Be a leader, not just a manager.
Get Started Team Building
You should think of your team because your team won’t think of your team. You won't have much success in team building if you don't reward team performance. Let your group know that they are a team, that you expect them to perform as a team, and that you will reward their successes as a team.
Motivate Team Building
Most of us are selfish individualists. We watch out, first and foremost, for ourselves and do what benefits us most. We have to be motivated to include anyone else. Fortunately, it is pretty easy for us to see the benefits of including others, so most of us do that readily. Love is a strong motivator. However, the strongest motivator available to a manager is self esteem. The more the individual sees a benefit to his or her self esteem from supporting the team, the more successful your team building efforts will be.
They have to believe that the team is capable of producing more than the sum of its members. You may have a great customer service rep on your team, but without the cooperation of the other members of the team he or she would not be able to handle as many calls.
Reinforce Team Building Efforts
One company I know had a great customer support team. Their director challenged the team with higher and higher goals. He celebrated their successes in meeting and exceeding those team goals. He also celebrated them as individuals. The team decorated the cubicle of everyone who was having a birthday. They did community service projects together. They had fun at work. And they enjoyed beating the goals Clint set for their team. They got a significant boost in self esteem from belonging to a winning team.
Making up t-shirts, etc. with a team logo or motto can help reinforce the sense of team identity, but it's not required. You should know your team well enough to know whether or not something like that would be positive reinforcement for them.
Don't make the mistake of one Accounting Manager I knew. The motto he picked for his team and had printed on ballcaps he gave them didn't fly. He hadn't involved the team in selecting either the motto or the object on which it was printed.
An employee life cycle is the steps the employees go through from the time they enter a company until they leave. Often Human Resources professionals focus their attention on the steps in this process in hopes of making an impact on the company's bottom line. That is a good thing for them to do. Their goal is to reduce the company's cost per employee hired.
Unfortunately, they aren't the ones who really make a difference – managers are. People don't really work for companies; they work for a boss. To the extent that you can be a good boss, you can keep employees, keep them happy, and reduce the costs associated with employee turnover. In the process, you will make your own job easier and increase your value to the company.
Employees are one of a company's largest expenses these days Unlike other major capital costs (buildings, machinery, technology, etc.) human capital is highly volatile. You, as a manager, are in a key position to reduce that volatility using the condensed employee life cycle of HIAR (pronounced hire) - Hire, Inspire, Admire, Retire.
Hire[/b][/b]
This first step is probably the most important. It is important to hire the best people you can find. This is not a time to be cheap. The cost of replacing a bad hire far exceeds the marginal additional cost of hiring the best person in the first place.
Hire talent, not just trainable skills. Skills can be taught to a talented employee. A skilled employee can not just be given talent.
Improve your interviewing skills. Often this can be as simple as knowing what questions to ask during the hiring process.
Make your company a place people want to come to and work for. Company culture can be a powerful recruiting tool. Make sure yours reflects the goals the company wants to achieve.
Inspire[/b][/b]
Once you have recruited the best employees to come to work on your team, the hard part begins. You have to inspire them to perform to their capabilities. You have to challenge and motivate them. That is where you will get their best effort and their creativity that will help your organization excel.
Make them welcome. Make them feel like part of the team from the first day.
Set goals for them that are hard, but can be achieved. Set S.M.A.R.T. goals.
Be a leader, not just a manager.
To get the best results you have to be very good at people management.and it's not as hard as you might think.
They focus on getting their people to deliver the key activities and doesn’t attempt do too much them. The best managers delegate widely, using the ethic 'Ask for forgiveness, not for permission' to free their people from blame or wrongdoing.
Build the Best Teams[/b][/b]
Leveraging the exceptional talents of all the people around them, managers develop and utilize capability fully - and glue it together.
Focus on Delivery[/b][/b]
Managers are there to deliver the day to day tactical results the business or organisation needs. Here, there is little space for strategy or vision as such, but those great at managing people will keep a reference point there. Every manager's defined goal is measurable results.
Build Relationships[/b][/b]
As it's all about people, great managers build relationships easily and make it a priority, day-in-day out. They spend a lot of time with and listening to, their people.
Accept Feedback[/b][/b]
Actually, they don't just accept it, they suck feedback in - they use their excellent listening skills to seek out feedback all the time - in every interaction.
Develop Others[/b][/b]
Grasping the opportunities, the best managers quickly link them to those who can make progress in their own development - and in line with ongoing Succession Planning, prepare for the future well in advance.
Are Accountable[/b][/b]
They are very clear that they are 'where the buck stops'. No blame elsewhere, not upwards deflection of decisions; no 'someone else's fault'. They are where the action is and they accept it. It's down to them.
Set Standards[/b][/b]
To ensure that everyone is clear, great managers have simple and clear standards throughout their area of operation - ideally created in collaboration with their people.
Are Determined[/b][/b]
Focusing entirely on value-creation, they stick to plans, policies and change programmes like glue. They have a skill to know and deliver what is right, without veering from their Vision.
Can Be Trusted[/b][/b]
The best managers are ethically sound, fair and honest. They make promises only when they know they can deliver. Everyone is treated equally and their own behavior models fairness and transparency.