Teams Don't Work ... unless ...
Neil Tuson
Developing world-class teams that communicate and deliver outstanding results | The Leaders in Team Development
4 Areas To Focus On To Improve Team Engagement:
Lessons from a team growing through M&A
Teams don’t work. Well, not without the right tool.
A couple of weeks ago, we shared an article highlighting Prof. Richard Hackman’s (Harvard Business School) work looking at why teams don’t work.
We also shared the 5 conditions necessary for teams to be perfect and to produce magic.
When we initially met one of our recent clients, the two co-founders of a creative agency, they were scaling the business through mergers and acquisitions. They had around a dozen companies in the group, with an overall headcount of about 150 team members.
Over the course of just a few months, we have helped them start improving team engagement and productivity. In this article we outline the 4 key areas where we have supported them.
Whether your business is at the same level or not, there are lessons you can take away so that you can start improving team engagement within your business.
Do you recognise this?
When one of our contacts initially met these co-founders, he noticed that they were not utilising their time effectively.
They were focusing on lots of small tasks, which was distracting them from the larger, more important and profitable tasks.
It also became clear that the two co-founders felt that some of their team members were not singing from the same hymn sheet and were holding the company back.
(Some people like to skim read. If that’s you, and you would like to identify the full formula for improving team engagement and productivity in your business, book a free ticket for our next seminar by clicking here and entering your details)
4 areas to focus on, to start improving team engagement and productivity:
1. You need to consistently take a step back:
After we were introduced to the two co-founders, we had an initial session with them to identify how we might be able to help them.
The session gave them both the opportunity to step off the hamster wheel and recognise the issues they had to deal with.
It became clear to them that by being distracted by small tasks, they were missing tens of thousands of pounds in opportunities.
What could you learn from this?
Ask yourself the following questions:
2. Look at yourself first:
After becoming aware of the challenge they faced, the next step for these co-founders was understanding their individual leadership styles, communication preferences, and dominant ways of seeing the world.
Both co-founders took our profiling indicator so that they were able to better understand their characters.
What could you learn from this?
Ask yourself the following questions:
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(Are you finding this content useful? To identify the full formula for improving team engagement and productivity in your business, book a free ticket for our next seminar by clicking here and entering your details)
3. Identify if you have the right people on the bus:
Once you understand your own character better, you then need to have the same level of understanding about each member of your team.
During our conversations, the two co-founders were discussing the people in their team and if they had the right ones.
As we’ve highlighted previously, you have two types of people in life and business: dependent people and independent people- and a group of independent people create an interdependent space where growth and magic happens.
In the situation with our two co-founders, they are both independent people looking to create an interdependent enterprise. It meant that they needed to remove dependent people who would hold the organisation back.
Our conversation and explanation of this helped them identify which team members (in all likelihood) would be staying on the organisation’s metaphorical bus, and which ones would probably have to leave.
We are now having conversations with the aim being for every team member to take our profiling indicator, so that the leaders in the business understand the characters of each individual in more detail.
What could you learn from this?
Ask yourself the following questions:
4. After implementing the first 3 areas, now you need to plan:
The 3 previous areas are irrelevant if they aren’t implemented as part of a plan, and it became clear that these co-founders needed to lean on our team’s 3 decades of experience.
Each of the businesses they had acquired as part of the group came with their own cultures, values, and focus. By working closely with the two co-founders, we helped them realise that they needed to simplify the messages to their teams and for everybody within each of the different businesses to be on the same page.
It also became apparent that both co-founders needed to be more visible within each of the businesses. The more they engage with the businesses, internal leaders, and the teams, the more likely it is that team engagement and productivity will improve.
Following these sessions, they felt liberated because they had the ability to take a proper step back, and they also knew exactly what they needed to be spending their time, energy, and efforts on, which helped them to get more engaged with their teams.
By being more engaged with their teams, it has also allowed them to start identifying any gaps they have and to uncover the hidden talents that exist.
What could you learn from this?
Ask yourself the following question:
Which of the four areas above are most relevant for you right now?
Based on this article, what can you implement straight away to start improving team engagement?
Our founder Neil, and our team, have over thirty years of experience in executive development and have worked with more than 6,760 business owners and leaders to improve team engagement and productivity.
With this in mind, there are two ways we can help you improve team engagement and productivity in your business right now: