One question you often hear this time of the year is “How’s your team doing?” with a reference to either your favorite college or professional football team. If your team is doing well, like my Clemson Tigers, the answer is an easy one-GREAT! If not, then the answer may be a mumbled set of reasons why the “team” is not doing well….bad coaching, players not “all-in”, not playing well nor getting along with team mates, injuries, poor officiating, maybe we’ll be better next year and so on.
So, how’s your team doing? By team, I mean your organization or company team. Great? Could be better? Not sure? or actually not very well? Are we using similar excuses as our football teams…bad management, employees don’t get it, not doing their job nor working together well, staff is not available (too many meetings or conference calls), bad processes or outdated rules etcetera and etcetera.
Have you stopped lately to take a step back and consider how your team is functioning? Have you ever assessed the performance of your team and what is working and what can be improved?
The key to great teams is the same whether in the office or on the football field.
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Top performing football teams are really an example of good management, talented employees, good processes, performing your job function exceptionally, accountability, taking ownership of the task(s) you’ve been given, caring about each other and the success of the overall team vs. the individual. Football teams spend hours upon hours of time reviewing tapes of last week’s game to evaluate what went well and how to “clean up” mistakes as well as reviewing upcoming opponents.
Do you take the time in your organization similarly? Does your organization take:
Time to think,
Time to plan
Time to reflect/improve?
How does your organization mostly communicate?
By email
By phone, conference calls
By text
By meetings
In person
As a team huddles and calls time out to think, plan, take action and reflect/improve, it is critical that organizations slow the “pace of the game” to make sure all team members clearly know the plan, what their role is, what the expected outcome will be and to “clean up” issues, mistakes and improve.
Rod Walker & Associates Consultancy (RW&A) would like to assist you in assessing the state of your team. For more information on how to address this issue or others related to Organizational Performance, contact Rod Walker at rwalker@rwalkerconsultancy.com or 706-244-0894.