Posts made in November, 2009

Team Building: Not Just a Frivolous Expense

Posted by Rob Borley on Nov 18, 2009 in morale, team | 5 comments

We are in the middle of arguably the deepest recession in modern history. When times are tough it becomes a necessity to cut costs and save money. Often the first thing to go are the fun, social, team building activities. After all, such things are not essential, are they?

While I can understand the thinking behind such a step; the work place doesn’t have to be a fun place, it needs to be a productive place. It needs to win contracts, deliver projects, make products, pay the bills. I would suggest that dropping the investment in your greatest resource; your people, is counter productive and short sighted. Yes, you will save money in the short term. But at what cost?

Important resources

Your team are your most valuable resource. A happy team is a motivated and productive team. When times are tough you want them to be behind you. You want your team to be willing to go the extra mile for the cause. For the cost of a curry and beer you might possible be able to find the extra productivity you need to keep everything afloat when times are hard.

It’s the small things that mean that somebody will want to work for you. If you  have a high turnover of staff it costs more money and time. Recruitment, training, orientation are all expensive activities. These activities are things that you want to avoid.

Happy campers

The best way to save money and be more cost effective is to spend a little time and money on morale. A happy team is a cheaper team.

What things encourage you as a member of a team? What makes you happy to go the extra mile? What keeps morale high and you motivated?

Confidence is king

Posted by Rob Borley on Nov 9, 2009 in culture, leadership, management, solutions, team | 2 comments

Confidence plays an important role in many areas of our lives. You will often here it said of footballer, for example, that they are a confidence player. I know from my own inability to play golf that I become marginally less rubbish if I have confidence in my next shot. Leaders who lead directly and with confidence are people that we want to follow. If you offer somebody direction, with confidence, they will, most likely, blindly follow. And the opposite is also true. Even if you know what you are talking about, if you do not present a confident argument, you will generally be ignored.

The same is true of your team. A team, full of confidence, will be more efficient at finding solutions to your problems.  If confidence is low, time will be wasted while they decide even if they can solve the issue. The idea that; there is no such thing as a problem without a solution, goes out of the window.

When a team questions their ability to solve a problem. The problem is in danger of not being solved.

Building Confidence.

It is important to be active in building the confidence of your team. This includes being on the look out for things which will damage the confidence of individuals.

1. Public praise.
   Be vocal about the successes of your team and the individuals within it. Publicise the good activity that is going on all the time. This is especially important if an individual  has been struggling for confidence. Inform other areas in the organisation of your successes. When a project is completed or an important milestone is reached, spread the word. Send an email highlighting the work and the individuals involved. Twitter is also a great tool for this and especially useful in the web world where what you are working on is often in the public domain. When your team does something well, hold it up for all to see.
2. Do not allow individuals to dominate a team.
   A certain way to knock the confidence of an individual is if they are in a team with one or two unapproachable ‘experts’ . When one member of a team is perceived to always have the best solution others will be less willing offer suggestions.  Remember, a quite individual does not equate to an incompetent individual.  It is important to build the confidence of such individuals otherwise you will lose their valuable input. If you identify this situation your can try to build their confidence and their standing within the team.  Ask them specifically for their opinion. Take them aside and seek their assessment of an issue. Public praise can also be a useful tool for individuals  as well as teams. If somebody doesn’t have the confidence to contribute then you will lose their contribution.
3. Do not set people up to fail.
   Be realistic with the challenges that you set for your team. If you consistently set an unrealistic target which ends with your team not achieving their goals, then their confidence and eventually their effectiveness will suffer. Break larger tasks into achievable chunks. Give people the opportunity to achieve something small along the way to a larger success. Failure is a demotivating experience. If it happens too often it can become habitual. Make sure that your team has a fighting chance of success. Do not set them up to fail.

A confident team is more productive. They are also more innovative in their solutions because they expect to not only achieve their goals but to excel at what they are doing.  It is important to not go too far and breed arrogance and complacency but a team of confident individuals will make your job a lot easier.

Have you had the experience of being in a team that has lacked confidence? What other ways of building the confidence of the team, or an individual, have you come across?

Reduced to stereotypes

Posted by Rob Borley on Nov 3, 2009 in boagworld, headscape, management, project management, team | 0 comments

I’m often asked questions about the differences between working with designers and developers. Today an article I wrote for boagworld.com was published which takes a brief look at this question.

Don’t Reduce Your Designers And Developers To Stereotypes