Creating Your Dream Team

Over the last fifteen years that i have worked in the training and coaching field I have met many business owners and executives who always had concerns about people performance in their organizations. I see this as good because I don’t think we are ever fully satisfied with ourselves and people when it comes to our business and organizational performance. Being able to openly admit what bothers you to a stranger is not easy, but it is always beneficial to voice your concerns.

One thing i have noticed consistently over the years is that most business owners and executives do not understand what teamwork is. They often mistake people working together as teamwork. In our training workshops we explain the four stages of team development and what it means for people to function at each level. Most employees in organizations I have visited or worked with usually had people functioning at the first level of team development most of the time, which we describe as the dependency level.

To have teams function at a higher more productive level requires team members to learn new skills in collaboration, communication, decision making, problem solving etc. It also requires the business owner to change his/her leadership style to foster team development and less dependency supervision. I mention again the business owner because change has to start at the top or the culture of the firm will not evolve much.

I posted the question, what is the difference between groups of people working together versus a team of people to my leadership groups on Linkedin. Interesting responses have started to come in. Someone posted links to two articles which I think are great, especially the first one.

Here are the links to these articles:

The Top 10 Key Differences Between a Team of Individuals and a Group of Individuals

Team Tactics: The Critical Difference between Groups and Teams

So what does it take to create a dream team starting at the top management level?  It starts by understanding the difference between a group and a team followed by the role of the leader in making this happen in his/her organization.

This month we will be holding a tele-seminar, Creating Your Dream Team where we will describe the Three Brain Synergy approach to creating a dream team and the fundamental knowledge that it takes to make this transformation a reality.

You can join the discussion by signing up for the free call now.

Stephen Goldberg

The audio recording on the Leader as a Facilitator tele-seminar is now available You can listen here

 

 

or download the file here.

Download this episode (right click and save)

Leaders come in different sizes and shapes and their approach to leadership varies from one leader to the other. The style of leadership that is most effective today is one of facilitator or coach, rather than directive, especially for the younger generation entering the workforce.

 This weeks (September 28th) leadership and team development question is:

How does a leader get his team to improve performance by utilizing the qualities and strengths of each person?

Post your comments here or in our member's forum. Log in as a member or register for free.

Our last question of the week was on ''How does active listening differ from just good listening skills?''

Here is the answer from Fritz Glaus along with a video below.

This question requires one to do a little thinking, and it turns out that a lengthy answer is needed. After reflection, one realizes that the difference is rather subtle, in that active listening is a prerequisite for good listening, whereas the opposite cannot be said with the same logic, i.e. it cannot be said that good listening is a prerequisite for active listening.

Most persons do not recognize this difference because superficially they tend to see good listening and active listening as equivalents. The fact is being ignored that active listening is a technique that requires one to go through the following precise steps:

1. Listen carefully and then reflect (repeat) in your own words what the other person said
2. Wait for confirmation from the other person that the message you think you were given is really what he meant to convey
3. Continue the conversation and express your own view 

This means two things. One, in active listening the listener needs to be patient, as his own view is given only as a third step. This is very hard to do for many leaders, as they are usually action types who tend to be directive, who want to convey their message first, and who above all want the other person to listen. Second, whereas in standard ‘’good listening’’ one assumes that one understands perfectly the message expressed by the other person, in active listening one needs to double-check with the other person to make sure that the meaning one thinks was contained in his message is really the same as the one he intended.

 

You can also listen to the audio recording of the tele-seminar from September 24th on the subject of active listening and how it affects leadership and teamwork. During the call we explained how different types of people have different challenges when it comes to listening well.

 

 

Good listening skills are essential for good leadership and to develop teamwork in a department and across services. According to Fritz Glaus everyone can develop good listening skills but the challenge may be different for various types of people and leaders.

Here is the leadership and team development question for the week of September 14, 2009

 ''How does active listening differ from just good listening skills?''

Last week’s leadership and team development question was

How do listening skills affect the quality of leadership?

Here is the answer from Fritz Glaus along with a video of more in-depth answer.

Leaders who possess good listening skills are capable of practicing participative leadership and of developing highly motivated teams which consistently demonstrate outstanding productivity, initiative, and creativity. 

Discussion 

As discussed on another occasion, it is unfortunate that only a small minority of leaders are good listeners. You will recall that the reason for this is that most persons in leadership positions are put there not because they have a participative leadership style but because, first, they are able to make quick decisions and second, they direct their managers and other persons in their organization to carry out their decisions. In other words, they have a directive style of leadership, or an action style, which is a style that unfortunately develops ‘’yes men’’ and ‘’yes women’’ who only give the impression of having initiative and of being decisive themselves, when in reality they are self-protective, always making sure they don’t do anything their boss might dislike. 

