Teamwork is the glue that holds businesses together. And team meetings are one of the key ways to ensure good team work.

But what happens when it all gets a bit staid, a bit monotonous, in a bit of a rut?

How do you inject some energy back into them?

Five Top Tips to Energise your Team Meetings

1. Rotate the chair
   It does not have to be the manager who runs a team meeting – involving all team members in chairing a meeting is a great way to develop their skills and to increase ownership of the discussions and actions.
2. Open with the positives
   Especially in this tough market, people can find it hard to keep motivation levels up. Start with asking everyone for one thing they have been particularly pleased with or proud of that week. It sets a really positive tone for the rest of the meeting and recognises effort and results.
3. Ask everyone for input
   Ensure everyone gets the chance to participate – not just the most vocal people. Give people things to think about beforehand or go round the room asking for everyone’s thoughts on a topic
4. Use creative thinking techniques
   Use team meetings to tackle problems or hurdles. Brainstorming or using techniques like De bonos 6 thinking hats can help people to look at things from a different angle and bring a spark of creativity that may otherwise not be tapped into.
5. Ensure you agree an action plan
   If people can see progress being made as a result of the meetings they will find them so much more motivational. Allocate responsibility to individuals to drive each action and make sure there are timescales agreed on each.

When your people look forward to their team meetings and want to make the time to be there you will know you have got it right!

For more guidance on working creatively have a look at our creative thinking workshop
For details of our programme on team work for the Aged care channel click here
For more ideas on team work have a look at our article

Or look at our team health check sessions 

 

As we embark on a new year full of gloomy predictions and worrying economic statistics, many managers will be wondering how on earth they will be able to keep teams motivated and engaged in 2012.

The latest CIPD survey on employee attitudes to pay reinforces that this will be a key challenge for managers. When employees were asked if they felt valued, the net satisfaction score was +4 (compared to +33 in 2008). Over the same period net satisfaction scores have fallen for: 'I am proud to work for this organisation' (+50 to +32); 'I feel motivated to perform well' (+46 to +24); and 'my organisation communicates well with me' (+25 to -6). http://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/pm/articles/2012/01/employees-discontented-over-pay-shows-cipd-research.htm

What these results clearly show is that it is not all about the money. Most of us recognise the reality of this tough economic climate – but that doesn’t mean that we can’t feel motivated at work.

Research shows time and time again that it is the “intrinsic” factors that really make the difference to how happy and motivated someone is at work – in other words how valued they feel, whether they are recognised for the effort they put in, whether their contribution is noticed, whether they are trusted and whether they have opportunity to take on more responsibility or more challenging tasks. Money can be a good short term motivator, but is no substitute for these other factors.

The good news then is that line managers can make a real difference to how happy and motivated someone is. They may not be able to give them a pay rise, but they have direct control over how much they recognise effort and praise results. They have direct control over how valued they make their team member feel and it is down to them to decide what to delegate and whether to develop someone’s skills by trusting them to take on something new.

The beginning of a new year is a great time to review your management skills, so start by asking yourself these questions…
• How clear are your people about the goals for the company/ team this year?
• Are you and all your managers motivated and committed to the organisation?
• How clear are your team members about what is expected of them?
• How much do you and your managers understand about what your employees want from work?
• Do you ensure decisions are clearly communicated with the reasons behind them?
• Do you and your managers show appreciation and offer regular feedback?
• Do you give time to your people – get to know them as individuals?
• Do you ensure your employees feel listened to?

These are the things that will make the biggest difference to how motivated your people are –  and ensure that you are equipped to weather another tough year with a happy and loyal team.

Despite a plethora of evidence in wide ranging reports from academics, businesses and consultants over the last few years, the coalition government has set up another taskforce to help increase the understanding of employee engagement and its potential benefits. The taskforce will generate debate, share good practice and ultimately offer employers support via a new website due to launch next year. http://bis.gov.uk/news/topstories/2011/Mar/employee-engagement-task-force

But how much more evidence do we need?

