Leadership Team Development Solutions - Cultivating a Cohesive Team in Lafayette, LA

Proven Team Training and Team Assessment that Enables Cross-Functional Teams to Meet Business Goals in the Lafayette area

The components in any machine are vital to its overall performance. Similarly, the people in any company are essential elements in its success. When you nurture your executives and employees with effective training schemes, you help them function more efficiently at work. Team development programs designed with your company in mind can help managers and work teams work together more cohesively, improving overall morale and driving your business’ growth.

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.

In 2012, Google began a new research project in team development, which it dubbed Project Aristotle. The Googlers studied 180 productive, effective teams but couldn't figure out what they had in common. Was it hierarchical structure? No. Did the team members have compatible backgrounds or personality types? Sometimes, but not always. Were all the team members friends who hung out together after work? Again, sometimes.

The Google researchers drilled deeper and deeper, finally discovering the one element that all great teams share: psychological safety.

According to Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson, psychological safety is the "shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking." To reach a point of psychological safety, trust is vital, as is the ability to disagree in a healthy manner.
The Project Aristotle researchers then looked at how psychological safety manifests itself in healthy teams, highlighting two defining factors that show up in the give-and-take of the top productive teams.

Social Sensitivity. In top teams, all the members are honest about their emotional states and moods, and they're considerate of each other in this regard.
Turn-taking. All members of an effective team end up participating to the same extent. This is especially crucial when a team is dealing with conflicts.
When psychological safety exists, individual team members are free to bring their very best contributions to the table. The team then becomes greater than the sum of its individual parts, and it is able to deal with conflict in a healthy manner and stay focused on its task.

If this sounds like something your team could use, give us a call at 281-469-4244. We look forward to providing scalable solutions for increasing the profitability of your organization.

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.

How Team Contributions Are Like Stone Soup

In many ways, a successful business team is a lot like stone soup. You've probably heard the old fable: Two travelers, tired and hungry, stop in a poor town and, having nothing to eat, begin boiling a stone in a pot of water in view of the townspeople. Curious residents come by to see what they're doing and listen to their adventures. Upon learning that they have only a stone to cook, the people begin offering their suggestions of additional ingredients to improve the results: one brings potatoes, another bring carrots and a third bring cabbage. Soon, a delicious stew is simmering to be shared by all.

Like the travelers' stone soup, a successful team is made up of the contributions of each individual. Only when everyone brings something to the table (pun intended) can a cohesive unit be created so that the company's success is shared by all.

How We Can Help Your Team Come Together

Effective teams bring together disparate individuals to create a group that works together for the benefit of the company, with each one's part clearly defined. We help teams improve communication, cooperation and culture so they can better move as a unit toward desired goals.
Our proven techniques, taken in part from The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team, help you train team members to make improved decisions, avoid useless discussions and arguments and take advantage of each individual's strengths to form a more effective unit. Participants learn about their team style and how it affects and enhances the team's functioning. Building on the five behaviors — trust, conflict, commitment, accountability and results — each employee will be able to see their role and achieve more as a team member.

Our Training Is Customized for Your Company's Situation

Be assured that you will receive individualized attention when you come to us. Unlike some training companies, we don't offer open events for managers from several companies to attend. We create programs specifically for your company, customized to your organization's needs and goals and taking into account any other programs in place, so you come away with useful, relevant strategies and tools to help your group and, ultimately, add to the success of the entire organization. Our team development programs are usually geared toward intact teams or work-groups (both large and small teams may be accommodated), so everyone walks away with the effective teamwork knowledge and practice they need.

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.

Great team-training courses help participants feel accomplished, energetic and ready to achieve challenging objectives. Well-nurtured employees at all levels interact with their colleagues and peers in healthier ways, helping to create a positive atmosphere in the workplace. To achieve real success, businesses choose tailor-made team-building programs, which empower their participants and ultimately drive company growth.