Team Building and Workplace Communication For SUCCESS

The Art of Facilitation: The Essentials for Leading Great Meetings and Creating Group Synergy

Praise for the Revised Edition of The Art of Facilitation”The Art of Facilitation picks up where most other books stop. It describes a whole new array of process tools in a totally accessible way. It delves into the underlying ethics of facilitation to clarify complex questions. This book is also beautifully written. After many years in the profession, I was surprised at the subtle way it helped me gain a new understanding of a number of important facilitation dilemmas. A very insightful contrib

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How to Develop and Promote Successful Seminars and Workshops: The Definitive Guide to Creating and Marketing Seminars, Workshops, Classes, and Conferences

• The Definitive Guide to Creating and Marketing Seminars, Workshops, Classes, and Conferences

A complete guide to succeeding in today’s burgeoning seminar business–from developing a program and market testing, to pricing, promotion, advertising, and more! How to Develop & Promote Successful Seminars & Workshops The adult education business–seminars, workshops, classes, conferences–is one of the fastest growing industries in the country and, for many, extremely profitable. Now, Howard Shenson shares proven-effective, research-based strategies responsible for filling more than one milli

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New Lyndacom Sharepoint 2010 Getting Started Topics Include Versioning Documents Creating Web Site

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• In SharePoint 200 Getting Started, author Simon Allardice walks through the first few hours a new user will spend with SharePoint working with Web sites, communities, content, and search.
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Topics Include: Exploring the SharePoint product line. Creating a Web site. Understanding document and meeting workspaces. Setting site permissions. Working with Office 200 and SharePoint. Checking documents in and out. Versioning documents. Social networking in SharePoint.

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Improve Your Communication Skills: Present with Confidence; Write with Style; Learn Skills of Persuasion (Sunday Times Creating Success)

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Good communication skills are vital in today’s workplace. Whether you need to keep the interest of a large audience, impress a potential employer, or simply win the argument at an important meeting, sounding the part is key. Improve Your Communication Skills shows how to improve conversations and build rapport with colleagues; hold interviews and staff appraisals; learn the skills of persuasion; give effective presentations; write emails, letters and reports; and write for the web.

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How to Maximise Your Internet Marketing by Building The Team First And Creating Fairness for All Participants

The continual failure rate of many network marketing businesses is due to mostly just one thing. The inability of most people to sponsor and create a sustainable downline.

Unless a person is a seasoned and experienced marketer with plenty of knowledge they find it almost impossible to build a team that will grow and help them build the income that they desire

The average number of people that a single person can find is 2.7 people and to simplify things we will say three is the average. To get these three people you really have to find more as not all these three will work and some will decide that it is not for them and drop out, you may possibly lose two and be left with just one.

So if that is all you end up with you have 1 in 3 and so you need to look at the power of nine to even start getting somewhere as out of 9 recruits you will probably get 3 good marketers and maybe one or two more that will hang on for a while and may even be able to be trained.

The difficulty then becomes that someone who is new to network marketing finds that getting 9 people into their team is near to impossible so they start with their family and close friends who are just the same as them and don’t have a clue about how to market their business either,so gradually they drop off and feel that nothing will work, but jump straight into the next “great opportunity” and repeat the whole process, continually looking for that elusive big break or pot of gold.

Recognising this problem a group of seasoned network marketers who had a vision of mentoring and training as well as evening the playing field for the newbies and expert marketers alike got together to come up with an idea that can and will revolutionise network marketing, creating success for all.

With a combination of 400 years of network marketing between them, they knew that they could come up with an innovative idea that would help change lives…..one person at a time.

They formed a downline club that is free to join and anyone who joined would take their place in this downline at the time they joined and people would join and fall underneath them and keep going down in a single line to infinity.

Potential businesses would be scrutinised for good ethics, regular income, residual income and with a not too expensive set up costs or subscription at the entry level, which is what troubled most people who were in need of extra income to feed and educate their children as well as to keep their mortgage payments up.No one would enter the second business until they had money from the first for the entry costs, so they would not be continually out of pocket.

To completely make this the perfect team build these visionaries saw that the playing field had to be evened for everyone regardless if they were at the top or at the bottom of the build. The idea that they came up with is completely radical and a first in network marketing.

