5 Steps to Building a Successful Team
There is a 5-step process that we have found to be very effective in effective team building.
Before we start, it’s important to remember that teams exist for one reason: to achieve results! However, it’s also important to remember that teams must be sustainable in order to continue producing those results, so that’s why we look at the inter-relationships among the team members — to ensure that those relationships are working at the level needed for the team to continue producing results without getting burned out. Let’s look at this process of building a successful team so that your team can get to the next level and be not only effective, but sustainable, in achieving its desired results.
1. Measure the current effectiveness of your team
In order to help your team be more successful, it’s important to first look at how successful the team is currently. Measuring your team can serve as a benchmark for team development, as it gives you a current evaluation of your team as it exists today. The best way to do this is to measure your team’s effectiveness, which can be done in several different ways:
- Personal interviews: Asking each team member a specific set of questions designed to measure their effectiveness is a great way to learn about what’s really going on within your team. The disadvantage of this method is that some team members will not be forthcoming with information during face-to-face interviews because they are not anonymous. Results are best yielded when the interviews are done by an external facilitator who will maintain individual confidentiality.
- Simple measurement: A very simple method to use is to ask your team members “on a scale of 1 to 10, how effective is this team”? And see what their responses are so that you can ask some follow up questions to learn more about their perceptions.
- Assessment tool: In our opinion, this is the best method to measure the current state of your team because it is anonymous, unbiased and team members are generally very candid and open in their responses. The assessment results are then shared with your team in a specially-designed team development process that includes exercises to help the team improve in areas needed.
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How To Become A Well Tuned Presentation Machine
Nearly every day we are called upon to present ourselves.
It might be in a business setting, where we need to
convince customers to purchase a product or it might be in
a social setting where we need to convince a person we meet
that we are interesting and fun to be with.
How can you improve your communication and presentation
skills? Your entire body – not just your voice – is part of
the “machinery” that can make or break your presentation.
If your voice, your message, and your body all work
together in harmony, you’ll get your point across and
increase the likelihood of success. However, if your voice,
message, and body don’t work together, your point could be
muddled or lost. Fueling the machine is part of the process
of bringing harmony to your presentation.
A balanced diet is an important part in fueling the
machine. Make sure you eat meals that are approved by the
food guide of your country (since many countries have their
own food guides due to local differences in food
availability).
If you have a very important presentation that requires
your full voice and attention in front of others, avoid
mixing proteins and starches in the same meal. As well,
avoid eating fruit unless it’s on an empty stomach.
Clean up Your Act! 10 Tips to Steamline Your Office for a More Successful One-Person Business
Stop wasting time looking for papers lost on your desk,
running down to the office supply store for last minute
printer ribbons, or working 24-7. Use these tips to get
more organized, streamline your repetitive activities and
plan ahead to prevent office crises and uproar.
Tip #1 - Find special places for special papers…and then
put them there. One colleague lost a full fee check
somewhere on her desk and was too embarrassed to ask her
client for another one. Now she has an old fashioned “clamp
on a stick” to hold every check that comes in until they
can be deposited. Use color-coding to distinguish types of
work, the importance of the project, and increase the
likelihood of finding the file when you need it.
Color-coding cuts down considerably on
Tip #2Â -Â Use color-coding to distinguish types of work,
the importance of the project, and increase the likelihood
of finding the file when you need it. Color-coding cuts
down considerably on hunting through similar files to find
just the one that’s needed.
Tip #3Â -Â Meet with yourself once a week to work on your
business. Review your marketing activities, sales
activities, client needs and financial status to save hours
of clean up time for missing a commitment, or big bucks
from passing on a lurking opportunity.
Tip #4Â -Â Clean off your desk before finishing work for
the week. Transfer all the little notes, phone numbers,
ideas and dates into your calendar, database or project
files…and set out your files and papers for Monday morning
appointments.
Tip #5Â -Â Work only five days a week. By putting
boundaries on your work, you’ll increase the quality of the
time you do work, and nurture yourself and your
relationships. (If you are one of the 24-7 types, you may
need to go into this gradually.) Take three to four months
by cutting back gradually until you are down to no more
than a 40-50 hour week.
Tip #6Â -Â Lay in a reserve of supplies to avoid last
minute trips for cartridges and long lines at the post
office. Extend this to your personal life: buy a month’s
supply of underwear, a six month’s supply of paper
products, laundry soap, and toiletries.
