Are you working in an organization where leaders are good at using feedback and follow-up to build teams quickly? Do the leaders in your organization create teams that are emotionally intelligent?
One of the most powerful questions one can ask oneself is “How do I create teams where individual members believe in the value of teamwork?” Emotionally intelligent leaders create high performing teams incorporating regular feedback.
Are you good at creating teams quickly? Do you inspire your team by having a coaching style of leadership with team members? Are you adept at building teams that quickly produce results?
Using Feedback and Follow-Up to Build Teams Quickly
Everyone extols the value of teamwork. The need to build effective teams is increasing and the available time to do is decreasing. How do you increase team effectiveness in a climate of rapid change with limited resources? Here is an excellent team-building exercise developed by Marshall Goldsmith (Team Building without Time Wasting, Keilty, Goldsmith & Company, 1998.)
Research with thousands of participants has shown that focused feedback and follow-up can increase leadership and customer service effectiveness. A parallel approach has been shown to help leaders build teamwork without wasting time. It requires that team members courageously ask for feedback, have the discipline to develop a behavioral change strategy, to follow-up and to “stick with it.”
To implement this process, the leader will have to coach or facilitate rather than be the boss of the project. Members should develop their own behavioral changes, rather than have them imposed upon them.
1. Begin by asking each member of the team to confidentially answer two questions:
A. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well are we working together as a team?
B. On a scale of 1 to 10, how well do we need to be working together as a team?
Calculate and discuss the results. Research involving several hundred teams in multinational corporations showed that the “average” team member believed that his/her team was currently at a “5.8" level of effectiveness but needed to be at a “8.7.”
2. Ask the team, “If every team member could change two key behaviors to help close the gap between where we are and where we want to be, which two behaviors, should we all try to change?” Prioritize the behaviors and determine the two most important behaviors to change for all team members.
3. The team members also choose two behaviors for personal change that will help close the gap. Then they ask for brief progress reports from each other monthly.
Progress can be charted. Results have clearly shown that if team members have regularly followed up with their colleagues, they will invariably be seen as increasing their effectiveness in their selected individual “areas for improvement.” The process works because it encourages team members to primarily focus on changing their own behaviors.
Working with a seasoned executive coach trained in emotional intelligence and incorporating leadership assessments such as the Bar-On EQ-i and CPI 260 can help you become a transformational leader who builds powerful virtual teams. You can become a leader who models emotional intelligence, and who inspires people to become happily engaged with the strategy and vision of the company.
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