This downline would split and flip at random between businesses and replace the top positions so that even if you came in at position number 10,000 or number 1 you all had the same chance. There are other ways of rotating positions like splitting in the middle , shuffling, so you can see that it really does not matter where you are placed you all will have the opportunity to be in the top of the matrix or whatever it may be and earn the large income that is usually reserved tor the select top few.

This is the first time a team build like this has happened and is being accessed by people from all walks of life, all ages and with all different levels of marketing skills.

The first business has been created to give everyone a quick result and a good residual income over 3 phases so they can step their way up and they don’t have to recruit anyone into the business as such. This business was designed by a group of marketers who shared the same vision so they decided to merge together.

The downline club places people into the required spots below them, leaving no gaps……..from top to bottom and from left to right. No one jumps over anyone as their sponsor upgrades unto the next level before them, consequently no one is left behind.

The whole group working as a team ensures continued success for everyone as the only requirement is to spread the word and introduce people to the downline club so that the ever increasing spaces can be filled. Once people see how quickly they are in profit this is very easy to do as they can legitimise their claim of success.

This vision is changing lives of ordinary people who have the desire to improve their situation and with the assistance of the expert marketers are learning how to mentor the next lot of newbies into the team to achieve their goals and dreams alongside them.

The current world financial crisis is driving so many to search for ways to keep their lives and families together and with a team build like this all things are possible.

The new dawn of network marketing is here to help everyone build and design the life of their dreams no matter what that may be.

Because as a team……

Together

We

Achieve

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Team Infinity Downline Club

Team Building Skills: Creating a Culture of Motivation

Of all the many team building skills to refine, building a culture of motivation must be high on the list.

What team characteristics sustain high levels of motivation?

The first question to be answered in a discussion of motivation is “What makes us do anything?” Why am I writing this article? Why are you reading it?

Some common triggers that usually encourage anyone’s motivation are:

Is there something in it for me?
Will it make me feel good?
Does it have some noble purpose or cause that inspires me; that I can commit to?

In work environments, researchers have identified some principles of motivation that leaders need to keep before them if a team is to be successful and if they are to lead well.

Of course there are many subtleties that exist in human behavior but understanding the general principles of motivation is crucial for a leader if he wants a long-term, highly committed team.

There are three key factors that create conditions for high internal motivation that apply to every team member and team leader:

Is the work that I’m doing viewed as meaningful or valuable so that I feel I am making a contribution?
Do I know the results of my work? Am I finding out how well I am doing? (or not doing?)
Do I feel personally responsible for my work outcomes so that I can be proud of what I do?

It is true that motivation is inherently intrinsic and the ultimate responsibility for that motivation resides within us, but it is also very possible for a successful leader to create a culture of motivation which will sustain each team members energy and commitment to that team very significantly.

Creating such a culture or environment of motivation will encourage team members to feel valued, respected and affirmed for what they bring to the team. It will also increase their motivation to meet those challenges and overcome those obstacles that are part of the life of any team.

An effective team leader needs to be aware of 6 key factors that can significantly influence a team’s motivation.

Is the team’s purpose or cause clear to every member? Does it align with their personal values and aspirations? It may be hard for a team member to align with a purpose if it is not in line with his wants and needs or his values and his motivation over time may diminish. One strategy with a lethargic team might be to stop and revisit the team’s purpose. Look for alignments and personal conflicts of value or goals. Discussion may not be comfortable but it is necessary and sooner rather than later.

Do team members feel a real challenge? Do they see and understand the significance of the big picture or does their role feel too mundane? Many members will say that their most rewarding team experiences resulted from some sort of challenge. The challenge itself was the motivator and its absence can cause a loss of energy.

Do the team members experience and express camaraderie, fellowship and loyalty? Do they genuinely like each other and work to develop and maintain their relationships. Although they are probably not aware that the research supports this as a motivation, they will understand that it’s a lot easier to support the members of your team when you have a good relationships with them.

Time spent on team building, encouraging team relationships and learning to resolve conflicts, will promote open, respectful and direct communication. This in turn will encourage team members to feel secure enough to affirm each others’ contributions, and also give appropriate care to those who are struggling

Does each team member have ownership of an identifiable block of work that motivates him or her to be on this team; where his skills and abilities are being used well? This is so important.
 
Be aware however that such responsibility can be de-motivating if the consequences of error or failure are too great.
If the organization, for example, has a history of punishing mistakes or creating scapegoats, then the giving of responsibility is viewed more as a negative. The short-term performance may be good (remember fear is a motivator), but long-term motivation will suffer. It is difficult to sustain a high performing team when energy is being sapped by fear.
 

