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Teamwork - It Really Does Make the Dream Work

January 24th, 2010

The third week in May is a very special week in Annapolis, MD. It is Commencement Week for the United States Naval Academy midshipmen, and every year the Blue Angels rehearse on Tuesday and perform on Wednesday afternoon. This year, for the first time in many years, several friends and I went to see this magnificent team perform and perform they did. I took this picture while the aircrafts were moving at speeds well in excess of 400 miles per hour notice the distance between the wings of the two aircraft.

Every Blue Angel performance is based around the center point. For this event, the center point was on the Severn River which borders the US Naval Academy. This is where we took our seats, and awaited the show’s beginning.

If you have never experienced this amazing team in action, you are certainly missing a demonstration of true of teamwork at its best. Watching and hearing the F-18 Hornets approach in and of itself is awe inspiring. Watching them approach from opposite ends of the center point at maximum velocity with minimal separation is nothing short of breathtaking.

The level of trust that the pilots have with each other is understandable the level of trust that they have with the enlisted men and women who maintain their aircraft, and support the team is equally amazing. For the Blue Angels every mission is critical. A successful performance is a matter of life and death. While everyone has his/her role to play on independent teams, each team realizes they are part of several other teams; and that each team must collaborate with all other teams to make any Blue Angels performance successful. While the pilots are often credit with the success of the performance, let’s not forget the rest of the teams that also make significant contributions.

This same concept holds true in every organization. Many times those at the top, or most visible, get the credit for the team’s success. Don’t forget the behind the scenes teams also contribute to the overall success and should be recognized.

Everyone must realize that the team they’re on is part of a larger team, with larger vision and mission. Whether your team is just a few, or a large project team, everyone is part of the bigger vision and mission.

Take a moment and think about the team(s) you work on everyday, and answer the following:

* Does your team communicate effectively at every level?
* Does your team put the team first every time?
* How well do your team’s values align with the purpose, mission, and vision of the bigger team or organization?
* How well are your team members trained in the job functions of others?

These represent just a few of the values of this elite team called the Blue Angels.

© 2009, Gregg Gregory.  All rights reserved. Reprints welcomed so long as article and by-line are kept intact and all links made live.

Gregg Gregory works with organizations to help design cooperative teams that produce results; and where people work together and perform at peak levels. Through his interactive workshops and consulting, Gregg’s clients achieve greater team focus, cooperation, productivity, and impact. His experience includes more than two decades of human resources, real estate, mortgage banking, as well as radio and television broadcasting. Please contact Gregg at 866-764-TEAM or visit http://TeamRocks.com

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/teamwork-it-really-does-make-the-dream-work-1772768.html

A Team Solving Problem Process

January 21st, 2010

Many times people consider solving problem to just be the action an individual or team takes to take care of a situation. The fact is that action important, and understanding the problem and what that understanding the problem and what the understanding suggests for the action to take is even more important.

In any work situation, there are going to be problems, there’s always going be an element of unpredictability in any activity in which we are engaged that can cause unexpected problems that affect the efficiency of a process or the quality of outputs or both.

A problem represents a situation in which actual conditions differ from what’s desired and gets in the way of performance or when a question arises to which the team needs an answer to proceed effectively with its tasks.

When problems occur, the team needs a way to address and solve these problems. You’ve seen an emphasis on the importance of the team understanding and effectively managing processes. The same is true for solving problems. The team needs a sound process for solving problems as they occur. By following this process in a disciplined leader, the team can efficiently solve problems as they arise and get on with its work.

Not all problems need to be addressed using the formal solving problems process described here, many times, small problems arise that a team member can promptly address alone. But when problem occur that will affect other team members and when there is no clear-cut course of action, then the formal solving problem process is appropriate.

Generally, the team will undertake the solving problem process as part of the team meeting. Each stage of the process will involve discussion and coming to various consensus decisions among them members. Individual members will also take on various assignments, usually involving gathering and analyzing information on some part of the problem that they report back to the entire team.

