Leadership Team Development: Five Behaviors That Build a Successful Team in Concord, CA

Key Ways to Use Team Training and Team Assessment Tools for Maximum Effectiveness in the Concord area

The best teams aren’t just a random conglomeration of strong team members, just as a quality jewelry chain isn’t simply a bunch of precious metal strung together. Fine gold doesn’t gain any value if it’s soldered together without care, and the same is true for your work teams. Approaching team building with the right resources and level of consideration lets you increase the value of each member’s contribution and ensure a culture where everyone supports each other in a positive, productive manner. One way organizations can invest in their teams is via customized team development training.

What Does an Effective Team Look Like?

An effective team is a collaborative unit that's able to work toward a common goal successfully. If your team is dysfunctional in any way, you'll see a failure to meet your goals or a delay in meeting them, as well as fractured relationships and non-productive interaction between team members.

Turnkey Coaching and Development Solution's team development program focusing on the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team provides a highly useful metric by which to evaluate your own work team or leadership team.

Do the members of your team trust one another? Do they communicate with transparency and honesty, or do individuals try to protect themselves, often at the expense of others on the team? Once your team members are able to be vulnerable with each other, they can provide the support needed to reach common goals.
Do the members of your team thrive in an atmosphere of healthy and supportive conflict? Are they able to address ideas constructively and honestly? Teams that are afraid of conflict often hinder their ability to create something exciting and to solve intractable problems, whereas teams that have learned to listen to the alternative points of view that arise during healthy conflict can move on to constructive solutions.
Are the members of your team afraid to commit to decisions? Do they hesitate to come to a conclusion or even to state a clear opinion, perhaps out of fear that they'll be censured or mocked? If your leadership team has all the data and experience it needs, but they can't reach a decision, no plan of action can be executed.
Does your team hold one another accountable for measurable results? Do they meet deadlines effectively, or do you hear countless excuses as to why an action item couldn't be accomplished? Team members that trust each other, that have explored all the options together, and that have committed to a clear and actionable plan are able to encourage each other toward completion because they share a desire for mutual success.
Does your team have its eyes on the final goal? Do the members of your leadership team (or cross-functional team) know what they want to accomplish individually and collectively? Once you have the fundamental team development building blocks in place, your team can achieve the results they once only dreamed of.

"Assembling a team is not rocket science. Once the desired skill sets are defined, it is simply a matter of choosing the best players, or in the case of business, the most highly qualified candidates. But ensuring all the members of the team can function and play well together requires teamwork training." — Cindy Phillips, Teamwork Training Ideas, The San Francisco Chronicle.

Even if you have the right people in the right seats, their talent is wasted if they're working on islands and not connected to one another. Just as you train team members on their individual roles, it's equally important to coach them on how to work as a team, and how to ensure their talents complement one another. An effective team-development program identifies your team's pain points — the specific areas holding your team back from reaching its potential — and, through the use of progressive exercises and facilitated dialog, turns them into constructive and meaningful data-points, now useful for transformation.

Rediscover your workmates and redefine your company’s competitive advantage with built-to-order leadership team development programs from Turnkey Coaching Solutions. We look forward to learning more about how we may serve your team: 281-469-4244

How Can You Evaluate Your Team?

Your team development program must include a way to assess whether your development efforts are working. The Harvard Business Review recommends paying attention to the team's output and the ability of the team to collaborate, as well as individual assessments of each of the team members.

The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team Progress Report provides a template for just such an assessment, allowing you to pinpoint areas of improvement to celebrate and build on as well as those ways in which your team still needs to improve.

If a team is truly working together in a relationship of mutual accountability, the Progress Report makes that clear. It also shows obstacles to development and paves the way for team members to assess their own collaboration.

The Four Stages of Team Development Success

Convivial work relationships don't just happen by accident; they're created purposefully. Successful teams sometimes occur right off the bat, but generally, team members need a little guidance to work openly with one another. Four distinct developmental stages can help you keep track of how your team-building venture is going:

1. The Assembly Phase

During the assembly phase, team members feel excited about the paths they're on and eagerly try out new exercises. They jump at the chance to think outside the box and ask questions about team goals, strategies and potential results. Team members might also feel a little anxious about their roles on the team, and they may wonder what is expected of them. Most individuals feel positive about the future of the team and expect to find success quickly. A focused training orientation meeting can help answer questions,
define goals and reassure people in advance of directed team-building exercises.

2. The Rocky Phase

As one might expect, the rocky phase is a little less harmonious than the assembly phase. Strong personalities are less polite and more confrontational, and some team members feel uncertain about the training retreat. Goals that previously seemed attainable now appear out of reach, and people begin to feel frustrated with the team's overall progress. At this point, it may be best to break more ambitious objectives down into smaller chunks. This is also a great time to focus on conflict-management skills and communication techniques.

3. The Settling-In Phase

In the settling-in phase, people begin to find their niches within the group and communicate more easily with other team members. Individuals express their needs and ideas readily; they listen and respond appropriately to the needs and ideas of others. Real collaboration begins to happen, and team members use constructive criticism to hone their ideas. People feel much more encouraged about the team-building venture at this stage, and they begin to feel enthusiastic about the team as a whole.

4. The Achievement Phase

The achievement phase is rewarding for individuals and for the group as a whole. Newly minted and enhanced with the unique people it needs to succeed, the team begins to accomplish predefined goals. Members feel committed to the group and proud of what they've built, and they celebrate each other as a result. Fresh targets seem like exciting challenges, and colleagues eagerly work together to overcome unforeseen issues. Carefully nurtured teams frequently continue this type of productivity indefinitely.

Tailor-Made Team Development Solutions

At Turnkey Coaching & Development Solutions, we develop custom training programs to accommodate our clients' precise needs. Instead of cookie-cutter day-long or week-long courses, we create tailor-made programs to help your existing teams (from the C-Suite to the frontline) achieve specific goals. We work with intact teams, operational work groups and decision-making teams of any size, teaching them the skills they need to collaborate harmoniously and efficiently.

The Team Development Program That Moves Your Team Forward

The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team leadership team training and development program is tailored to meet your organization's very specific and unique needs and culture. Through training, coaching and team development, you can facilitate trust, strengthen your team members’ ability to deal with conflicts, and their collaborative skills, all of which come together to produce the results you want your executive and work teams to achieve.

When you're able to harness the talents and personalities of your team members to work together cohesively toward a common goal, everyone benefits. Imagine your team making smart decisions together, tapping into each person's special abilities, and staying focused cooperatively to get results. That's the kind of teamwork that provides your organization with the ability to compete at its best.

The best team development strategies help your team understand its individual and group strengths. A customized team development program that focuses on proven processes and factors crucial for success, can help your team make the needed improvements to perform, thrive and succeed at higher levels.