Do team members feel they are growing as a team? Are they learning new concepts, adding to their skills, and stretching their minds. If this is happening motivation tends to remain high. Personal growth adds value to the team, enhancing self-esteem and self-worth.

Do you, as the team leader, value the importance of the above motivators enough to talk about them with your team or to use a motivation assessment tool to help them open up and be honest?
 
You may not always like what you hear!
However, it is a fact that no matter how popular or charismatic a team leader is, he or she will not be effective long term unless there is a positive culture of motivation.
A team leader must work at creating an environment where expressions of encouragement, respect and affirmation are the norm; where purposes are clear and regularly revisited; where there is appropriate accountability and where kudos is given for each persons contribution.
We have all seen examples of how great leaders inspire teams to accomplish the impossible. History books and Hollywood are full of these stories, and we come to honor these leaders.
On closer examination however, you will find that every great leader of a team, has understood the value of encouraging each member of the team to feel valued and respected. He or she has worked to create a culture of positive motivation experienced by the whole team.
At the end of the day, when the credit goes to the whole team and to what each person brought to that team, and not just to the team leader, that team leader is satisfied. His work is done and that is what makes him great.

More Team Building Skill Articles

The Wisdom of Teams: Creating the High-Performance Organization (Collins Business Essentials)

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Teams — the key to top performance Motorola relied heavily on teams to surpass its competition in building the lightest, smallest, and highest-quality cell phones. At 3M, teams are critical to meeting the company’s goal of producing half of each year’s revenues from the previous five years’ innovations. Kodak’s Zebra Team proved the worth of black-and-white film manufacturing in a world where color is king. But many companies overtook the potential of teams in turning around tagging profits,

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Creating Passion-Driven Teams: How to Stop Micromanaging and Motivate People to Top Performance

Can passion be taught? Can it be fostered? The answer is yes. But perhaps more accurately, a team leader must create the right conditions for passion to emerge. Those conditions must be nurtured, not unlike a gardener creating the right conditions for his plants to flourish. Make your job easier. Get the inside scoop on the secrets of success that motivate teams to top performance. In the matrix of workplace roles and responsibilities, managers are pivotal to corporate success. Yet a manager

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Creating the High Performance Team

An adaptation of Wilson’s popular seminar, providing practical tips for building teams in organizations. Shows managers how to create a sense of interdependence in a team, how to set goals through participative leadership, how to anticipate problems and deal with them before they arise. Major areas of concentration include shared responsibility, alignment of purpose, and encouraging creative talent. Case studies, dialogs, and “real world” examples help managers instill a sense of common purpos

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Improving Business Performance by Creating High Performance Teams

As a manager, executive or business owner your top priority today is exceeding company goals. You can’t do it yourself, so the best way to exceed your goals is to have what we call “High Performance Teams” working for you.

Your goals may include growing your business, increasing revenue, improving business efficiency, doing more with less, creating competitive advantage, improving customer satisfaction, reducing costs or leveraging intellectual assets.

Your team, which may include (sales, marketing, finance, strategy, HR, IT, operations, shop floor, etc.) represents a very powerful mechanism for getting significant results in organizations today.

High performance teams are a special class of team that has the ability to easily adapt in a rapidly changing environment and is an essential element for highly successful organizations.

The first step in building a high performance team is understanding the essential team ingredients that create a recipe for success.

Building high performance teams is a top priority for many executives. The benefits and value produced by these teams are very clear and being viewed as essential tools in their business strategy.

High performance teams produce many benefits.

1. Increased sales revenue
2. Increased productivity
3. Improved customer service
4. Ability to do more with less
5. Increased innovation
6. Ability to quickly adapt to change
7. Ability to solve difficult, critical problems

Sales Team Essentials – The Ingredients

So where do you begin? Like a great chef making the perfect soufflé, you must follow a recipe that will deliver the best possible outcome. This recipe includes the ingredients, preparation and the process for making the perfect soufflé. If you forget an ingredient, add too much, eliminate preparation steps, or change the process you will not end up with the results you are expecting. For business executives, this translates into ineffective teams that cannot meet critical business goals.

Let’s look at the ingredients necessary for building a high performance team.

