performance Teams
7 Key Dimensions of High Performance Teams
We can always look at the behaviors and skills of team leaders and team members in analyzing team performance and success, but it is also instructive to look at the overall team as well. The list of attributes that follows describes team units that are highly productive and successful. You can use this list as a set of criteria by which you can judge your own team.
Commitment - Team members see themselves belonging to the team. They are committed to group goals above and beyond their personal goals and agendas.
Trust - Team members have faith in each other to honor commitments, maintain confidences, support each other and generally behave predictably and consistently.
Purpose - The team understands how it fits into the overall business of the organization. Team members know their roles, feel a sense of ownership, and can see how they personally, and as a team, make a difference.
Communication - Effective teams communicate effectively and frequently with each other and also communicate clearly and consistently with people outside the team about team activities. Effective internal communication allows these teams to make balanced decisions, handle conflict constructively and provide each other valuable feedback.
Involvement - Everyone has a role on the team. Despite differences in roles, perspectives and experience, team members feel a sense of partnership with each other. Contributions are respected and expected. True consensus is reached when appropriate.
Process Orientation - High performing teams have a large number of process tools they can use when needed. Process tools would include: problem solving tools, planning techniques, regular meetings, agendas, and successful ways of dealing with problems, behavioral agreements, and ways to improve those processes within the team.
Continuous Improvement - The team understands the importance of continuous improvement, has the tools, knowledge and time at their disposal to make Continuous Improvement really happen. All improvement efforts are done in support of the organization's goals and objectives.
If you feel a team is ready for such a discussion, pull out this list of attributes and have a team discussion on how well people feel their team is doing on each of these dimensions, the discussion can be enlightening and help the team move its performance to even higher levels.
By Kevin Eikenberry.
Station Teams: Assembly Required
Too often teams aren't assembled. They just happen. A project comes along and a team is assigned to work it. The group gathers and attempts to figure out a solution, but trouble starts brewing almost at once. Only some of the people do any work. Some people don't get along. Meetings are frequent and mind numbing. No one is quite sure what the assignment actually is.
I call well-assembled teams Station Teams. Station teams are based on what we know to be true about people and organizations, and are aligned with the principles of WYSINWYG (what you see is never what you get), balance and simplicity. The constituent parts of station team assembly are size, civics, and work. Each of the parts is important in its own right, but taken together, they provide for continuous and effective team operation. Their assembly optimizes the chances for success.
When it comes to teams, size does matter. By definition it takes at least two people to make a team - there is no upper limit. But studies have consistently shown that performance is directly related to team size. With over forty years of research supporting the contention, we know that team size optimizes at five members. Beyond this point, productivity plateaus between six and nine members. With more than nine members there is a distinct productivity loss. The implication is obvious - keep teams small.
A team is primarily a social unit, and as such requires liberal applications of civility in order to thrive. This entails demonstrating respect for others, exercising courtesy and acting politely. It means behaving with integrity and putting the needs of the many above your own. When exercised, civility grows strong teams that are highly resilient. It produces long lasting loyalties, builds confidence and super charges productivity. Nothing, however, undermines a team faster than a lack of civility among its members. Such a lack has a devastating and corrosive effect. It must never be permitted to take root.
People usually know what is socially required. To be sure, most employers have policies regarding employee conduct, but few of these deals with subjects such as being "nice" to one another. Yet, being "nice" is one of those low cost, high payback behaviors.
We're right sized, have great attitudes and everyone is behaving well. Now what? What exactly do teams do? Teams gather data and make decisions about planning, developing and operating projects or tasks. The type of data and sophistication of the decision will largely determine how the team is assembled. Simply put, different types of work will require different types of teams.
As it relates to the business of team work, data gathering and decision making exist on a single continuum. At one end of this continuum is factual data gathering and at the other end is subjective decision-making. Remember that this continuum represents types of work to be accomplished. The type of work will determine the type of team required to get the job done.
That's a very brief look at team assembly. Remember that the care with which team makers and leaders assemble the team will directly impact the team's success.
By George Ebert
Putting the I in Team
This sports cliche is a memorable phrase that reminds people that team success is more important than individual glory. In that sense it is wonderful and is as true for business teams as it is for sports teams. The phrase, however, overlooks the role of the individual in making the team stronger.
To encourage team development, organizations use teambuilding events. Many of these events are based on forced interaction in a fun metaphorical environment - the 'shared experience'. Some examples of this are rope courses, rowing, paintball, and Monte Carlo nights. While these events are fun and may have some benefit, they do not necessarily teach the individual skills that lead to stronger teams. These skills are confidence, trust, and control-sharing. When developed, these skills allow the free flow of ideas and effective interactions that are the foundation of a strong team. Rather than a simple shared experience, the key to a good teambuilding event is teaching members these three core skills.
The first personal skill to develop is confidence, or personal power. Personal power is essentially a person's ability to overcome problems and maximize their effectiveness. Personal power leads to confidence because once you feel empowered, you feel confident to take on challenges at work (and life, for that matter). This is important in a team sense because strong teams must be composed of strong individuals. The saying, 'a chain is only as strong as its weakest link,' holds true. In a teamwork sense, confidence's real importance is in how it supports and allows the next two skills to develop.
