Just for a moment, imagine waking up after a good night’s rest and some of your feedback systems were not working. You could see and hear, but you didn’t recognize anything in the room. You are conscious. So you know that you should be awakening in your bedroom, but nothing seems familiar. You’re also aware that you can’t feel the sheets against your body. Your mind wanted to walk, but without feeling in your legs, you simply crumbled to the floor. Even if you could walk, you would have no idea where any rooms might be located within wherever you have found yourself.

Can you imagine the fear that might overwhelm you? We’re so accustomed to receiving and understanding essential information from our environment, that we literally take feedback for granted. We think you will agree that the simple act of getting out of bed to make the morning coffee is both a gift and a blessing.

The feedback systems contained in our bodies protect us. Positive feedback tells us to start eating when we’re hungry and when to stop. Painful feedback is similarly important. Just imagine if you could not feel the pain when touching something hot – you could experience severe physical damage without knowing it. That wouldn’t be good.

We recognize the beauty of feedback in the physical realm, but struggle with it in the psychological realm. More specifically, receiving positive feedback is generally okay (some of us act embarrassed), but receiving information that is painful in some manner is a different story. Our nature is to protect ourselves from danger and other painful events, thus the reason many of us adhere to the Japanese proverb…”see no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil”.

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Let’s approach the answer to this question historically. There are many theories of motivation, but we will highlight a couple of classics and we promise not to write a history book.

Theory X vs. Theory Y

Motivating people has probably been an issue since humans populated this earth and created organizational life. Leaders emerged and their authority allowed them to direct and control. Douglas McGregor labeled this leadership style Theory X. McGregor proposed that management practices stem from the manager’s perception of the basic nature of people.

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1.What is passion?
2.From where does passion originate?
3.What am I passionate about?
4.Do I want to live my passion?
5.Do I have the courage to follow where my passion leads me?

Since passion is an essential ingredient in your life and career, we want you to develop as much of this natural resource as you want. This article answers the five questions listed above.

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The People Track Determines the Success of the Technical Track

The leadership team of this agency recognized that, like a railroad track, there are two tracks inherent in an organization – a technical track and the people track – and both tracks must be maintained for the success of the agency.

The challenge for the leadership team was two-fold. First – how to define the performance standards stating the expectations of how members of the team were to work together. Second – how to measure the use of these standards.

Defining the desired performance standards is achieved by engaging the team members into writing their TeamWork Value Statement (TWVS), which reads as follows:

In the 21st Century, the agency’s self-directed teams consist of colleagues who have a shared sense of purpose, support each other, openly communicate, and are innovative, trustworthy, respectful and accountable.

Then, they defined the contents of the TeamWork Value Statement:

Self-directed

• We empower team members to make decisions closer to the customer
• We use our authority to “go the extra mile” to meet each other’s needs
• We make decisions through consensus

Shared Sense of Purpose

• Our common goals are defined
• We understand our common goals
• We are held accountable to achieve our common goals
• We work to meet the agency’s vision, mission, guiding principles and core goals

Support Each Other

• We understand what we need from each other
• We proactively meet the needs of others to help each other be successful
• We recognize each other for a job well done

Openly Communicate

• We present the facts of the situation
• We feel free to express our ideas
• We objectively accept diverse ideas
• We openly discuss the behaviors to be implemented to improve teamwork

Innovative

• We encourage the expression of new ideas
• We willingly try new ideas
• We practice the philosophy, “mistakes are learning opportunities for competence building”

Trustworthy

• We are dependable and do what we agree upon
• We keep confidential information confidential
• We keep each other informed with necessary information
• We are consistent so team members know what to expect from each other

Respectful

• We accept each other as individuals
• We listen to understand one another’s input
• We use that input whenever possible
• We tell each other how their input was used

Accountable

• We competently complete our job responsibilities
• We competently complete our responsibilities in support of the teams’ decisions
• We provide feedback regarding the progress of meeting each other’s needs
• We accept the feedback offered to improve performance
• We do what needs to be done to implement the TeamWork Value Statement

Quantifying Team Member’s Behavior

The leadership team agreed with the concept that “top-down change produces bottom-up commitment” and elected to begin implementing their TWVS before cascading the implementation to other teams. The MBC Software methodologies were used to measure the degree members of the leadership team were successfully implementing this statement.

The baseline results indicated the team could be more successful at implementing the behaviors associated with their teamwork value, “supporting each other.” The team collectively needed to better understand what each other needed, to proactively meet those needs and to recognize each other for a job well done.

Working with these results, the team defined and decided to measure the implementation of these behavioral strategies on a weekly basis:

1. We put the teams’ needs over our individual needs
2. We let each other know what is needed to help the team be more successful
3. We ask each other what we can do to help them be more successful
4. We do what needs to be done to help each other in accordance to an agreed upon time schedule
5. We keep each other informed about the status of meeting the identified needs
6. We objectively listen to understand the feedback/information we are receiving
7. We celebrate successes

Frustration is Really Your Best Friend!

The data clearly showed the team was not celebrating successes and the other behaviors either flat lined, indicating no improvement, or declined. The team was struggling to operate as it desired to function. Discussing these data opened the volcanic rush of frustration expressed by many team members. The common denominator of this frustration was that team members were independently engaging in activities that some members thought should have been coordinated by the team. The team appeared to be operating with two sets of rules.

The expressed frustration was channeled to the creation of the following question set in an effort to better understand the dynamics of the team. A multi-rater measurement procedure was used to compare each team member’s self-rating versus how their team members rated him/her.

