Building Effective Teams

by Eileen Nonemaker

Eileen’s long, successful career in sales and sales management makes her an easy choice for those leaders and managers who are responsible for generating revenue and achieving corporate goals and have no time to waste getting there. Clients appreciate her ability to help them quickly select, assess, train and develop their sales teams whether they are selling products or services. New teams get brought up to speed quickly and experienced teams develop what is necessary to perform at the next level. Through goal setting, skill refinement and the development of accurate forecasting skills, she has helped both individuals and teams develop strong success strategies. Utilizing her formal training as a business coach and consultant to supplement her natural ability to connect with people, Eileen gains the trust and respect needed to interact with both leadership and team members. When coaching individual clients, Eileen becomes a 'lady on a mission' to help them succeed. Eileen is able to help them stay focused on their objectives and establish goals that take them to that next level in their personal and/or business lives. Her coaching typically involves teaching people how to set measurable goals, how to look at goals objectively and how to re-evaluate them periodically to stay on track. Eileen’s goal as a coach is to help her clients find the right balance between career and family so they have the best of both worlds.

"The hammers must be swung in cadence, when more than one is hammering the iron." Giordano Bruno, c. 1548-1600 Italian philosopher and astronomer

By definition a team is number of people organized to function cooperatively as a group. This number can vary from large to small, and can be just two. By definition these people are organized to function cooperatively, but what makes the team cooperative and successful?

Building effective teams is one of the greatest challenges for business leaders today in dealing with a multi-generational workforce and weak economic climate. How does one recruit and organize dynamic teams that will consistently achieve organizational and personal goals?

Here are three key thoughts to consider:

Know your team members

Through interviews, performance appraisals and assessments clearly understand your people, their attitudes, decision making style and motivational factors. Attitude is the basis of all individual behavior and developing attitudes that govern positive behavior will improve results and productivity. How we think and make decisions can either hinder or ensure our success. Determining team members' levels of commitment and their levels of competency is important. To maximize team dynamics, understand who can and will be trained and developed and who can or will not. Know what motivates each individual to aid in their goal setting process.

Establish expectations and communicate

Understanding the organizational, departmental and personal goals that govern the activities of the team, and effectively communicating them to the team, may seem like a basic thought, but in many cases teams are not aware of how their specific piece fits into the corporate puzzle. As a result, the behavior of team members may not align with each other and may not align with achieving the goals of the organization. It is key to set specific goals and determine how they will be achieved, understanding the obstacles that may need to be overcome in the process. Target dates for completion must be established and agreed to, for team members to own their contribution to the process.

Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate and adjust when necessary

Just like our teachers in grade school handed out assignments with due dates and expected to see completed projects on the specified date, many business leaders set teams in motion in the same style. Short term goals or mini-deadlines with guidelines to determine success of the team is an important part of the process. Again individual attitude and behaviors need to be assessed. Are these individuals competent and committed to the predetermined goals, and if not what will you do about it? Can you shuffle responsibilities to someone more qualified or do you need to replace a team member? Historically sports teams will trade non- producers to someone else, but in my experience many times business leaders will hesitate to take corrective action with team members that are not producing in their given role. Ultimately this affects productivity, service levels, attitudes and morale. More importantly it affects the bottom line.

Building and maintaining effective teams is not necessarily easy. By understanding the organizational, departmental and personal goals that govern the activities of the team, utilizing the tools available, and having a strong goal setting process you can certainly smooth out the ride.