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The Art Of Team-Building
How Leaders Can Win The Mental Game In
The Workplace
Bill Cole, MS, MA
"There's only one standard. Once you're stuck on the flypaper,
you're stuck. If you don't set a high standard, you can't
expect your people to act right."
--Donald Kendall, Chairman, PepsiCo
How well are your teams performing? How much more could you
be getting out of them? What's holding them back from greatness?
Are the people on your teams glad they are there? How could
you support them even better? How does your leadership harm
or enrich your teams?
If you want your teams to rise to their potential, you have
to approach team-building from a different mind set. Modern
team-building requires more than bureaucratic, heavy-handed
rules and regulations, and command and control mandates. It
requires updated, creative, flexible, people-centered strategies
that are aligned with organizational objectives. Only then
will your teams produce results that catapult your organization
forward.
Here are 12 executive leadership strategies for building a
world-class team that can compete with anyone.
12 Strategies For Creating World-Class Teams
1. Make Your Teams Nimble, Fast And Flexible. The best
teams learn and perform on the fly. Build in extreme maneuverability
in your teams.
2. Make More Teams, Of Smaller Size. Make your team
size manageable and dedicated to specific issues and focus
they can tackle quickly and successfully.
3. Make Sure Each Team Has A Unifying Vision And Mandate.
A team vision is a winning vision. Create an inspiring view
of what the team will do once it is successful.
4. Make Your Teams Learning Machines. A team that learns
well is a team that succeeds. Help them learn continuously
and learn vociferously.
5. Give Your Team A Special Identity And Self-Concept.
Give your team something that will make them stand out and
feel special. Give them something to brag about and and to
be well-known for.
6. Continually Raise The Self-Esteem Of Your Team.
Assume your team will succeed mightily. Tell them you have
complete faith and hope in them, and how much you appreciate
their efforts.
7. Give Your Teams Decision-Making Autonomy. Speed
team communication and lubricate team functioning by allowing
as many intra-team decisions as possible. Reduce the organizational
drag on your teams.
8. Allow Your Teams To Be Creativity Factories. Honor
and encourage innovation so your teams can lead the edge.
Respect bold forays into the unknown and reward big thinking.
9. Give Your Team A Nourishing, Challenging Environment.
Supply your team with everything it needs for success. Support,
encourage and nudge your team, and then get out of its way
and let it succeed.
10. Make Your Team A Living, Breathing Entity, Not A Bureaucracy.
Slash the paperwork, the reporting and the ponderous meetings.
Allow your teams to infuse projects with their own blood and
energies.
11. Give Your Team A Crisp, Open, Communication Architecture.
Construct a friendly, smart and responsive feedback system
and watch them succeed.
12. Know When NOT To Have A Team. A smart leader knows
when a team should not be a team. Stop forcing inappropriate
work on a team and let them do the important work they were
built to do.
Teams must be respected for what they are capable of when
fortified with the proper organizational nutrients and allowed
to run with their mandates. To catapult your teams to new
heights, get out of their way and trust they will perform
to their potential.
"Winners are the people, who, when the odds are stacked against
them, and those around them have fallen, will have the courage
to look within themselves and make the unbelievable believable,
and the impossible possible."
--C. Phillips
To learn more about how team building can help your organization
reach its potential, visit Bill Cole, MS, MA, the Mental Game
Coach™ at www.mentalgamecoach.com/Programs/MentalGameOfTeamBuilding.html.
Copyright © Bill Cole, MS, MA 2005, 2008 All rights reserved.
This article covers only one small part of the mental game.
A complete mental training program includes motivation and
goal-setting, pre-event mental preparation, post-event review
and analysis, mental strengthening, self-regulation training,
breath control training, mental rehearsal, concentration training,
pressure-proofing, communication training, confidence-building,
breaking through mental barriers, slump prevention, mental
toughness training, flow training, relaxation training, psych-out
proofing and media training.
For a comprehensive overview of your mental abilities
you need an assessment instrument that identifies your complete
mental strengths and weaknesses. For a free, easy-to-take
73-item executive leadership skills assessment tool you can
score right on the spot, visit https://www.mentalgamecoach.com/Assessments/ExecutiveSkills.html.
This assessment gives you a quick snapshot of your strengths
and weaknesses in your mental game. You can use this as a
guide in creating your own mental training program, or as
the basis for a program you undertake with Bill Cole, MS,
MA to improve your mental game. This assessment would be an
excellent first step to help you get the big picture about
your leadership mental game.
Bill Cole, MS, MA, a leading authority on peak performance, mental toughness
and coaching, is founder and President of the International Mental Game Coaching
Association, https://www.mentalgamecoaching.com.
Bill is also founder and CEO of William B. Cole Consultants, a consulting firm that helps
organizations and professionals achieve more success in business, life and sports.
He is a multiple Hall of Fame honoree, an award-winning scholar-athlete, published
book author and articles author, and has coached at the highest levels of major-league
pro sports, big-time college athletics and corporate America. For a free, extensive
article archive, or for questions and comments visit him at www.MentalGameCoach.com.
Article Source: MentalGameCoach.com
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