1. Trust

Trust in your team, their trust in you and the trust between the team members is the core ingredient that holds everything together. You develop trust by setting guidelines for team behavior and decision making, where the people have certain freedoms to make decisions, take risks and speak their minds. They will also have certain obligations to always speak the truth, work with other teams, be accountable for decisions and actions and to learn from the their mistakes.

Business executives who have rules and policies for everything create an environment of bureaucracy and stifle team performance. The environment is orderly and structured, but leaves little room for team members to use their own judgment, take ownership or be motivated to complete tasks quickly. On the other hand, executives who have no guidelines for the team run the risk of leading a team in chaos. Neither of these work.

Implementing guidelines where people are trusted, promotes an environment where team members will give their best, produce more and with improved quality.

2. Vision

High performance teams share and support a “Vision” of what the team will accomplish. Team members are highly focused on meeting their goals and objectives. Business executives work with the team to develop a vision that brings real meaning to the work that is being performed. The vision defines the future state and is clear, defined and concrete. The team needs a winning, inspirational vision that will motivate them to go above and beyond when the effort is required.

3. Optimism

The next key ingredient is “Optimism”. High performance team members have dreams of achievement. These dreams are fueled by the executives optimism. It is true that team members will flourish when they have hope and they will give up when they don’t. High performing team members thrive on accomplishment and recognition they get when working through difficult problems and persevering. This perseverance requires optimism.

The responsibility of a business executive in an optimistic environment is to be realistic and optimistic at the same time. Realism is important because it acknowledges the facts of the situation no matter how unpleasant they are. An optimistic environment dictates that given the facts of the situation, the team will continue to work toward their goals. When teams lose optimism, it is the responsibility of the executive to coach the team to get them back on track. Together the team acknowledges the situation and begins to generate ideas for solving the current problem.

4. Enjoyment

A business executive must make the environment enjoyable to work in. Team members perform at their peak when they enjoy what they do and with whom they do it with. Enjoyment doesn’t mean you play cards all day long. Real enjoyment comes when the executive and team are deeply involved in working a critical problem and they persevere together as a complete unit.

The executive sets the tone for the team. Setting the tone for an enjoyable work environment is accomplished by showing that you enjoy your job, that you like the people you work with and that you appreciate their hard work. Thank team members for working through the weekend. Let them take a long lunch if they worked 12 hours the previous day. Praise them for new ideas. Never blame team members for mistakes, laugh and learn from their mistakes. Keep the team focused on winning instead of failing.

5. Empowerment

High performance teams are self directed. When empowered to accomplish a goal, these teams take ownership of their responsibilities and are committed to succeed. Business executives leading high performance teams work to focus the team on “what” needs to be achieved. The “What” is defined as the vision, goals, objectives and milestones for the team. The “How” work is to be accomplished must remain the sole responsibility of the team. When executives start telling their teams how the work is to be done, the team becomes de-motivated and performance drops dramatically.

6. Opportunity

The final ingredient for a high performance team is developing an environment where team members can grow. Team members need to learn new skills and be permitted to develop and implement new ideas to work at their peak. Creating an environment where team members can experience different roles, cross train, work with diverse teams and learn new specialties will develop team members who are more self assured, who listen, and are more open to new ideas. This strategy of continuous learning will keep the team energized and motivated to perform at the highest levels.

A Final Word

As a business manager or executive, you have the power to influence the people and performance of your teams. If you truly believe in creating an environment where Trust, Vision, Optimism, Enjoyment, Empowerment and Opportunity are encouraged, then you will build a solid, sustainable and high performing team.

© Copyrighted by Dennis Sommer – CEO, Executive Business Advisers. All rights reserved.

Dennis Sommer provides the guidance you need to take your business to the next level. His specialty is improving business performance. Delivering quick, dramatic results has made Dennis a highly sought after business consultant, CEO and executive adviser.

Dennis works with a wide range of clients from small growth start-ups to Fortune 500 companies, helping them find new strategies for stimulating sales revenue growth, attracting new customers, increasing profits and reducing costs without sacrificing service.

Dennis is also highly sought after keynote, seminar speaker and author. His latest bestselling book is “Adviser Secrets – How to Become a Top Performer”.

Currently, Dennis is the founder and CEO of Executive Business Advisers, a business and management consulting firm.

Company: http://www.executivebusinessadvisers.com/
Author: http://www.dennissommer.com/

Contact Dennis Sommer at 800-627-6512.