Tip #7Â -Â Use the Internet to do research, order supplies,
pay bills, purchase commodities and books, and movie
tickets. The money you’ll save by not taking time out for a
trip to the office supply store, as well as all the impulse
buys you’ll avoid, will more than cover the delivery
charges.
Tip #8Â -Â Guard the precious prime geography on your desk.
Leave a space to work, and a space for special papers that
are “must do today” will go a long way in helping you feel
more organized and be more productive.
Tip #9Â -Â Throw it out, pass it on. Pass on left over, no
longer needed office supplies, file folders, and binders to
a local not-for profit agency or favorite school teacher.
Tip #10Â -Â Finish Fully. This from Dru Scott, author of
How to Put More Time in Your Life. Stop wandering from
project to project, task to task, being distracted by
have-to’s or half-finished chores along the way. If you’re
not careful, you’ll end the day with even more
half-finished projects that clutter both your mind and your
office. Prepare the invoice, put it into an envelope,
address it, put a stamp on it, and then onto the out pile.
Closure, even with small tasks, helps engender a feeling of
accomplishment and satisfaction, relieving stress, and
releasing energy for the next thing that needs to be done.
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Need to get your small business more strategic, organized,
automated? Click here => http://www.1PersonBusiness.com for
Pat Wiklund’s complimentary introductory course on How to
Run a One-Person Business Without It Running You.
New Grads – Beat the Job Competition!
Winning your new job takes more than just arriving on time
– after all, that’s obviously expected. But, what else are
employers expecting from you when you arrive for your
interview? Here are four tips you’ll want to keep in mind
for interview success:
Tip 1:Â Employers will assume that you have done a good
amount of research on their company. When they ask you
what you know about them, you’ll get off to a good start by
being able to discuss several pertinent points about the
Company. To do this you must be sure your research
includes:
* What the company’s mission is
* Sales and revenue (if public)
* What their growth rate has been
* Major products and services
* Who their competitors are
* Key management team
* Latest news on the company
* Clients, suppliers
* Company structure & culture
Employers want to know that you are interested in working
for them and that you have the curiosity and energy to plan
ahead for your meetings. This research technique will also
help you come up with smart questions to ask your
interviewer when they offer to answer any questions you may
have. P.S. Always have questions!
How Chief Executives Can Improve Their Performance with Personal Reflection
Wise experienced leaders from all walks of life tell me
that personal reflection is one their most valuable tools
for remaining effective and ahead of the game.
When I seek to pass this advice on to my clients, I often
get this question “How does one effectively reflect?”
Reflection is the point of maximum learning from one’s
experiences. Whilst experience is learning, reflection
about the experience provides even more learning.
To maximise the learning opportunity from reflection,
create a simple process that enables you to think clearly
and record your reflections.
Here are some tips you can adapt to suit yourself.
1. Choose a regular time to reflect, say 20 minutes early
in the morning or at a quiet time in the evening.
2. Choose a quiet place with no disturbances such as phones
or TV.
3. Keep a reflection journal to record insights, thoughts
or decisions you make.
4. Play soft music – 60 beat per minute works well, or
baroque music.
5. Choose a specific experience; event; time block; or
relationship for reflection.
The Single Most Important Ingredient For Building Your Business
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks building a shed in my
back garden. Already I hear you ask, what does that have to
do with business? As I was building the shed, I realized
how similar it was to building a business. Wait, and I’ll
explain more.
Metaphorically speaking, building a shed is very similar to
building a business. There are many ingredients that you
need, and missing any one of them out will mean the results
will range from achieving nothing to the disastrous. But
one ingredient stands head and shoulders above the rest.
It’s a simple four letter word…
… P-L-A-N.
With a clear focused plan, and the right amount of
knowledge and experience, you know exactly what materials
and tools you need. With enough focus, hard work and
persistence, you simply follow the plan to achieve the end
result.
Let’s go back to the example of building a shed, and
examine what might happen if you had no plan, or just say a
quick sketch on a scrap of paper to rely on:
- You would struggle to know what materials you needed, and
have to make repeated trips to the hardware store, greatly
reducing the efficient use of your time and needlessly
wasting your energy.
How To Manage Your Business Projects Effectively
One of the certain aspects of working life is that
unexpectedly you can be assigned a project to do. In fact
if you are building a business of your own you will have
long-term projects that are essential to its profitable
development.
But in order to ensure the smooth and successful running of
your business it’s vital to have efficient systems in place
to deal with these projects. Most of them will have
deadlines for completion at some point in the future. But
it is how you deal with these deadlines that will determine
how efficient you are at managing your business.
