21 Things You Can Do to Improve Your Team's Effectiveness

Imagine what your team would look like if you committed to enacting one small 1% improvement action each week for the next year. That 1% per week would result in a 67.7% improvement in your teams’ performance.

Below you will find a list of twenty-one simple things you could do to improve your teams’ skills, knowledge, and attitude over the next year. Look through the list and pick one to implement this week and start the journey to improved performance.

1. Do yourself a huge favour and go watch at least the first 20 minutes of the LinkedIn talk by Fred Kofman at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdMvWLARF1w and discover what your job really is. How you view your job will change the way you work with your team.
2. Approach a team leader you respect and ask them out for a coffee or online meeting and ask them what they do to lead such a great team, then just listen. Ask them if they would be willing to go out for a coffee every six weeks to discuss with them how you could improve as a team leader.
3. Go buy and read the book ‘The New One Minute Manager’ by Ken Blanchard. This easy to read parable is essential reading for anyone who manages people.
4. As a team watch and discuss an Ed Muzio video found at https://www.youtube.com/user/emuzio/videos. Ed produces short and helpful videos that make great conversation starters for a team exploring how they can work better together.
5. Complete a 7a disciplines assessment which you can get by asking for it in the comments section about this article.
6. Learn about the concept of Love Languages at https://www.5lovelanguages.com/. This is simply understanding how your team members feel appreciated. Each member will have a primary way of feeling valued and appreciated which fit into Gary Chapmans Five Love Languages. This is one of the most profound concepts I have every discovered, it could change your life.
7. Mindstorm your own list of twenty actions you could take to improve your team's performance and then act on one of them today. To learn how to Mindstorm check out https://www.creativethinkingwith.com/Mindstorming-20-ideas-method-solo-brainstorming.html.
8. Each week ask one team member out for a coffee or online catchup and just get to know them. Ask them questions and listen. Ask them about their hopes and dreams. Ask them for their ideas about how to improve the team. Listen for things that you can act on to help them succeed.
9. Never have a team meeting without a written timed agenda. How many meetings have you been to that wandered on and on? By having a written agenda with time frames next to each item you can ensure that you meetings stay on task and on time. My goal is to always finish earlier than promised. If the meeting is looking like going over time, then schedule another meeting. If you value people’s time and keep your promises, then people will come with more enthusiasm and energy to your meetings.
10. For your own professional development complete a Kolbe A index at https://www.kolbe.com/assessments/kolbe-a-index/. Even better get everyone of your team members to complete a Kolbe A index and then discuss how you can arrange your team tasks considering each person’s natural working style. Personally, I have found the investment in the profiles profoundly helpful in building a high-performance team.
11. Invest in a chocolate draw. Go round your team and ask them what kind of treats they like and then go out and buy a draw full of chocolate that they can raid when they are feeling like a boost. (Or if you are stuck online then maybe post out a special treat to one team member each week.) Whenever I visit my old workplaces, they invariable ask if I’ve come back to restock the chocolate draw.
12. Determine distinct roles for your team meetings and then rotate the roles. I prefer to have about five distinct roles in each team meeting which I briefly describe in a short memo I give to every new team member. We then rotate the roles. The roles could be: 'Time Keeper’, ‘Minute taker’, ‘Meeting Chairperson’, ‘Hospitality’, etc. Get creative but have roles that help your team meetings be fun, be effective, and be on time.
13. Greet your team members every morning. Too often people just arrive at the office and within minutes are frantically catching up on emails or running off to meetings. Your greatest asset in your organisation are the people in your team so take a few minutes to warmly greet each one by their name and notice if there is something you can connect with them about. For example, people appreciate if you notice a haircut, a new tie, or if they are looking tired and need to be shown some extra care and concern.
14. Only have a team meeting if there is a clear and specific outcome for the meeting. Don’t just have a meeting because it is in the calendar. It is better to cancel a meeting if there is no specific measurable outcome that makes use of people’s valuable time.
15. Have a stand-up meeting. A stand-up meeting is great if there is only one thing to discuss and you want people to be focused and quick.
16. It’s okay for the purpose of the meeting to be to just have some fun together. If the purpose is just to spend time as a team, then take the meeting off-site or in some way change the environment. This is good to do when celebrating a special achievement of a team member or of the team.
17. Read a book together. Find a book the team members would like to discuss such as ‘The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: An Illustrated Leadership Fable’ and have over a few months have the members read a chapter at a time and come prepared to discuss what they learnt at the next meeting.
18. Develop 90-day team goals. As a team decide on 3-5 specific goals for the next 90 days that align with the team purpose. Each meeting reviews these goals and align the meeting agenda to help the team agree on action steps that will move the team towards these outcomes. After 90 days set a new set of 90-day goals.
19. Make an effort to specifically thank at least one team member every meeting for something they have done. This can become an agenda item to help develop a culture of appreciation. Just make sure the appreciation is for a specific action. (To get the team used to this concept you might like to practice doing this one on one with team members in the weeks before you introduce it to the team.)
20. One of the great motivation myths is that people do great work if you praise them. The reality is that people feel great when they have achieved something which is then acknowledged. So, help team members be clear about what they are going to do and then praise them for acting towards that outcome.
21. Post a thankyou note. It is amazing how snail mail is appreciated in this age of email and texting. So, take a few minutes to write out and post to one of your team members a note of appreciation. To make it even better include a couple of movie tickets as a thank you for their efforts.