2020 has been a funny old year, full of ups and downs. A lot more businesses moved to remote working which seemed a whole new ball game.
The start of 2021 is an opportunity to refresh and reinvigorate your teams and you.
The first thing to note is that new goals and new plans often fall at this time. Mainly, because it feels like you are setting up your team to fail. People often have an aversion to the New Year resolutions. So be very clear it is different from New Year Resolutions when talking about the goals and plans. Instead, consider how are you going to refresh your teams.
Here are five tips:
- Revisit the strengths of your teams and your business
Re-evaluate the strengths your teams contain. Then consider how they fit together to complement each other and where the gaps are, in relation, to the business needs. Sign up for the Strengths Questionnaire to use here.
It is a three-week programme which will help you and your employees. Talking about strengths can really bolster your team’s confidence.
Talking monthly about where the team member has used their strengths creates engagement and a passion to do more of them.
- Look at how your team are working
Have you recently reviewed how your processes are working? If you are working from an office environment, consider what you could automate to save time and stress. Microsoft Teams now has many apps that can work together to increase productivity and make life easier.
Walk through each process with the team getting their insight on pain points and areas of waste. Document the walkthrough and use this to evaluate the changes needed and the benefits through taking measurements on each part of the journey. You can use this to also highlight where there are training gaps.
- Consider what problems your team are raising?
Do you have a process where problems are raised, documented, discussed, and resolved? Too often I see problems ignored which creates frustration in the team and a feeling of not being listened to. It can be as simple as recording the concern, what the cause is and then what the countermeasure is (The 3Cs). When looking at the cause, involve the team and ask searching questions to make sure you get to the root of the problem.
- Visual Management keeps people in the loop.
Even working remotely, you can still implement visual management to keep the team in the loop.
A whiteboard set up in a shared space online can be used to show progress, indicate issues, share the latest communications and more. Putting the key goals on the board and using a RAG status let’s the team know the progress. Using the board in daily discussions will keep your team up to date. Its also great for getting issues out into the open with the right questioning skills.
- Revisit roles and responsibilities
Are the team roles clear? Have they changed over the last year? If so, update with the team’s involvement. Is their purpose clearly defined? Knowing the business why and how their role fits with that creates motivation and drive. Share the importance of the role and how they all fit together. How do the team members contribute to the key goals? A great exercise to do with your team is to put the key goals on separate sheets and ask team members to add underneath what they do to help with that goal. Start with one or two thoughts yourself to get them going. This can also be carried out remotely by putting them in groups to add their thoughts.
It increases collaboration and connection if people understand what it is all about and how they fit together.
Struggling with how to bring your team’s strengths out?
Want to make your team stronger?
Then sign-up for the free three-week programme and pick-up tips to help you and your team.