The second personal skill to develop is trust. Trust usually develops over time, but having the proper attitude of trust can help members bypass months and even years of 'getting to know each other.' The key to this attitude is opening up to others, not because you are confident in their abilities, but because you are confident in your own. This is where the first skill, confidence, becomes so important. The two main reasons I might not trust others are the fear of their doing something inadequate or unexpected, and the fear of their ignoring or criticizing my ideas. When I am confident in myself I know that no matter what surprises people throw at me I'll be able to handle them effectively. I will also not be bothered by other people's criticism. Therefore, my confidence allows me to take the chance to open up, contribute, and trust others.
Traditional team building events address the concept of trust, but usually do it in a way that does not translate well to a professional environment. Consider a rope course exercise where one member climbs high up while other members support and anchor the ropes. There are many people that I would trust to hold one end of a rope for me so that I did not fall to my death. I would not trust all of those people to listen to and respect ideas that I had in the office place. One form of trust does not imply another. To be effective, any trust exercise must relate to communication and respect in a similar environment to work.
Trust and confidence are vital to supporting the third core skill for effective teams, control-sharing. If the premise behind teamwork is synergy (the whole is greater than the sum of its parts) then control is at the heart of why some teams work well together while others flounder. Two people working alone will come up with two separate sets of ideas. Put them together, and some new ideas will emerge after one person hears something that the other person says. As a result, you get a third set of ideas that neither person would have come up with alone. The only way to find that third set of ideas is for each person to let go of his original ideas. If either person is unwilling to do this, then he will never explore them new ideas and discover that critical third set.
People like to be in control. Willingly relinquishing control is a scary thing, but a person must do this to let go of an idea - give up the control he has by virtue of the fact that it is his idea. This is where trust and confidence come into play. For me to give up control to you, I need to trust you to do something good with that control and I need to believe that I have the resources to contribute and follow along with the new ideas.
Look at a 'shared experience' teambuilding event where participants must work together to achieve a goal (build a pyramid, vote together, pass something down a line, etc). Even if the game is designed so that each member must contribute, one or two 'Alpha' personalities usually take charge and dictate how the task should be done. Everyone participates (kind of), has fun (sort of), and learns that they can work together (maybe). They do not, however, learn the personal skills that will allow them to maximize their teamwork back at work.
The beauty of the three skills I have addressed is that if a company has two groups, both filled with members who possess these skills, then members can switch teams without a large loss in the team feel. Because all three of these skills are personal and individual, a new team will not need to go through a shared experience to trust each other and work together. They will naturally do it out of the gate.
This article is not intended as an attack on traditional team building programs. Just keep in mind that, regardless of what the actual event is, if these three core skills are not being addressed, it is highly likely that the lessons taught at the event will have little impact in the workplace.
BY Avish Parashar
The Top Ten Methods to Create a Successful Work Team
Teams are often useful in situations where the task cannot be completed individually or if the task requires working interdependently. However, a successful team requires thought and planning. Too often, a group of individuals is simply thrown together, given a mandate, "marching orders" and then told, "Now go make us proud!"
To create an effective work team, defined outcomes, common goals and correct skills are keys to success. Here are ten methods to create a successful work team.
1. Create a common, shared (team) goal.
There must be a central focus that the team is moving towards and it must also include a strong task orientation that translates into each person knowing how to move towards that goal.
2. Have measurable outcomes.
Team execution is usually more effective if you can measure what the team produces. Standards of excellence should be established so that the team understands what the target is and ongoing measurement (milestones) towards the desired outcome should also be implemented.
3. Promote interdependency.
Each person needs to know what he or she is going to contribute and also how what they contribute fits into the "big picture". Discourage personal (individual) competition in favor of the team's agenda and purpose.
4. Help the team to understand and appreciate differences.
Teamwork is an individual skill and each individual brings unique talent, value, communication needs, strengths and limitations to the team. Building an effective, unified team requires each person first understands their own "style" and is then able to recognize and appreciate the "styles" of others.
5. Make sure team members have the right skills.
Technical (hard) skills as well as interpersonal, problem solving (soft) skills are equally important to the team's success. Don't neglect one for the other. Discover where the needs are and then provide the right training to meet those skill needs.
6. Train and then follow up on training.
Long-term retention of newly learned training skills requires ongoing coaching and assistance from immediate supervisors and coaches. Frequent inquiries into how recently trained team members are progressing and feedback will help them continue practicing what they have learned.
7. Spell out lines of communication.
It's important to know how to communicate with one another as well as the "flow" of communication.
8. Continually stress the team's purpose.
It may seem simplistic, but frequently reminding team members of the "what" and the "why" is critical to ensuring the vision and mission stay fresh and that the team remains focused on the desired outcome. Revisit the team's mission as well as the desired outcome often.
9. Provide detailed agendas for team meetings.
Meetings are not always the most effective or efficient use of the team's time, but if a meeting is necessary, make sure it is structured so that the time is well spent. Outcome agendas are particularly effective. More than simply a list of items to be discussed, these will spell out exactly what outcomes will occur during and following the meeting.
10. Be a model.
People will respond according to the actions - not the words of their leaders. If you want effective teamwork, model it first and foremost. Performance advisor and author, Darcy Hitchcock, puts it this way: "employees are professional 'boss watchers'. That is, what managers say means nothing unless their actions model what they say." Leading is the act of influencing others to act, which is difficult if you have one set of standards for yourself and another for everybody else.
By Monty J. Sharp