Monthly Archives: November 2017

stage II of team development

Stage II of Team Development

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Stage II of Team Development. Getting Organized and Dealing with Conflicts

In stage II of team development teams get organized and learn how to deal with conflicts. In my last article and video, I covered stage I of team development. In stage I team members are essentially dependent on their leader for all decisions and simply responsible to carry out their tasks according to performance and quality standards.

 

stage II of team developmentAt each stage of team development team members need to learn specific skills to function together as a team. At stage II of team development team members are feeling each other out and getting to know each other. Trust is usually low.  This may less true of people who have been working together for a long time, but because teamwork requires people’s input on decision-making, a new dynamic is formed.

 

As team members begin to discuss issues amongst each other potential conflicts arise. Personality traits drives specific behaviors that can cause misunderstanding as people express themselves. Some people express themselves more assertively for example and others could perceive this as wanting to control things. Another type might think that their ideas are the best and might try and dominate discussions to get their point across and accepted. Still other types may be fearful of conflict and would tend to hold back their thoughts.

An essential skill for team members to learn is self knowledge and mutual understanding. When people better understand themselves and each other, they become more tolerant and appreciate of others rather than fearing the differences.

 

Crazy-ZooIn our leadership and team training programs we used the types of people approach developed by Fritz Glaus and practically explained in his book Crazy-Zoo To Know Thyself Made Easy. Personality assessments such as the PXT Select or the Profiles Performance Indicator can be used as well.

 

At this stage of team development, the leader needs to involve people in decision-making. This is to establish goals for the team, discuss improvements and solve problems. Potential conflicts may arise through these discussions and the skills required by team members are active listening, consensus building and dealing with conflict.

 

It’s the supervisor or manager’s responsibility to provide skills training to team members that I mentioned above. The organization needs to provide the manager with the resources needed as not all managers are able to train their team members on these skills.

 

In upcoming articles and videos, I will cover these skills and the next levels of team development in more detail. Subscribe to our newsletter and YouTube channel to stay informed.

 

demonstration of employee performance evaluation

Demonstration of employee performance evaluation

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In this video I conduct an actual employee performance evaluation with my office manager Sonia. I use the approach I explained in my article and video, Conducting a Mid-Year or Quarterly Employee Performance Review. I also use the five core competencies explained in the article and video, Setting Personal Development Goals with Employees.

 

I also introduce a new evaluation form that makes it easy to discuss and agree on performance improvements based on the five core competencies. The form can be downloaded through this link.

 

 

model for building trust

The Model for Building Trust in Teams

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The Model for Building Trust Among Team Members

Trust is a fundamental element for building teamwork. Trust means that team members are reliable, accountable and will treat people with respect.

 

But trust needs to be earned. When new teams are formed, trust is usually low because team members don’t know each other well and tend to want to feel each other out.

 

For teams to move from the first stage of team development to the second stage they need to participate in setting ground rules, goals and objectives, procedures etc. They need to organize themselves and this requires discussion for everyone to give their input on decisions.

Making and Keeping Agreements

When people keep their agreements, trust is gained. When agreements are broken so is trust. An agreement is a verbal or written commitment from one party to another.  Agreements need to be clear, so the expectations are clear as well.  Fuzzy agreements create a potential for conflict and confusion.

 

Think of a recent situation when someone did not keep their agreement. How did you feel? Has this happened often with this person? What is your trust level on a scale of 1 to 10 for this person?

 

People should only make agreements or commitments that they can keep.

Credibility

When people keep the agreements and commitments they become credible. We can believe that what they say they will be done.  They become dependable.

 

Treating others with fairness and respect gives people credibility and makes them trustful.

Openness

When people are consistently truthful we know we can trust their words and actions. When we feel we are being listened to and understood we feel we can be open with that person.

 

Open people are unafraid about admitting their mistakes. They have nothing to hide.

 

The above elements lead to trust in relationships and among team members.

 

Everyone can perhaps be better at one of these elements. Review the descriptions and choose one thing you can work on to gain greater trust from others.

model for building trust