Nauka Shah, the author, is the founder of http://www.leadership-quality.com. A website dedicated to helping strategic leaders for his strategic leadership. She has written other leadership articles, press releases, leadership books, and has leadership videos on leadership development, motivation, self improvement, and organization development. Her mission is to help others all over the world succeed in their own business. To read more of her leadership articles and leadership tips visit her website at http://www.leadership-quality.com to read about A Team Solving Problem Process.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/a-team-solving-problem-process-1739896.html

The Keys to Dealing with Teamwork Problems

January 20th, 2010

The most important thing management and teams can do to solve problems is to take action that prevent many of them from occurring the first place. If you review the different types of teamwork problems, you will find that many of them come from management and from team members not properly understanding what instituting teams and being on a team really involves.

The teamwork culture and attitude are vital to success. So is training. With an understanding of why teams make sense and how they evolve and an open-eyed view of what’s required to participate as a team member, it’s far more likely they will succeed.

However, neither leaders nor team members ca anticipate all the problems that might get in the way of a team succeeding.

When problem arise, such as interpersonal or other types of conflicts or any of hundreds of everyday process problems, the team that succeed face these head on, collect data, and use an agreed-on-solving-problem approach to solve them.

It’s really not either the inability or lack of desire to deal with them. One hallmark of every successful team is the ability to confront and quickly solve problems when they occur. Another is for the team to understand processes well enough to prevent problems, especially those that relate to how the team members work together, from ever happening in the first place.

Finally, there is only one reason to implement teams in any organization: they help people, whose work is already interdependent, work together better. If managers, tem leaders, and team members understand this, deeply understand it, and then the types of problems reviewed here are less likely to happen.

And if they do occur, everyone will be able to deal with tem better, learn from experience, and continuously improve their performance.

In this article, you learned about why organization has problems implementing teams, what some of these problems are, and how to take actions to deal with them and assure team success.

Nauka Shah, the author, is the founder of http://www.leadership-quality.com. A website dedicated to helping strategic leaders for his strategic leadership. She has written other leadership articles, press releases, leadership books, and has leadership videos on leadership development, motivation, self improvement, and organization development. Her mission is to help others all over the world succeed in their own business. To read more of her leadership articles and leadership tips visit her website at http://www.leadership-quality.com to learn about The Keys to Dealing with Teamwork Problems.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/the-keys-to-dealing-with-teamwork-problems-1739994.html

Bolton hides the treasure extremely well

January 20th, 2010

The Lancashire town of Bolton is growing a reputation as the ideal place to hold team building and corporate hospitality events.  Though the town is a fair size, it does not suffer with the traffic problems of a large city such as Manchester, and thanks to its excellent road and rail transport links, is easy to get to from most Lancashire based cities and towns.  It can easily cater for team building events, whether they be indoor or outdoor based, and subsequently, Bolton has a lot to offer companies in this regard.

Many people associate team building with a group of people trying to turn a few planks of wood and some rope into a floating object such as a raft, and though this is a fair view of the concept of team building, many companies these days use a treasure hunt to bond their teams together.

A treasure hunt works best if it is set to a theme such as espionage or haunted house, and has characters to interrogate.  Here teams will work together to solve puzzles either against the clock or against other teams, and because of this shared experience will form a camaraderie, and get a valuable insight into each others strengths and weaknesses.  This new found knowledge and bond returns to the workplace where their company, sees a rise in output and in turn, profits.

To organise an activity of this nature, many companies now use event management companies to put a project such as a treasure hunt together.  The knowledge, experience and expertise to do so should never be underestimated, and companies that outsource their requirements tend to see better results.

John Tarr is a copy writer for ActionDays. Click for more information about Treasure Hunts in Bolton and across the UK.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/bolton-hides-the-treasure-extremely-well-1754504.html

The Keys to Dealing with Teamwork Problems

January 19th, 2010

The most important thing management and teams can do to solve problems is to take action that prevent many of them from occurring the first place. If you review the different types of teamwork problems, you will find that many of them come from management and from team members not properly understanding what instituting teams and being on a team really involves.

