Building Strong Team Member Relationships, Part II

Last week we took a look at manager and team member relationships. This week we will take a closer look at the relationships between team members. History has shown that teams with strong connections amongst team members have a greater chance of accomplishing their goals. It is hard to find a high performing team that consists of team members that do not like and respect each other. So how do we as a company promote the development of strong team member relationships? Here are a couple of thoughts.

Share a mission or purpose. It could be said that business is a team sport. When we work with our teams to reach our goals, personal connection is generated through the objectives we strive to achieve together. Common purpose is experienced in teams by achieving milestones, goals, vision or intentions and in some unusual companies, all of these. We earn and sustain connection by accomplishing greater purposes than we could otherwise achieve on our own. As team members we should encourage our fellow team members to work together to create a clear team mission or purpose.

Encourage candor. Candor is defined as the quality of being honest and straightforward in attitude and speech. I’ve observed in some cases, team members who are afraid to speak openly to other members on their team. What makes candor so challenging? Ultimately it boils down to the fact that we don’t think people can take it or worse yet we don’t think we can take their reaction to our truthfulness, so we avoid the discomfort and give up the opportunity. Fostering candor has ability to strengthen our teams. Let’s not hide behind our fear, let’s speak up and be authentic with our teammates.

Have fun together. The other day I attended a birthday party for the spouse of one of our team members. Several other fellow employees attended the party as well. As a team we enjoyed a fun evening filled with great food and great company. I personally had the chance to get to know some of our team members and their spouses better. My personal connection with these individuals grew. Our teams should be encouraged to have fun together in both work settings and non-work settings. Sometimes teams rely on the same people to take the lead when it comes to planning fun activities. These individuals should be appreciated for their efforts, and those of us that are not are so proactive in planning fun events, should look for opportunities to step up our participation.

I’d like to know your thoughts. tony@repowell.net

Tony

www.repowell.net