The simple thing to do is to schedule the project in your
diary for perhaps a few days before the completion date,
even if it is several weeks away. This is a big mistake!
In order to effectively control your time you should be in
the habit of using lists to plan your working days. Each
day you should have a daily task list of the things that
must be done. Anything new that comes in during the day
should normally be put onto your list for the following
day. Only the genuine things that can’t wait until tomorrow
should be added to the list to do the same day.
So as soon as you are given a project to deal with you must
put an item to start it on your must do list for the next
day. That item will be to simply write a checklist for the
project. You must do this or else you will find that as the
deadline approaches you have to put off other important
tasks in order to get the project completed. Then all of
the good habits you have developed in using lists to manage
your time will be to no avail.
Three Key Shifts to Manage Overwhelm at Work
It’s easy to get overwhelmed with your to-do list at work.
You’re probably managing several tasks or projects at once.
Work keeps piling up. You feel as if you don’t have
enough time to get it all done. You’re stressed and
there’s no end in sight.
A recent survey published by the Center for Disease Control
reported that more than 80% of professionals experience
high levels of job stress. A lot of it has to do with the
overwhelm they feel with their amount of responsibilities
and tasks.
When you’re feeling overwhelmed, it affects the quality and
output of your work and, at least to a certain degree,
determines how successful you are. Here are three key
shifts you can make to reduce overwhelm and start working
with ease:
1. Shift from “pushing” to “flowing”
When you experience overwhelm at work, your tendency may be
to keep pushing, believing you can get through it using the
“no pain, no gain” mantra. When you’re “pushing” to get as
much done as possible during the day, it usually leads to
more stress and can be counterproductive.
The physical signs of “pushing” include leaning forward,
tensing, shallow breathing and clenching your jaw. When
you notice these signs, simply pause and step away from
work for a bit. Get a glass of water, take a few deep
breaths, stand up and stretch. Take a moment to notice why
you are pushing (“I’m unclear,” “I am angry,” or “I need
more time”) then see if you can get to the root of the
problem so you can move back into the “flow” (you know that
feeling like everything is lined up and work becomes
easier).
Contact Information To Include On Your Business Card
The logo and graphic elements that you include on your
business card are quite important, but having the right
text and contact information on the card is equally
important. Here are my tips about the elements to include:
Your name – Consider whether you want to include your
middle name or initial, degrees or professional credentials
that are unique to your field.
Title – Including a title on your card will help your
potential clients to identify your position within your
company. Including a title can also make your company seem
larger. A reason to not include a title would be if you’re
a consultant, and want to market your solo nature as a
benefit to your clients.
Address – Always include an address on your business card,
even if you are operating a business out of your home.
Including your address greatly increases your credibility
and makes your business appear established. If you’re
concerned about privacy, a post office box is a great way
to go. When signing up for a post office box, consider
using a commercial mailbox vendor (such as the UPS Store)
instead of a box at the United States Post Office. At a
mailbox store, you are given a street address instead of
the typical “P.O. Box”. The store also accepts shipped
packages from UPS, FedEx, and other carriers, so you won’t
need to give out your home address as a shipping address.
Phone number (and toll-free number) – Include your phone
number and, if you do business long distance, consider
including an 800 or toll-free number as well, as an amenity
for your clients.
The Building Blocks of Visual Vocabulary: Consistency
Your Visual Vocabulary consists of the secondary design
elements that are used in conjunction with your logo to
form your brand identity. Your Visual Vocabulary is
composed of the graphics, font styles, colors, and even the
type of paper you choose.
Once you have determined the elements to use in your Visual
Vocabulary, it is important to use those elements
consistently throughout all of your marketing materials.
This consistency will make your entire set of materials
look like a family. Having a consistent set of marketing
materials makes you look more organized and professional.
It also makes your business more memorable, because the
repetition of the consistent elements creates repeated
impressions on your audience. The more you repeat your
marketing images and messages consistently, the easier it
will be for your clients to associate them with your
business.
The four ways to create consistency in your Visual
Vocabulary are:
1. Using the same or similar visuals and graphics
throughout your marketing materials makes them instantly
recognizable, which is becoming more important as marketing
media messages become more prevalent and people become more
inundated with them. The graphical elements that you can
work with in your Visual Vocabulary include the
backgrounds, text treatments (such as tagline styles),
shapes, layout conventions, and the photo library you use.