The teamwork culture and attitude are vital to success. So is training. With an understanding of why teams make sense and how they evolve and an open-eyed view of what’s required to participate as a team member, it’s far more likely they will succeed.

However, neither leaders nor team members ca anticipate all the problems that might get in the way of a team succeeding.

When problem arise, such as interpersonal or other types of conflicts or any of hundreds of everyday process problems, the team that succeed face these head on, collect data, and use an agreed-on-solving-problem approach to solve them.

It’s really not either the inability or lack of desire to deal with them. One hallmark of every successful team is the ability to confront and quickly solve problems when they occur. Another is for the team to understand processes well enough to prevent problems, especially those that relate to how the team members work together, from ever happening in the first place.

Finally, there is only one reason to implement teams in any organization: they help people, whose work is already interdependent, work together better. If managers, tem leaders, and team members understand this, deeply understand it, and then the types of problems reviewed here are less likely to happen.

And if they do occur, everyone will be able to deal with tem better, learn from experience, and continuously improve their performance.

In this article, you learned about why organization has problems implementing teams, what some of these problems are, and how to take actions to deal with them and assure team success.

Nauka Shah, the author, is the founder of http://www.leadership-quality.com. A website dedicated to helping strategic leaders for his strategic leadership. She has written other leadership articles, press releases, leadership books, and has leadership videos on leadership development, motivation, self improvement, and organization development. Her mission is to help others all over the world succeed in their own business. To read more of her leadership articles and leadership tips visit her website at http://www.leadership-quality.com to learn about The Keys to Dealing with Teamwork Problems.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/the-keys-to-dealing-with-teamwork-problems-1739998.html

Female Entrepreneurs: Avoid Falling Victim to the “I Can Do It Myself” Syndrome

January 19th, 2010

According to the Center for Women’s Business Research, as of 2008 10.1 million firms were owned by women (75% or more), they employed more than 13 million people and generated $1.9 trillion in sales. Many women are becoming entrepreneurs and stepping out on their own, but that doesn’t mean they have to go it alone.

I recently surveyed a group of female entrepreneurs and 75% of the women indicated that time is the most challenging factor — followed closely by money. Many of the female entrepreneurs that participated in the survey seemed to suffer from the same syndrome, one that I call the “I Can Do It Myself” Syndrome.

There are many reasons women have fallen victim to the “I Can Do It Myself” Syndrome, be it because they think they can save a few dollars by adhering to this credo, or because they feel that they cannot trust others to do the job as well as they themselves can.

Time is valuable and no one can afford to spend time on tasks that are non-revenue generating. In the state of today’s economy, every business is looking to reduce costs and increase revenue. The “I Can Do It Myself” Syndrome tells sufferers that they can save X amount of dollars if they just do it themselves; but what many entrepreneurs tend to forget about in this equation is that time is money. Calculate what you can make if you meet with a client for two hours and they sign a contract that’s worth $1,000+ vs. what you are saving by doing tasks such as social media, email marketing, web updates or managing your calendar for $30-$40 per hour. There is no comparison.

The side effects of the “I Can Do It Myself” Syndrome include, but are not limited to: burnout, stress, less time with family, irritability, self-doubt, loss of sleep, loss of revenue and, in some cases, loss of business.

A great prescription for eliminating these side effects is to engage a Virtual Assistant Team. Many female entrepreneurs feel they cannot afford a team, but what they don’t understand is they can’t afford to be without one. Learning to let go, and to let those who have the skills and expertise to handle what they do best while you handle what you do best, will allow you more time to grow your business. With a Virtual Assistant Team you spend less time giving instruction and trying to figure out how things work, while spending more time seeing results. No longer will you have to spend endless hours trying to figure out the latest social media trends and what you should and shouldn’t be using in your business. You can turn it all over to your Virtual Assistant Team.

