How's Your Teamwork: Tepid or Torrid?

The T.E.A.M. acronym abounds in companies today. "Together, everyone achieves more" is a meaningless mantra. Here's the evidence: the world economy is limping along, and employee engagement is at all time lows. With their tepid teamwork, companies and managers are leaving significant productivity, quality, service, sales and creativity on the table.

For example, one large manufacturing company had this T.E.A.M slogan as part of its corporate values. As business slowed, the company decided not to invest more in its people to improve bottom-line results. Instead it laid off some and cut expenses, to reduce cost. Their goal was to shore up the stock price for Wall Street. They didn't really value the team.

Contrast that with one of our clients who won the JD Power Award for service. All employees participated in company meetings to give input to management for service improvement. Ongoing training was initiated for managers and employees. Twenty-one action teams were implemented throughout the organization to make positive changes. Their torrid teamwork action gained superb employee engagement and business results.

Teamwork is essential to move from being a manager to a leader. Management is about the individual, everyday tasks, and achieving today's goals. Leadership is about the team, the process of work and collaborating, and reaching better results tomorrow. Research shows that nearly two-thirds of teams fail to reach their objectives. Most managers lack competence in team-building skills to achieve success. They need to learn facilitation skills, group processes, how to handle conflict, team planning tools, problems solving and communication skills. It is it any wonder that a common theme on employee engagement surveys relates to the "silo" mentality and lack of teamwork evident in so many organizations?

The thought for the day is for all managers to learn how to create a high performing team. Too many leaders have tepid teams that never reach their true potential. Why not lead a torrid team, that's on fire and achieves the highest levels of performance? As you plan how to exceed your goals and then excel this month, quarter or year; become a student of the game. If you want your team to be better, you have to be a better leader. Here three valuable resources to help you forge a winning team.

Three Complimentary Teamwork Resources

Want more tips on torrid teamwork that's beyond platitudes? Go here for the hard-hitting Creating a High Performance Team eBook. It's complimentary, and includes:

• INTRODUCTION: The Art of Teamwork
• LESSON ONE: The 5 Stages of a High Performance Team
• LESSON TWO: 12 Qualities of an Effective Team Leader
• LESSON THREE: Closing the Gap Between Leadership and Their Teams
• LESSON FOUR: 13 Troubles of Terrible Teams and How To Avoid Them
• LESSON FIVE: 6 Turnaround Tactics for a Failing Team
• LESSON SIX: The Top 10 Meeting Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
• LESSON SEVEN: 4 Keys to Accelerating Results to Create a High Performance Team

Want to assess your team's effectiveness? Check this out: RCI Team Effectiveness Survey

Watch this free video now for how-to tips to ramp up your team: How to Create a High Performance Team.

Rick Conlow International is a consulting, and training company that coaches leaders to achieve record-breaking performances in sales growth, customer experience improvement, employee engagement, teamwork and leadership effectiveness. In this business, Rick serves managers worldwide and provides provocative online training and coaching services designed to accelerate their careers and team's success.

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