Autonomy is a tough subject. And once you and your team get better at it, the work doesn’t stop. There will always be unexpected or stressful situations that occur, which can push leaders to focus on more controlling measures. Be mindful of these common pitfalls that managers may encounter during times of stress: Pushing your…
Defining clear roles and responsibilities is just the first step in building an autonomous team. There are many other ways you can promote the idea of autonomy to your employees. The first thing you’ll want to do is properly prepare them to be autonomous. This starts with ensuring the team is aligned with its team…
An autonomous team is a team that’s empowered to make decisions in an organization. It often acts in transparent ways and finds innovative solutions to tough problems that align with the needs of the business. Just that alone sounds pretty great, right? There’s obviously more to it than that, but there are many reasons why…
Whether it’s before taking action to build trust or after, it’s important to assess the level of trust your team has. The one thing you should never do is assume trust is already established or that it will remain without continuous care. There are a number of things that can cause your team to lose…
Gaining trust may seem like a simple thing, but it can actually be very challenging. Every person has their own opinions, perspectives, and desired ways to work. Now add a number of people together and tell them they have to make all those varied preferences work together–starting to get trickier right? When these behavioral differences…
Some will often confuse trust to be actions that are considered a common courtesy. Just being “friendly” with one another is not the true definition of trust that you’re looking for. Only asking how a person’s day was and then going about your business will never get you there. The good thing is, if your…
When you think about teams at work, what is the most important thing for them to have? Many ideas come to mind, like a team’s skill set or motivation levels, but others argue that it boils down to trust. But why would something as simple as trusting another make such a difference? This can easily…
So, you now know that self-awareness and a unified goal will help us achieve team cohesion. What’s next? There are a few actions you can take—some deliberate and others in the form of a change in mindset. Whether you’re building a new team or just adding a new member, you should always start with the…
If team cohesion is as simple as having one unified goal, then why do so many teams struggle with this? One key factor is self-awareness. A lack of self-awareness can cause even a team with clear goals to fumble. If individuals don’t understand themselves, it will be difficult to interpret how to interact with others….
Team cohesion can only occur when a team remains united while working to achieve a common goal. One common mistake, however, is that many think cohesion should be directly connected to the actual performance of the team. By the very definition, cohesion is less about getting a specific result, and more about the unity of…
So now that you know about conflict, how do you actually manage it? There are a number of issues that can arise when working with people, so it can feel overwhelming at times. However, there are ways to make sure you are prepared when conflict occurs. Create a conflict resolution blueprint for your team. Every…
Think about the worst team you’ve been a part of. Were there times where you thought there was no possible solution? Are some teams doomed to fail from the beginning? In some cases, yes. There are two major reasons for this that you can avoid when building your teams. The first can be summed up…
Take some time for the team to reflect on the initial conversation and survey results. When the team meets again, it’s now time to come up with an action plan. What are the potential challenges that had the biggest impact on the team? Select one of the most important to work on. Once again, start…
Remote teams may not get as much time to spend together to really understand each other’s similarities and differences and learn the best way of working together as a team. Running a Team Discovery report will allow you to visualize the critical differences in styles among your team, influence positive communication, and avoid toxicity. Plot…