Roffey Park’s 2010 research report ‘The human voice of employee engagement’ clearly establishes the crucial role of line managers in the engagement process and states that “…whatever factors are at play elsewhere in the organisation, employees day-to-day experience of work is most heavily influenced by their line manager…”

After a two year study The People and the bottom line’ report published in 2008 by the Work Foundation also  established a strong correlation between high levels of employee engagement and  high performance and identified that the current low levels in the UK could be costing our organisations dear.

The report suggests that more effective people management strategies could increase profitability by up to £1,500 per employee.

Despite these findings, relatively few organisations put emphasis on developing managers as part of their engagement strategy –rather focusing on more traditional suggestion schemes, recognition awards and corporate buy-in approaches.

The CIPD’s study, ‘Management competencies for enhancing employee engagement’ published in March this year comes to a similar conclusion and highlights the importance of  developing the right behaviours. These include

• managers giving the right levels of guidance
• constructive feedback
• appropriate levels of autonomy to staff
• setting realistic but challenging targets
• making time for employees
• treating them fairly
• making them feel valued
• managing individual performance

The current taskforce hopes to present its conclusions in 2012, although whether it will really shed any more light on existing evidence remains to be seen.

What will make a difference is organisations having a renewed emphasis on coaching and developing managers. This is what will bring a significant return on investment and an increase in profits, not waiting for the great and the good to tell us yet again what we really already know – that developing your line managers’ people management skills will improve your bottom line! 

The phone hacking scandal and ongoing fallout has made the issue of trust a hot topic.

While the public’s trust falters in the Police, Media and Government , the UK ‘s workforce is also losing confidence in their senior managers. The latest CIPD employee outlook report says that trust in senior leaders has dropped yet again, from +3 to –1 from the previous quarter.

The CIPD advise that senior and line managers should put more emphasis on communicating effectively to help rebuild trust.  But it can be a challenge to know where to start on a practical level.

Here is one way to build open, honest relationships with everyone you work with, whether your boss, your team members or your colleagues.

Exchanging Expectations.

We all have expectations of others who we work with. But most of us don’t voice them. Then when people don’t live up to our expectations we get frustrated - but is it really their fault?

Discussing an exchange of expectations is a way of setting some solid foundations for your working relationships and creating open and honest communication between you.

The key steps….

1. start by explaining to other person what you would like to do and why and then ensure you both have some thinking time before coming back together to discuss your expectations of each other.
2. Ensure you discuss specific examples of your expectations.  Common expectations are for managers to be “supportive” and for team members to be “loyal” but there are many definitions of these words.  For one person, being supportive may mean wanting recognition for the effort they put in, for another it may mean specifically having time with their manager each week to discuss work related issues. Both are right and if a manager understands the specifics and follows through on them, it can be a great motivator. Similarly, if you want “loyalty” from your team, explain how and give examples to clarify
3. Write down what has been agreed and ensure you each have a copy
4. Set a review date. It is vital that you check in with each other to ensure you are both living up to what you said you would do.  Get and give examples…if you or they can’t give one this should tell you the expectation hasn’t been met.  Better to know sooner rather than later so you can do something about it.
5. Be aware that expectations change and evolve as the relationship or role changes, so it is important to revisit them on a regular basis. Don’t assume anything! 

By spending time taking an interest in your people and giving them an opportunity to be involved in the way they are managed, you will really start to build trust and respect.

Claire McCartney, CIPD Resourcing and Talent Adviser says, “Evidence suggests that where employees benefit from effective communication and feel their views matter, and are taken into account before decisions are made, they are more likely to remain engaged in their work and committed to the organisation.”

Why not start that engagement with an exchange of expectations and let us know what effect it has….

The Chartered Institute of Management has just released figures stating that 70% of the 500 managers they surveyed admitted morale in their companies had dipped in the last 6 months.

No surprise that motivation levels fall in tough times, but what are businesses doing about it? The CMI is very clear that it is down to the managers to address morale issues, but that part of the problem is that companies are not training managers to be confident in this area. Currently 20% of managers get training and the CMI think it should be at least 50%... so we have some way to go.

The danger, of course, is that in a challenging market companies cut back on training instead of investing in their managers and UK businesses may now be paying the price. The quality of a manager has such a direct impact on a team’s performance that it really isn’t worth leaving it to chance. The effect of poor management can ripple through an organisation and have far reaching effects; lack of morale leading to high staff turnover, high rates of absence and low productivity, which can all ultimately cost a lot more than training the managers in the first place!

And management development doesn’t have to be expensive; there are many ways to help your managers build key skills...

• Coaching – ongoing support can be given to managers through regular coaching and the beauty of this is that it doesn’t have to be done by an external company. Using your managers to coach other managers can be a very effective way to build skills for all concerned
• Mentoring – helping and encouraging managers to find a mentor also doesn’t cost anything and can be particularly helpful in the sharing of knowledge and expertise and in helping managers through times of change. Setting up a formal mentoring scheme can support every level in an organisation, if you have the resources to do it. Even encouraging informal mentoring will bring results
• Courses and development programmes can particularly benefit new managers. This more structured approach will provide them with the core skills needed to be effective and will  build confidence in taking on their new role
• Regular feedback – ensuring your mangers get regular feedback on how they are doing can bring very immediate results. Giving balanced feedback will ensure they know what they are doing well, but are equally aware of what they are not doing so well and help them to address these areas
• Encouraging learning through sharing experiences – shadowing, job rotation, creation of project teams to tackle organisational issues – all these will give managers the opportunity to learn from each other.

So how does your management team measure up? Are they confident in motivating their teams, especially when times are tough?

Does your company fall into the 20% who do train their managers or the 80% who cross their fingers and hope it will all be OK?

Head of HR at Google, Laszlo Bock announced to the New York Times last month that the company had identified that the qualities that make a good manager are not perhaps what they had initially imagined…

Google was a high performing organisation, able to select from the cream of well qualified engineers across the globe. But in 2009 they were alarmed to discover that staff turnover and exit interviews were increasingly citing ‘poor management’ as the reason for people leaving,   reinforcing the age-old HR adage that people leave their company because of their managers.
 
Google wanted to find out more about why individuals’ technical wizardry was not transferring well to the role of leading others.

In a project aptly named ‘Oxygen’, Google searched through results from staff surveys and a range of performance review data to determine what was needed to breathe new life into their organisation’s management performance.

The results they unearthed supported what many of us in learning organisations have long known - that technical expertise is fairly low on the list of qualities an employee looks for in their boss. What employees ideally want from their manager is more time spent managing and communicating, taking a consistent approach to performance management and coaching staff to support their career development.

These behaviours now make up the framework for the new management coaching system which Google launched in response to the findings. It claims this has already improved the performance of 75% of it’s managers, highlighting just how vital it is for managers everywhere to be measured on behaviour and management competence and not just technical ability.

At Focal Point we are about to embark on the Investors in People journey so this area is very close to our hearts!

The Department for Business (BIS) in a recent independent review, stated that a wider take up of engagement approaches would have an enormously positive impact on UK competitiveness and performance.

The agreed definition of Employee Engagement is;
‘A workplace approach designed to ensure that employees are committed to their organisations goals and values, motivated to contribute to organisational success, and are able at the same time to enhance their own sense of well-being.’

The report suggests, however that engagement levels in the UK are currently low, so it is clearly an area that many organisations need to be tackling.

http://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/employment-matters/strategies/employee-engagement

But it is a tough call. The Guardian recently highlighted how the traditional career ladder is a thing of the past; success is no longer measured by steps up the ladder, as organisations are so much flatter in structure. This means fewer opportunities for promotion and a career nowadays will mean multiple changes of direction, more of what the article calls a ‘career carousel’ whose direction is often a step sideways rather than up. http://careers.guardian.co.uk/careers-blog/time-to-step-away-from-the-career-ladder

This lack of traditional career progression can contribute to a lack of engagement and managers now need to work harder than ever at identifying what is important to their people.

Welcome to the world of ‘Career Management’, where it is vital to align organisational and individual needs.

But how to tackle this? As a starting point consider the following points…
• How clear is the vision of the company?
• Are all your managers engaged themselves and committed to the organisation?
• How clear are individuals about what is expected of them?
• How much do managers understand about what their employees want from work?
• Do your managers show appreciation and offer feedback?
• Do they treat staff as individuals - with fairness and respect?
• Do they enable employees to have a voice?

