We are pleased to partner with Val Ries, author of Chief Inspiration Officer, to offer a Management Mastery Class for developing your leaders.  We hosted a webinar to review the details of the program and offer pilot pricing.  We are looking for a few qualified organizations to launch a pilot in early 2023.

Please check out the recording for more information and feel free to reach out with any questions.

As leaders continue to navigate an organizational landscape of virtual, hybrid, and in-person work, they need new competencies to foster connection of their teams and employees.

Employees who feel undervalued or disconnected have been leaving organizations far more frequently in the past two years, and it is up to leaders to reverse this trend. In April 2022, we sat down with CHROs to discuss these ongoing challenges and best practices to address them. Following is a summary of our discussion.

Discussion Points

• Leaders are focused on how to protect their culture when everyone is working in different places, as well as how to evolve their culture to meet the current state.
• The philosophy of the leadership team is a key driver of the decision to use a virtual, hybrid, or all-in approach. Participant CHRO organizations were in very different places with regard to “return to office” following the pandemic.
• Leaders may be in denial that employees are feeling disconnected. If productivity remains high despite higher-than-average turnover, leaders may not see the link between connectivity and turnover.

• Some employees are very interested in in-person work, while others expressed dissatisfaction about returning to the office.
• Employees want more empathy from their managers—not just asking about their weekends, but truly showing they care for employees at a deeper level. In particular, Gen Z employees’ workplace satisfaction depends on feeling valued and heard.
• Many leaders need additional development in their situational leadership ability.

• Regular listening groups or informal Q&A sessions make a big difference in employee engagement.
• Feedback surveys are especially fruitful when they are followed-up by discussing the results with employees, identifying action items, and the leaders being transparent about the changes made.
• Work teams also benefit from weekly wrap-up meetings to share accomplishments, feedback, recognition, etc. in a more casual and informal format

Need additional support?

As your leaders continue to stretch themselves to navigate new and challenging dynamics, coaching support can help them do so more effectively. CTD’s on-target® and quickconnect® coaching models give you the flexibility to invest in targeted coaching at any level.  Effective onboarding is another tool for organizations who want to differentiate themselves as an employer. Check out our solutions for leadership and all-employee onboarding that provide a branded, customized experience for your new hires. We welcome the opportunity to talk with you about your specific leadership development needs and a custom solution. 

As organizations begin to plan for what’s next in this uncertain post-pandemic time, they may want to look to their successful teams in creating that playbook.  What we have learned from this crisis, is that it has either strengthened and galvanized some organizations or crippled and/or shut-down others.  One contributing factor to successful companies, is creating and cultivating high-performing teams. In our experience with clients, we find that the “secret sauce” in creating a high performing team includes, strong talent, high employee engagement, clear strategy, and productive team dynamics.

Of the four, team dynamics is the one that organizations seem to most often overlook and neglect. Business author Patrick Lencioni has called teamwork “the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.”

What’s more: team dynamics may actually be the easiest driver of team performance for organizations to improve. Our team-connect process, for example, has helped dozens of organizations strengthen the dynamics—and performance—of their key teams.

What is team dynamics? BusinessDictionary.com defines it as “the behavioral relationships between members of a group that are assigned connected tasks within a company.”

Teams with strong and productive dynamics share many qualities, including:

• Cohesiveness
• Effective communication
• Defined and shared purpose
• Clarity of roles
• Diversity of thought
• Effective leadership

To show why team dynamics are so important, let’s take a look at four benefits of having productive team dynamics.

1. Fewer Mistakes

On teams with strong dynamics, team members have clarity regarding their roles, the scope of their responsibilities and how they interact with and hand-off work to others. This reduces mistakes, rework and frustration.  When mistakes are made, these teams will also appropriately communicate and hold one and other accountable to quickly debrief and learn from those mistakes.

2. Meeting Deadlines

Clarity of responsibilities, expectations and goals—all hallmarks of teams with strong dynamics—helps teams be effective and efficient.

It’s why we make communication a core part of our team-connect approach. We give team leaders a platform for clearly communicating project and initiative expectations and deadlines, as well as provide team members the opportunity to ensure that they have the resources and support to meet and manage deadlines.

3. More Confidence in Leadership

Team success and confidence in leadership are connected. Teams that make fewer mistakes and meet more deadlines than average are going to feel more organized and well-run—with which members are likely to connect effective leadership.

That said, effective leadership is important for strong team dynamics and team success to occur in the first place. Clarity of responsibilities, expectations and goals occur because of effective management and communication from leaders.

As a result, approaches for improving team dynamics help leaders clarify their vision and expectations, be transparent with information, and effectively motivate and manage individual team members.

4. Improved Retention

Employees on teams aligned behind a common goal; who have clear roles, responsibilities and expectations; and feel a strong connection to their team leader and members; will be motivated to stay on the team and to deliver strong performance.

This benefit is of especially high importance in the current talent climate, where many employers struggle to find the talent they need. Employee retention and turnover has ranked as the top workforce management challenge for three years running, according to a SHRM/Globoforce annual survey.

High performing teams will set the standard for moving forward into the unknowns of our economic future.  Their ability to set the tone for organizations can literally mean the difference between surviving and thriving versus not being relevant and even existing as we enter this new chapter.

Contact us at info@connectthedotsconsulting.com to see how our consultants can help you improve the dynamics of key teams at your organization.