Fortunately, there is a growing minority of directive style leaders who have discovered the concept of participative leadership and who realize that by cultivating the habit of listening to others they can develop teams of increasing productivity, initiative, and creativity. These leaders aim to free themselves increasingly from the drudgery of being in charge of all operational details and of having to continually check up on others to make sure they are doing as they are told. 

ThreeBrainSynergy has developed ways to help leaders who want to become better listeners and to practice a more participative leadership style; in short who want to enable themselves to create more effective teamwork in their organization. 

 

ThreeBrainSynergy e-learning provides tools designed for this purpose, showing both how to sensitize others towards the concept of participative leadership and how to coach them as required

FREE TELE-SEMINAR SEPTEMBER 24TH

 This month’s tele-seminar on Active Listening – What it is and how to use it to prevent people problems is Thursday September 24^th at 2:00 PM EST. Register for free now.

You can improve your understanding of participative leadership by joining in the discussion of the leadership and team development question of the week. Perhaps you want to know what participative leadership is and why it is so important to drive high performance in organizations.

 

Real teamwork in organizations where people are highly engaged in their work and take initiative to solve problems is driven by a participative leadership style.

 

This leader who uses a participative style of leadership involves his team members in most decisions or entrusts them to make decisions on their own. This can only happen if the leader develops his direct reports to do their job autonomously and solve problems on their own.

 

Each week we are providing a question and answer of the week regarding participative leadership and team development. By participating in the discussion you will further your understanding of participative leadership, team development and types of people.

 

Here is the leadership and team development question for the week of September 8, 2009.

 

How do listening skills affect the quality of leadership?

 

Join the discussion by posting your answer here or better still in our Basic Members forum. Register as a basic member for free now and enjoy all the benefits including the Three Brain Synergy know-yourself e-learning introduction program.

 

Here is the answer to last week’s (August 31, 2009) question by Fritz Glaus which was;

How does one implement a participative leadership style when s/he is just new in the position, the relationships have not been developed, and business needs to keep moving forward ?

 

 

Answer

Implementing a participative leadership style is something that can only be done over time. The person who is new in a position needs first to familiarize her/himself with the state of participative leadership practice and awareness in the new context and second  to gradually cultivate her/his new relationships, both with the persons who will be reporting to her/him and with her/his superior.

 

You can also view a video interview with Fritz answering the question here.

 

 

 

ThreeBrainSynergy e-learning provides tools designed for this purpose, showing both how to sensitize others towards the concept of participative leadership and how to coach them as required

 

This month’s tele-seminar on Active Listening – What it is and how to use it to prevent people problems is Thursday September 24^th at 2:00 PM EST. Register for free now.

Leadership and team development question of the week for August 31, 2009

 

Here is the question of the week that was sent by a participant in last week’s question.

 

How does one implement a participative leadership style when she/he is just new in the position, the relationships and knowledge of the team members have not been developed and business needs to keep moving forward?

 

Please join the discussion by commenting here or join our public discussion in our basic membership forum. You can join for free here.

 

Here is the answer from Fritz Glaus on last week’s question, what makes real teamwork in organization’s so difficult to achieve and maintain and so rare to find in today’s workplace?

The question is about to-day's workplace, but one should keep in mind
that things haven't really changed from the past, in that the
promoting of action types into leadership positions has always been a
wide-spread practice and still is. Leaders have always been expected
to take action and, in addition, to get quick action from the persons
reporting to them. It's like a revolving door, with most persons in
leadership positions continuing to be action types who continue to
promote other action types to leadership positions. Such action types
tend to misinterpret the theory of participative leadership, and they
end up paying lip service to that concept. What this means is that
such promotions are not based on the candidate's ability to practice a
participative leadership style of leadership but to get results
through action. Moreover, in today's workplace, with the economy being
in a rather precarious state, leaders are increasingly under pressure
to act, and act quickly. They themselves feel that they are expected
to demand action. And since, as already stated, most persons in
leadership positions are body types or action types, nothing is more
natural for to-day's leaders than to demand action. Their instinctive,
unconscious definition of teamwork is the following: ''My team is
excellent because they do what I ask them to do''.

In summary, action type leaders represent a large majority of to-day's
leaders and they are by nature directive rather than participative in
their style of leadership. As a result, the direct reports (and others
which the action type leader may consider to be members of her/his
team) are careful in their response and are self-protective. In that
situation, genuine trust and genuine openness are not possible, either
for the team members or for their leaders, and real teamwork is
difficult to achieve and rare to find in today's workplace.