Below are five solutions a Virtual Assistant Team can offer to your business that will result in a cure for the “I Can Do It Myself”Syndrome:

1. A Virtual Assistant Team can save you an entire quarter per year. If you are spending two hours a day on tasks such as social media, e-mail marketing, QuickBooks or other administrative tasks, you are losing an entire quarter a year! Let me break it down so you can really understand:

2 Hours a Day = 10 Hours a Week
10 Hours a Week = 40 Hours a Month
40 Hours a Month = 1 Week
1 Week a Month = 3 Months a Year
3 Months A Year = An Entire Quarter

2. When you engage a Virtual Assistant Team, the entire team is an extension of your business and is working towards a common goal. For example, the WordPress Specialist VA creates a sales pages for your workshop, the Shopping Cart Specialist VA loads your workshop to your shopping cart and sets up the auto responders, the PR VA prepares your press release announcing your new workshop, the Social Media VA tweets about the event and the QuickBooks specialist VA tracks your ROI for the workshop. One team working together, accomplishing your tasks in half the time in which an individual can.

3. A Virtual Assistant Team delivers one invoice — eliminating tracking multiple invoices issued on multiple dates with multiple pay cycles. One invoice from one team is delivered at the same time each month.

4. Each member of a Virtual Assistant Team has an area of expertise. Each VA on a team is in an expert in their area of specialization. No more having to slow lead time while you are waiting for an individual to ramp up their skills in area that they maybe unfamiliar with and/or have no interest in. One team with many capabilities is working together to help you increase your revenue.

5. When you work with a Virtual Assistant Team, the entire team is familiar with your business. If your assigned VA takes a day off or goes on vacation, you are not stuck looking for someone to fill in for them. With a Virtual Assistant Team there is always a Virtual Assistant available to fill in when necessary.

You let your accountant worry about the financial side of things, you let your lawyer worry about the legal side of things and you don’t worry too much about the money you are spending because you trust your accountant and lawyer are professionals and are representing you in a professional manner. Engage a Virtual Assistant Team and let them worry about your day-to-day tasks while you spend your time handling your business.

Kirsten A. Womack, the owner of Im-mack-ulate Impressions a virtual consulting company that provides business support services and insider expertise invites you to visit http://www.immackulateimpressions.com to learn how a Virtual Assistant Team can reduce your workload.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/female-entrepreneurs-avoid-falling-victim-to-the-i-can-do-it-myself-syndrome-1745935.html

Are you looking for the real secrets?

January 19th, 2010

Everyone is always looking for the real secrets to making our life easier and more effective. Although there are many secrets to achieving this, one of the most important is that you must focus on your Energy. Everywhere you look in the world, fatigue is ever-increasing, occurring more frequently, and becoming more and more of a challenge. You wake up each day with energy, optimistic that today will be a good day, but as the day progresses, your energy slowly leaves you. Sometimes things happen that zap it instantly. Why does this continue to occur?

If you follow any spiritual healers, they’ll tell you that we are all made up from energy - mentally, physically, emotionally, and spiritually.

And that the choices you make each day have outcomes that spend your life energy. Similar to your bank account, your life is financed by the resources you have available to you. If you spend all of your money in your bank account, oftentimes you run out before you get to the end of the month. Similarly, you must be diligent when spending the energy you have, because if you spend your life energy without consciously thinking about it, you will burn out (notice, not may, but will); you will be too tired to take advantage of the significant opportunities that come along.

There are ways that you can preserve your time and energy for yourself. Quality time is needed to ensure you have the energy to make quality decisions. In order to create, think, invent and plan, and then take action, you need energy reserves. Networking and building relationships in your current and next phase of life all require energy. Reading, resting, hobbies, activities, these all require some amount of energy in order for you to enjoy them. Think about when children come to visit (it could be nieces or nephews, cousins or grandchildren). While they are in your presence, they exude energy.

While they are near, you feel more energetic with them! And sometimes, once they have left, you feel exhaustion. You haven’t been accustomed to that amount of energy, so the amount you need to keep up with their activity and energy can leave you energy-less upon their departure. But it doesn’t have to be this way!

I’m not suggesting that you don’t let them come to visit. Instead, I’m suggesting that you put yourself into situations where your body, mind and spirit become accustomed to this level of energy.

