Trainism

Building synergy in teams is one of the most promising & difficult concepts for the 21st- century Corporates. Most experts feel that every team before being fully productive has to go through the four stages of Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. Where :-

1. Forming: Is a stage in which a group of members are clubbed together however, they are clueless of what is expected out of them.
2. Storming: As the name suggest this stage is full of storming. It only talks about blame game & always disregarding the other.
3. Norming: In this stage team members become willing to listen to each other & talk about solutions rather than problems.
4. Performing: This is the last & the most desirable stage wherein teams become proactive, collaborative, enthusiastic, trust worthy & self motivated and self directed.

If all this is a prerequisite then what is expected out of smart leader is to reach the last stage of Performing as soon as possible. It has also been observed that in a real life scenario all the team members at one point in time will never be are not able to cross any one stage together, the reason could be their age, background, maturity level, past experience. A true Leader can play a very vital in overcoming these huddles.

A lot of study, calculative moves and strategy should be planned before clubbing a group of members to form a task force. Leaders should focus a lot on giving directions through coaching & mentoring, to the extent of hand holding i.e. providing supportive & corrective rather than giving insignificant feedback & abusive.

Usually managers follow the PUSH approach and fail. If they follow the PULL approach, wherein things are derived by the team members, such a task force will any day be more productive , self motivated & directed because from the beginning they have involved, felt responsible & important for their actions.

Tips & Insights for Leaders:

• Put like minded (common traits) people together in a group to avoid conflict.
• Develop your own team values. However, remember these inputs should come from your team members & not from you.
• Put the right person at the right job at the right time.
• Define Objectives & Goals as per job profile. Also make the team members anticipate obstacles & also let them know the solutions to the problem.
• DRY RUN: What most managers / leaders forget to do is full KT (Knowledge Transfer). This should also include practical demonstration, as it reduces the risk of error in work & team members feel confident.
• Patiently pursue team goals & don’t harp upon them every now & then, as you might create a big mess.
• Be directional & make the team members see what you want them to see. “No employee would be happy to build a castle, he can never dream of”. Make him visualize it.
• Be a mentor & hold regular meetings with the team. Just don’t talk about process & policy. You might be labeled as a boring leader. Do keep the human side in mind.
• Let the team member know when he or she is doing a good job. Appreciate them as much as you can because this is not the right time for escalations & negative feedback. Start from supportive feedback & gradually move on to Corrective feedback. Once people click with you emotionally they will take negative feedback more openly.
• Be flexible in your approach & be open to feedback and ideas.
• Don’t just give team members roles & responsibilities, but also give them Power, Authority & means to accomplish those responsibilities. Let them know power of their actions.
• Let every member in your team feel special & wanted. In th enter gamut of work, work & work we forget that we are after all dealing with people who are emotional with lots & lots of needs.

As per Rudyard Kipling every one in the world has SIX best friends, who can help him/her in any situation. These friends are What, When, Where, How, Why & How.

• WHAT are we here for & what’s in it for ME?
• WHY is it required, can’t we do without it?
• WHO are others in the team, can’t we SWAP any?
• WHERE are we heading towards, what is the initial objective & the final goal?
• WHEN will we begin & where will it end?
• HOW do we proceed, what are the obstacles & the solutions to it?

I very strongly feel that if the above actions are taken into consideration and if Managers or leaders are able to provide answers the following questions & make them see what he wants them to see it will take minimal time to reach a Productive stage of PERFORMING & the team will have synergy.