Companies which challenge themselves in these key areas and examine how they can be improved, will be the ones that create a genuinely motivated and engaged workforce and reap the benefits of increased loyalty and performance.

In a recent article in People Management Meredith Belbin talks about his team roles work transcending cultural boundaries and being particularly proud of his work in Russia.

The team roles analysis is something we use a great deal in management development programmes and working with teams in the UK, but had never before taken it abroad. But we recently had the chance to use it with a group of new managers in Russia’s leading recruitment consultancy, Antal.

As part of a modular management development programme, we used Belbin’s  team roles to raise self awareness around different styles of working and create an opportunity for them to explore their make up as a management team, as well as looking at the dynamics of the teams they were managing.

They found the process empowering, coming away with a far greater sense of their own strengths and the contribution they make. They also developed a stronger sense of themselves as a management team, who together with all their combined skills and approaches have a real opportunity to drive the success of the business. It was the first time they had ever used any kind of self analysis like this and were hugely motivated by it.

In a business environment which is often not seen as sophisticated as the European market, using an assessment tool such as Belbin’s team roles worked really well and demonstrated that given the opportunity, Russian managers value diversity and could see the competitive advantage this gives them.

A fascinating piece of work for us and we are looking forward to returning this year to see their progress!

We are already well into 2011 and looking at a challenging year.

The increase in VAT, cutbacks in government spending and an upward trend in inflation is concerning. Interest rates seem certain to rise.

Much news comment is focused on negatives with a fair degree of ‘doom and gloom’. However I think there are marvellous opportunities for good businesses to prosper.

Only this week ASOS the online fashion company reported an increase in sales and Apple Inc has made record profits of $6bn.

So what’s their secret? Simply put, they produce something people want to buy at a price they can afford and deliver it to them in the way they want.

The exciting challenge for 2011 is to make it a year of change not retrenchment.

For example, I live in a town where there are traditional high street shops. A major food retailer is to open to the horror of many of these locals. They don’t see it as an opportunity but a threat and there is a real reluctance to change. Many are going to continue with their existing hours, including half day on Wednesday!

Tough times also present opportunities – it forces us to look at our approach, our structure and our offering and those companies that evolve will come out stronger. Those who refuse to adapt will stagnate and possibly not survive.

What changes do you need to make?

Despite the market place remaining a challenging one, we know that many forward thinking companies out there are still keen to invest in developing their people …but of course are looking for cost effective ways to do so.

So why would we be advocating less training? Well one way to get very tangible and very immediate results is to use more one to one coaching. Good coaching can make a world of difference to upping your team’s skills and raising motivation levels at the same time.

And it doesn’t have to be done by an external training company. Using the expertise you have within your organisation in the form of line managers can have a great impact on performance. The key is making sure those managers are equipped to coach effectively.

We see many situations where line managers intend to offer support to their teams, but end up “telling” them what to do. There are times when a directive style is the right approach, but for the most part a more questioning, coaching style will get people thinking for themselves and develop their skills more effectively. You get greater buy- in too… people tend to kick against being told exactly what do (think of your own reaction to a very instructive style of management!) 

So here are 5 top tips for Line Managers wanting to do more effective coaching…..

1. Remember 90% of learning happens on the job so there are opportunities for coaching all around us in the workplace.. we just need to look out for them.

2. Coaching is about asking questions. It develops problem solving skills and builds a more capable, self reliant team. The next time you are tempted to tell one of your team members exactly what to do next, just check yourself and try turning the statement into a question…”what steps would you take?” “What do you want to do next?”
3. Good coaching doesn’t have to be a planned sit down 30 minute session. Great coaching can also happen in a spontaneous 5 minute conversation when you have observed a team member dealing with a customer.
4. Listen carefully – there is no point in asking good thought provoking questions if you don’t give your team member a chance to think and answer. Be comfortable with pauses.
5. Coaching should not be a one off event but an ongoing way of developing your people. Start to make it a management style rather than something you just do to address a specific skill and you will begin to reap the benefits.

A recent survey has found that where employees are engaged and enabled companies can increase their turnover by five times… Isn’t that a compelling case to invest in some coaching capability??