Taking control of your time and more carefully spending your energy can be the single biggest step toward extraordinary success you will ever take.

Your Assignment:

Now it’s your turn. Grab a piece of paper, and write down ways that you can increase your energy. It could be taking part in a regular activity, or maybe dedicating time you can spend where children are – a playground, or even the children’s ward in a hospital. Activity and play are two essential components to a healthy lifestyle, so don’t just think about it, take action NOW. I’d love to hear what ways you’re increasing your energy.

Write to me at tracey@NewFaceOfRetirement.com to let me know what you’re doing. If I get a lot of letters, I’ll dedicate a whole issue of my ezine to share the ways with you, giving you the benefit of ideas from others just like you.

Tracey Fieber is founder of “The Secrets to Retirement Success System™”, the most complete Retirement Transition program for executives and small business owners.

Using her own principles, Tracey went from a corporate executive to a retirement filled with adventure, passion and purpose, in less than 8 months!

Tracey is the celebrated author of the Retirement Success Home Study System™, and author of the upcoming book “How to Retire to a Life of Adventure, Passion and Purpose”. Get your free CD “7 Steps to Cracking the Retirement Code”, available on www.NewFaceOfRetirement.com.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/are-you-looking-for-the-real-secrets-1741345.html

Office Christmas Parties - The Right Etiquette

January 18th, 2010

We have compiled some handy words of advice on how to avoid ruining your good reputation at work by playing it safe at the office Christmas party so you turn up for work the next day unscathed.

You want to be able to go back to work with some anonymity after the work office party. How are you going to be able to look at your work mates the same way as you used to after an embarrassing night of dancing on the tables and being abit of a menace?

Christmas work parties are abit like when we were young and at school, we just couldn’t wait to let it all hang out come the end of the year. The thing is that there can be something very unattractive when an adult acts like a school kid on heat and can undo their good reputation by one night when the build up of emotions are released after a hard year at work.

Socializing with our peers is something that is not all that common with many office work place environments. Even though we see our work mates everyday, there are many characteristics that remain undiscovered. So it really is little wonder that after a few drinks and everyone can finally, at last, lower their guard, that so many regretful occurrences are common in this environment.

There is so much anticipation in the lead up to work parties come Christmas time, and with the added excitement of free booze all night, many stories can be told of how people end up stuck on a 5 hour cruise with their work mates and boss throwing up over the side of the boat.

Don’t make the mistake of deciding to tell your work peers how incompetent one of your fellow workers are. If you go and bad mouth other work mates, no one will trust you and you run the risk of people finding out about your gossiping.

What may seem very innocent to you at the time may have the potential to have devastating repercussions down the track. We are talking about the potential of sexual harassment. Would you put your arm around someone during work hours? No - would you attempt to kiss someone on the lips during work hours? No. This truly is very tricky terrain, if you read someone’s signals incorrectly and decide to act (after 6 beers) then you are foolish and risk being charged with a harassment suit and losing your job.

Restrain yourself from mixing business with pleasure, it’s bound to fail! With so many options to meet new people such as online dating sites or other online alternatives like singles chat rooms , why risk your job and reputation?

If you are looking to cut loose and go crazy, the office Christmas party may not be the most ideal location. The risk is too great, our jobs and financial security need to be protected, and acting up in an improper manner fueled by alcohol is a great way to put all of this at jeopardy.

Visit online for tips and reviews on singles sites to improve your social life.

TodaysDating offers free singles dating websites USA. The site also offers a local free online dating service in Australia. Chat live to locals, simply register, then type in your zipcode to find your match.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/office-christmas-parties-the-right-etiquette-1742050.html

The Teamwork Attitude Importance in Organization

January 17th, 2010

Teamwork is both an attitude and a set of action. The teamwork attitude reminds people that everyone’s work is interdependent, and the success of the entire organization requires that people cooperate with each other. Teamwork actions involve everyone in (1) understanding the whole process and its goals, (2) understanding their individual roles in the process, (3) communicating openly and regularly with one another, and (4) having joint responsibility to execute, as well as continuously improve, the process.

