Humans work in different way than animals do. In the jungle, we often find animals teaming up with each other. Maybe they have a purpose for setting up those teams too. They may be banding together for food, shelter or protection, and that's what keeps them together. Now, this is a common element with human teams in corporate establishments too. Or is it?
We do find a lot of teams in a lot of organizations that are set up just for the sake of setting them up. It is quite pitiful that most of these team members and even some of the team leaders helming these teams don't have clarity of purpose. They don't know why these people have been put together and given to them to manage, but that's a crying shame!
That may be one aspect in which our corporate human teams are worse than animal teams in the Sahara.
But, thankfully, this can be overcome. Our teams can be much stronger than animal teams and, when you extrapolate that thought, you see that our teams can become more productive and creative-not like animal teams that have a single purpose day in and day out, week in and week out.
The best thing is that human teams can be made to focus. Today, 'focus' has become the guru mantra for teams all over the business world. Without concentrating on the goals at hand, it is quite unlikely that any team will make their progress, and it is definitely a long shot before the goals will be achieved.
Make your team focus. This process begins with giving the proper goals to work on. There shouldn't be any ambiguity about what you or your organization wants. Tell them how the organization will benefit when those goals will be met. Tell them how they will benefit. This helps them focus.
Throughout the duration of the team, make sure to check on their progress. Correct members that are disengaged and reward engaged members. Set examples of things that have happened the way they should and prevent your team from sidetracking into inconsequential issues.
When you generate the right focus in your team, your team is able to think more creatively. They know what they want; this gives them the liberty to be more innovative about goal accomplishment and you will be most times surprised at what suggestions may come forth. So, try it out-be clear with your team, create the right amount of focus in them and see how they begin putting their best feet forward.
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Corporate Coaching
If you think the people in your organization or, rather, your organization itself has a potential to go much ahead but there are obvious or not obvious roadblocks holding it back, then probably you can make use of corporate coaching to unleash its potential to the hilt.
Corporate coaching isn't just another form of coaching-this is a deeply motivational and inspirational form of training that helps people helming a particular organization to inspire and lead their subordinates to achieve their goals. Personal coaching is all about the individual...whether CEO, Sr mgr or line manager. A good corporate coaching session can teach executives how to maximize potential and productivity without seeming too forceful on the people working with or under them. In this way, though corporate coaching might be done for a handful few people in an organization, it does send its shock waves throughout the organization, and hence has an effect over the way the entire organization begins to perform.
Now, if you are planning to have a corporate coaching session for the key players in your organization, you'd be better off knowing that there are various forms in which this coaching can be conducted. The best way-and the most common way-is to have highly charged onetime sessions such as workshops or seminars for a group of executives. You could have such sessions when a particular policy is being implemented or when a new goal is being defined. The corporate coach could train the leaders in your organization what they can do in order to maximize the output of subordinates and thus ensure that the goal is not flouted upon.
Corporate coaching works best when only a few people are trained at a time. This allows almost everyone present at the session to speak up. The coach can then identify individual detrimental factors that might be wasting time, money or other kinds of resources for the organization and bring out solutions. Hence, never make the mistake of inviting a large number of people for a corporate coaching session.
The time between two corporate coaching sessions is also important. These sessions could prove to be a shot in the arm when your group's motivation is sagging. Having half-yearly or even quarterly sessions is a good idea. In any case, you must plan out such sessions during milestone policy making moments in your organization. Increasingly monthly coaching is most productive...with a minimum of at least a 6 month commitment.
Corporate coaching isn't just another form of coaching-this is a deeply motivational and inspirational form of training that helps people helming a particular organization to inspire and lead their subordinates to achieve their goals. Personal coaching is all about the individual...whether CEO, Sr mgr or line manager. A good corporate coaching session can teach executives how to maximize potential and productivity without seeming too forceful on the people working with or under them. In this way, though corporate coaching might be done for a handful few people in an organization, it does send its shock waves throughout the organization, and hence has an effect over the way the entire organization begins to perform.