Fritz Glaus

Last week's tele-conference seminar was on effective decision-making using all three brains in a balanced manner and the decision-making style preferred by each of the classic types of people.

Here is the audio file to download.

Participate in this weeks leadership and team development question of the week. The question is:

What makes real teamwork in organizations so difficult to achieve and maintain and so rare to find in today’s workplace?

To post an answer go to the public forum in the basic membership area. 

This week is our monthly free tele-seminar conference call. The subject this week is:

Decision-Making Effectiveness with ThreeBrainSynergy.

The call is this Thursday August 27th at 2:00PM EST. Register now!

Here is Friz Glaus' answer to last weeks leadership question along with a video interview with Fritz  sharing his views on the subject. Watch the video on You Tube

Leadership question of the week of August 17th 2009:

 

What type of person and what style of leadership are required in a leader intent on developing a team of managers and/or vice-presidents reporting directly to him who are self-directed and fully autonomous?

 

I would like to deal with this question in relation to a specific group of business people rather than to leaders in general. The basic leadership  requirement will be the same, but I would like to focus on the specific business leaders that ThreeBrainSynergy is addressing, namely company owners (Presidents or CEO’s) whose innate style of leadership is that of quick action. They decide and act quickly themselves and they expect quick action from the vice-presidents and other executives who report directly to them. They also expect their direct reports to be able to carry out such action without the need for detailed explanations.

 

When we observe the quick action business leader at work, we notice that he often complains about his direct reports’ failure to act with the effectiveness he expects of them. He usually ignores the real reason for their ineffectivenss (his brusque and overly directive leadership style), complaining that they show a lack of interest in their job, lack of commitment to a goal, pre-occupation with their personal problems, etc. He doesn’t realize that the main reason that his expectations of them are not being met is his own leadership style. He fails to see that the autonomy and independence he expects from his direct reports cannot be obtained through highly directive leadership. In other words, he fails to see the contradiction inherent in his leadership style. A leader needs to embrace the participative style of leadership if he wants to grow direct reports who show autonomy and independence. One cannot expect to develop autonomy and independence in direct reports who are strongly directed what to do. Unfortunately, the directive leader is not usually interested in changing his style, unless he has some acceptance of the fact that he could get better results if he were less directive.

 

 

Therefore, unless the action type business owner realizes himself that he needs to develop a more participative leadership style, he will not be interested in joining ThreeBrainSynergy. He will only be ready to join once he has learned somehow that there is more to life than investing all one’s time and energy into running a company and that it is possible to WORK LESS yet EARN MORE. Perhaps he has heard Ricardo Semler speak about his company, SEMCO, a highly successful Brazilian enterprise which is run entirely by Mr. Semler’s previous direct reports while he is making speeches all around the world explaining to business leaders how they can achieve similar results with their own direct reports.

 

Fortunately, the number of action oriented business leaders who see the need to change their leadership style is on the increase, due in large part to the Internet, as nowadays most business leaders, regardless of their leadership style, routinely consult the Internet in connection with their business.

 

Getting back to our leadership question of the week, the obvious answer to the question is that since it is being increasingly recognized that the companies with the highest productivity are those that are focused on teamwork, the leadership style required today is the participative one rather than the directive one. The participative style alone can ensure the development of  effective teams which, after all, are composed of fully participating, engaged and motivated team members.

It should be noted though, that even in the case of CEO’s who want to change their style to participative leadership, the ACTIVE LISTENING that this requires will not be easy for them, since they are normally ACTION types (body types) who are in the habit of requiring that others listen to THEM and do what THEY tell them to do.

 

Fritz Glaus

Know-yourself, learn your type & improve your effectiveness.

 

Get my free e-learning demo now

 

 

Watch the video  

 

  

Three Brain Synergy is about creating personal balance in yourself and helping others in your organization to do the same. This leads to greater mutual understanding, which makes teamwork and the process of managing performance much easier.

 In fact Three Brain Synergy provides a process for developing people to work as a team, solve problems on their own and become fully autonomous.

 But of course every business and organization has many processes that need developed, implemented and managed to be successful. However, many business owners fail to recognize and understand how important this actually is. It could also be directly related to their personal style of leadership that is dependent on a tendency of their type. That is why self-knowledge of your type and the inherent tendencies is such a powerful tool and why we base the foundation of our development program on knowing yourself and others through our types of people system.

 Here is a link to a newsletter from Wayne Vanwick, president of the Achievement Center who, along with his authors share some valuable insight into the importance of processes in business.

Good articles on business process & success.  A must read