The idea of setting up teams in organization has been a hot management idea for the past several years. Top leaders, always on the lookout for solutions to the problem of improving productivity, decide to set up teams. A memo is then issued declaring that this or that group of workers is now a “team”.

They hope that this will result in reduced costs and higher-quality work. These leaders may even bring in a consulting company to train people in various teamwork skills, such as communication, meeting skills, team decision-making, and so on.

However, there is often one problem in all this. These leaders have a teamwork attitude problem. They still have a tendency to treat people as if they were those independent contractors mentioned previously. They have not yet adopted the teamwork attitude.

It quickly becomes apparent to workers that calling them a “team” is just another management gimmick that doesn’t result in any changes in the way they are managed. The organization still doesn’t have a good understanding of its processes. And it hasn’t put a high premium on the cooperation and Communication necessary for teams to operate effectively. The result is mediocre cooperation and not much change from how things were done before.

Unless leaders deeply understand and buy into the idea of the organization as a system, calling groups of workers teams simply won’t make any difference. There has to be an attitude shift where leaders see that taking actions that facilitate cooperation and collaboration among people throughout the organization is the way to improve performance.

Nauka Shah, the author, is the founder of http://www.leadership-quality.com. A website dedicated to helping strategic leaders for his strategic leadership. She has written other leadership articles, press releases, leadership books, and has leadership videos on leadership development, motivation, self improvement, and organization development. Her mission is to help others all over the world succeed in their own business. To read more of her leadership articles and leadership tips visit her website at http://www.leadership-quality.com to read about The Teamwork Attitude Importance in Organization.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/the-teamwork-attitude-importance-in-organization-1736152.html

The Team Development Stages

January 17th, 2010

At each team development stage we can expect different behaviours. Some have to do with getting used to each other. Some have to do with creating modes of working together. And some have to do with getting on with the tasks and objectives for which the team was formed in the first place.  In the jargon of teams, the four team development stages are forming, storming, norming, and performing.

STAGE 1: FORMING:  Just as the name implies, this is the beginning team development stage of team. It’s the stage where members start to feel one another out and get to know each other as tem members, not just fellow employees. One expert in organization culture calls this the dependency stage. The member depends on one another and the leader to provide direction because they aren’t sure of themselves.

STAGE 2: STORMING:  In this team development stage, the members begin to understand their task. They may realize that it is more difficult than they imagined. They still don’t have their roles figured out. At this point, it’s normal for members to become a little defensive because they are not making progress as quickly they would like. They’re not sure how it’s all going to work out, and they might become anxious and impatient.

STAGE 3: NORMING:  In this team development stage, team members begin to reconcile differences among themselves and finally get used to working together. They accept each other, their roles, norms, and expectations. As this happens, the team member’s initial resistance to working together fades away and competitive relationship become more cooperative.

STAGE 4: PERFORMING: At this team development stage, the team members have reconciled most of their differences, and they have become comfortable with each other. They have discovered and they accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses.

High performing teams don’t just spring up ready to go. It takes time, energy, experience, and learning for a group of people who come together as a team to learn how to operate as well functioning units.

It’s useful for anyone who is trying to start a team or who is going to be a member of one to understand these team development stages. In this way, team members won’t have their expectations shattered when things don’t go so smoothly at the beginning.

Finally, don’t forget that high-performing teams are most likely to happen in organizations that have a set of values in place that supports teamwork.

Nauka Shah, the author, is the founder of http://www.leadership-quality.com. A website dedicated to helping strategic leaders for his strategic leadership. She has written other leadership articles, press releases, leadership books, and has leadership videos on leadership development, motivation, self improvement, and organization development. Her mission is to help others all over the world succeed in their own business. To read more of her leadership articles and leadership tips visit her website at http://www.leadership-quality.com to read The Team Development Stages.

Article Source:http://www.articlesbase.com/team-building-articles/the-team-development-stages-1736703.html

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