Good communication builds partnerships. I was once told that listen as hard as you talk. In a team we must focus on problems instead of personalities.
Assembling a team of individuals with no knowledge or experiences of the intended goal.
I have also found that major issues involving a team circle around communication. I found that at the beginning of new ideas it is difficult if the team and its members have not seen it done by their leader. I try to be open to criticism and respond clearly with probing questions to see what they would have me do. Often there are discussions that develop from this dialog. Openness is key to any collaborative group or team. At times the final choice, being up to the leader, but explaining the reasons for the decision to the team usually even though it is not fully accepted it lets the team know the reason for the decision and always shoe them appreciation for their input.
The most common problem I have had leading groups (outside of work) has been the lack of focus. I find it frustrating to have to constantly bring one or two members of a team back to the topics on hand when they go off on personal... and often irrelevant... tangents. While these sidetracks are pleasant in small doses, it can quickly derail meetings and cause the group to run past its scheduled time.
Hi Earl,
This is a common problem. Two suggestions to help you facilitate your meetings:
1) You should develop and use some objective metrics or budgets whenever possible. At your meetings review actual v budget and guide your team to report on the variances or exceptions only. This will hopefully keep the narrative on point and to a minimum.
2) Include time allotted to each meeting topic on the agenda and be strong in facilitating the meeting which, at times, means cutting people off and/or bringing the meeting back on point.
Best Regards,
Greg Nathanson
In our current team, we have dominate personalities and alot of groupthinking. People that get rude and talk over others can also be a problem with this group. Our leader does a great jobe of getting our attention and getting us back on track but I find these interuption rude and distracting.
Definitely groupthink. I have this problem now. My staff has been together now for 5 years. No turn-over in staffing is good, but groupthink is a problem. My staff knows each other so very well. They are friends. I need some good ideas on how to break up the group think and get us back on track.
common challenges that impede team progress are teams members not sharing information and disagreeing on issues going over the same ground over and over without reaching a working decision.
Alos team members feeling that thier point of viwe is not valued, and a team working without any identity
In my career as a teacher, trainer, and manager, I have seen many different challenges that influenced the performance of a team. These challenges were miscommunication, respect, and time.
First, clear communication and communicating often, helps to keep the team on the same page and moving in the same direction. Many times information is communicated correctly initially, but when information changes, this change is not communicated to all constituents. This greatly affects the direction, the productivity, and the motivation of the team.
Second, respect of each team member is essential. It is important that a leader not play favorites as this can pit team members against each other. I do believe some level of competition is healthy, but not when open favoritism and lack of respect is displayed on a team. Recognizing each team members’ success, big or small, is important. It is also important for a leader not claim all accomplishments, but to recognize the team member for the success.
Third, it is challenge to find a time when all members are available for team meetings, team building exercises, and training. When a company is international and has shifting schedules, it can be very difficult to get everyone together.
Andrea,
I agree with your statement. I have seen this in several positions in which I have held. I believe it has a lot to do with respect of each team member and being a team player. Everyone is important to the team. The leader must communicate this often; however, if the leader favors the person taking all the recognition and allows it to happen, well, then the team bleeds.
My most common challengs that impeed my team process are
1. some will not play nice with others
2. lack of participation
3. Strong personalties
The most challenging aspect for my team is keeping them focused on the goal-interperspnal conflicts distract them and can cause the attitude to change to "that's not my job"; trying to foster the feeling that if one succeeds, we all succeed.
There are a number of challenges to teambuilding, based on my experience as a manager and educator. A number of the challenges have already been identified (groupthink, lack of communication, lack of commitment, unclear goals (or agreement on goals), etc.). One of the many challenges that I believe impacts the ability of teams is accountability, or more precisely lack of accountability. On many teams that I have been involved in, there is not always a high amount of participation, except when it comes time for Monday morning quarterbacking… then everyone wants to participate! Many people seem to be happy going along and doing minimal work, but at the end of the project, they want to offer constructive criticism (which is still welcome, but a bit unnerving). Since we have a small management team at my organization, we tend to have many teams that consist of the same “key players.” One suggestion that I brought to the table to try to address this issue is to incorporate a post-project recap meeting, where we not only talk about what went well, what didn’t, and where we can improve, but more specifically we discuss how the team managed the project (what went well, etc.) I believe that by focusing specifically on the actual “team” part of managing the project, participants feel more peer pressure to actually participate at a high-level, as well as we are able to bring this new knowledge to future team endeavors. In addition, part of the answer to improving accountability, I believe, is setting clear expectations, monitoring progress, and providing timely feedback.
I would say that individual participation and their contribution is very significant. Each person should feel that their ideas and recommendations are received and respected. If they feel this way they will not be hesitant and will feel a part of the team.
Some of the most common challenges that I have found would first be personal issues between team members. When there are personal issues between team members it often causes other team members to be dragged in to the disagrrement and choose sides. I believe that one of the most important things a team leader can do is to foster that sence of "team". To have all of the members feel supported by one another and to be supportive in whatever way they can. I try to address such issues as soonas I become aware of them. I don't feel that it does any good to try and let the problem "work itself out" that technique wastes too much time and allows the problem to grow.
When I was going to school for my Bachelor's and Master's, part of our team assignment was to discuss team-building and most of the teams voted on different people in charge for different projects. Diversity was a huge issue that we had to discover in that we had to find out who could contribute what to a team (strengths/weaknesses) so the team as a whole would not falter when it came to meeting deadlines. I've been part of teams where we had people from all walks of life and different philosophies working together and I learned to think outside the box in some ways mostly because of the people I had to work with to achieve my goals both individually and through the team.
Our teams work diffrent shifts so it is hard to get a meeting set where all can attend so we end up doing little one on one meets.
Personal agendas, lack of team identity, conflicting personalities, and disconnected members. I spend a lot of time working with individuals trying to encourage their participation in the team and convincing them to value being a member of the team.
Gossip can be a huge barrier in team building. With negative talk comes distrust--creating an insurmountable wall for team progression.
I think the greatest obstacle I face in team progress results from the work load of the team members. We are currently working on a self study for accreditation that must be completed by the faculty. The team works well together but does not get the assigned tasks completed on time. When investigating why, the reason tends to be the work load of the individual faculty members. Unfortunately, the faculty do not have the option of not being on the self study team so I have difficulty keeping them motivated to put in the extra work.