1. Attends most, if not all, team meetings
2. Uses the team concept – process decisions through the appropriate team
3. Presents the facts of the situation
4. Objectively accepts diverse ideas
5. Practices the behaviors defined in the TWVS

Additionally, team members rated themselves on the following question set:

1. I feel free to express my opinions
2. I feel team members listen to understand my input
3. My input is accepted on a status equal to the other team members
4. I feel free to confront other team members about their inappropriate behaviors

Each team member reviewed his/her data before the team meeting to discuss the results. The data very clearly highlighted those team members not using the team processes, but that team members were not comfortable discussing behaviors deemed inappropriate and adversely impacted the team’s performance.

A facilitator met with each team member to discuss his/her personal data in preparation for a team meeting to discuss the data. Confusion about implementing the specific team process emerged as the predominate topic of this meeting.

To clarify this confusion, the team adopted the following standard operating procedures stemming from their TWVS, which addresses the issues of consensus decision-making, empowerment and having input into decisions.

1. Consensus is required for the leadership team to establish policies for the agency
2. Individual team members are empowered to initiate activities within the scope of their responsibilities and to engage other team members that are affected
3. The leadership team is to be kept informed about the status of the respective initiatives
4. The leadership team intervenes when two or more team members reach an impasse on what action needs to be taken on any given issue

A question set was entered into the MBC Software, and at the time of this writing, team members are now measuring the degree to which the team is applying these procedures. In the end, the frustration associated with the team’s working relationship is helping the team achieve a higher performance level.

In Conclusion

The dynamics of this team improvement emphasizes several features that are critical for improving working relationships:

The Agency’s Director is committed to create a self-directed team environment to replace the slow bureaucratic, top-down, direct and controlled environment characteristic of state government

1. The Agency’s TWVS provided the behavioral guidelines for team members to work together in the team environment
2. Measuring the implementation of the TWVS with MBC Software identified the specific behaviors the team needed to improve
3. Defining and measuring the implementation of the improvement strategies facilitated the maturation and efficiency of the team
4. The MBC Software methodologies served as a communication tool to encourage the team members to discuss team dynamics that they were initially reluctant to address
5. Creating the opportunity to discuss frustrations associated with working as a team allowed the team to define what needed to be done to improve the working relationships within the team
6. Both the TWVS and data were important to hold members accountable to implement the team processes
7. The multi-rater environment helped individual team members better understand their contribution to the team as seen through the eyes of their team members

Are You Ready To . . .

• Convert your training, coaching and/or mentoring investments into skill application and behavior change?
• Know for sure that your employees are effectively applying training on the job?
• Increase accountability that your employees are receiving coaching and feedback to improve in the areas that matter most?
• Grow your company as your employees grow and change?

If you answered, “Yes” to these questions, then you are ready for an easy-to-use, proven performance support system to measure behavior change and/or skill application attributed to training, coaching and/or mentoring.

Michael Cole, Ph.D., and

Byrd Baggett, CSP

The CEO exclaimed, “I wish my people would accept responsibility for their behaviors and mistakes rather than finger pointing.” Unfortunately, finger pointing seems to be the rule rather than the exception in many corporate hallways.

It is important for you to consider one question before reading this article. Do you have the necessary courage to exhibit personal accountability? You may feel tempted to flippantly answer affirmatively, but you may want to examine the consequences associated with being accountable before answering. First, accountability means you are responsible to somebody or for something. Second, being responsible means that you cause something to happen. Third, exhibiting accountability, as seen through the eyes of your co-workers, looks like the following:

1.Accepting complete responsibility for your behavior
2.Meeting/exceeding agreed upon expectations.
3.Admitting mistakes.
4.Admitting limitations of knowledge.

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Byrd Baggett, CSP, and

Lawson Magruder, LTG, US Army Retired

The Stanford Business Council’s Advisory Group, consisting of seventy-five leaders, recently concluded that the Number One challenge for leaders is to develop self-awareness. Self-awareness is a requirement for authentic leaders to know who they are. Knowing who you are is important for two reasons: (1) maximize strengths and minimize the impact of weaknesses, and (2) control the ego. Advocates of the Authentic Leadership movement, James Collin’s Level 5 Leader, and Transformational Leadership describe world-class leaders in terms of avoiding the limelight while attributing their success to the privilege of working with a highly talented team and to a degree, luck. Such leaders have successfully put their egos where it belongs — in the background.

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Michael Cole, Ph.D., and

Byrd Baggett, CSP

Introduction

For twenty plus years we’ve worked with thousands of employees to assist using interpersonal skills to maximize their working relationships. Throughout these years, there has not been one person who has disagreed to the importance of having a workplace characterized by trust, teamwork, open communication, respect, and integrity (to name a few leadership/teamwork values). A more complete listing of values and behaviors are listed in Smart People Work People Smart (log onto www.truegrowthassociates.com or you may contact the authors for a copy of the TeamWork Dictionary).

In spite of the universal agreement of the importance of these workplace values, people continue to struggle to consistently use specific interpersonal skills in their day-to-day interactions. This mystery is complicated by the fact that employees readily admit these behaviors are already available within their behavioral repertoire.

For example, a cornerstone to building trust is being dependable and doing what you agreed to do. A communication behavior that also builds trust is keeping people informed with facts. Ask yourself “Can you be dependable and do what you agree to do?” “Can you keep people informed with the facts of the situation?” One would think these behaviors would consistently be used since they are readily available to everyone.

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