Now, if you are planning to have a corporate coaching session for the key players in your organization, you'd be better off knowing that there are various forms in which this coaching can be conducted. The best way-and the most common way-is to have highly charged onetime sessions such as workshops or seminars for a group of executives. You could have such sessions when a particular policy is being implemented or when a new goal is being defined. The corporate coach could train the leaders in your organization what they can do in order to maximize the output of subordinates and thus ensure that the goal is not flouted upon.
Corporate coaching works best when only a few people are trained at a time. This allows almost everyone present at the session to speak up. The coach can then identify individual detrimental factors that might be wasting time, money or other kinds of resources for the organization and bring out solutions. Hence, never make the mistake of inviting a large number of people for a corporate coaching session.
The time between two corporate coaching sessions is also important. These sessions could prove to be a shot in the arm when your group's motivation is sagging. Having half-yearly or even quarterly sessions is a good idea. In any case, you must plan out such sessions during milestone policy making moments in your organization. Increasingly monthly coaching is most productive...with a minimum of at least a 6 month commitment.
Noise Than Focus
Noise is when it seems to you-or to anyone-that constructive work is going on, but at the bottom of it all, it is all a hollow turbulence that doesn't do anything productive for anyone. We have seen this happening in some of the largest corporate establishments today. On the face of it, any outsider might feel impressed by the professionalism of the establishment, but little do they know that all that external buzz is just a disorganized faade, put up with the intention of covering their lack of productive work.
The biggest problem with noise in a business team is that you don't understand it exists. Noise can camouflage itself and appear to be a high degree of activity. You could be misled into believing that work is actually happening until it is too late. That is all the more reason why you should find out if noise exists right at the start and snub it out.
These are the five indicators that can tell you your team is full of noise and there is no focus among the members.
A team that makes a lot of noise will be quite unclear about the basic objectives that it is supposed to chase. You could ask them-test them rather-about their knowledge of these main goals. If they don't know even the top three objectives clearly, then this team is of no productive use at the moment.
The second indicator is whether your team is aware of the kind of progress that it is making towards realizing those goals, however small it might be. Every person on a team should be aware of what's happening with the team as a whole.
A team that is easily distracted will definitely not be fruitful to you. This is a very good way to determine that your team lacks focus.
If you find that your team is using its energies in areas that are outside the main goal fulfillment that has been set in front of them, then you are dealing with a disorganized team. You need to quickly put things in order.
Check your team in terms of their commitment levels. If you find that their commitment is lacking, you need them to tighten their belts.
Noise can corrode a team from within. The external impression of a lot of activity is quite detrimental, because it keeps real goal achievement away. Snub out such elements when you still have time, or your entire team could pass into oblivion.
The biggest problem with noise in a business team is that you don't understand it exists. Noise can camouflage itself and appear to be a high degree of activity. You could be misled into believing that work is actually happening until it is too late. That is all the more reason why you should find out if noise exists right at the start and snub it out.
These are the five indicators that can tell you your team is full of noise and there is no focus among the members.
A team that makes a lot of noise will be quite unclear about the basic objectives that it is supposed to chase. You could ask them-test them rather-about their knowledge of these main goals. If they don't know even the top three objectives clearly, then this team is of no productive use at the moment.
The second indicator is whether your team is aware of the kind of progress that it is making towards realizing those goals, however small it might be. Every person on a team should be aware of what's happening with the team as a whole.
A team that is easily distracted will definitely not be fruitful to you. This is a very good way to determine that your team lacks focus.
If you find that your team is using its energies in areas that are outside the main goal fulfillment that has been set in front of them, then you are dealing with a disorganized team. You need to quickly put things in order.
Check your team in terms of their commitment levels. If you find that their commitment is lacking, you need them to tighten their belts.
Noise can corrode a team from within. The external impression of a lot of activity is quite detrimental, because it keeps real goal achievement away. Snub out such elements when you still have time, or your entire team could pass into oblivion.
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