(I'm excited to be leading a session on building effective teams next week for OMTEC 2022!)
I was recently preparing materials for a workshop on building effective teams. Over the past decade or so, I’ve integrated dozens of ideas, concepts and strategies into workshops on this topic, and on the basic concept of managing people.
Prepping this event, I recalled an approach to this topic from the first time I covered it in a graduate school curriculum more than twenty years ago. It’s a simple, three-pronged approach that makes perfect sense. It’s a great place for any manager (or leader) to start:
First: Hire the right people
Second: Give them what they need to be successful
Third – Find a way to motivate them
"At a time when the challenge to attract and retain talented people is as tough as it's ever been, make sure you are focused on the basics!"
Let’s break down each into a few key components:
Hire the Right People
This sounds easy but requires a deliberate and diligent approach to talent acquisition.
1. Understand the skills, experiences and attributes required for success.
2. Implement a system to evaluate candidates, that targets those skills and attributes.
3. Craft and deploy a plan to attract and compete for top talent
Support Their Success
What each member of your team needs will vary based on the situation but consider:
1. What tools, information, resources, infrastructure, processes and technology do people need to perform?
2. How will you support their growth and development? Give them not only the technical skills and knowledge to do the job, but also the team and collaboration skills to support the work.
3. It’s your job to create a culture that allows people to thrive. This includes, for instance, a culture of psychological safety and collaboration. People perform their best when they feel valued.
"It’s your job to create a culture that allows people to thrive."
Motivate Them
Finally, what will motivate people to perform at their best? Different situations and roles will lend themselves to different motivations. Ultimately, you need to understand the goals of every member of your team. What do they value? What motivates and inspires them?
To varying degrees, people are motivated by:
1. Financial rewards
2. The opportunity to grow, develop and take on new challenges
3. The nature of the work, itself
4. A connection to their colleagues, the team, and the organization
Motivating people is easier if you deploy these Practical Mindful Leadership Skills
Is it Really That Simple?
Of course not! This is, though, a great way to simplify the challenge so you can decide what's missing. Struggling to hire the right people? Why? What do you need to change? People failing to perform at their best? Why? What do they need to thrive? If you've hired good people, and have the support they need, then the challenge might be your inability to understand what motivates them. Of course, this requires that you do the work to understand your people, individually, and as a group - which mean you need to understand the psychology of teams. (See Six Steps to Powerful Teams.)
Comments