Dysfunction in the Workplace

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How Awareness and Communication Improve Team Dynamics

In Patrick Lencioni’s best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he tells a tale of a firm’s executive team struggling with utter dysfunction. Ineffective communication, multiple egos, fear, office politics and judgmental attitudes were all contributing to the absence of dynamics and poor performance.

Does this sound familiar to you?
Have you experienced a dysfunctional team in your career?

If yes, you are not alone. Most everyone has either been a part of, observed or even faced the challenge of leading a dysfunctional team like the one Lencioni describes. In fact, he says, “Teams, because they are made up of imperfect human beings, are inherently dysfunctional.”

Lencioni’s interrelated model of team dysfunction outlines five areas that prevent success in every team:
• Absence of trust
• Fear of conflict
• Lack of commitment
• Avoidance of accountability
• Inattention to results

But don’t be discouraged. There is hope for all of us experiencing a dysfunctional team. As Lencioni states, “In fact, team building is both possible and remarkably simple. But is also painful.” Vantage strongly believes in two fundamental team building basics that help teams overcome each of these dysfunctions: awareness and communication.

Awareness is more than observation; it is an understanding of what is going on around you. In this case, it is important to be aware of and appreciate the different viewpoints of team members and their work habits, motivators, areas of expertise, mastery in personal skills and motives. Doing so will not only help you build team dynamics, but more importantly increase personal effectiveness so you can accomplish more as a team.

Communication is where it all starts. The importance of open communication simply cannot be overstated as it is fundamental in building trust, managing conflict, gaining commitment, holding accountability and identifying team results. Effective communication involves first understanding your own communication style, understanding others’ communication style and appreciating the differences everyone brings to a team environment.

Teams are, essentially, what drive results. Take a look at the teams you are in, leading or observing and identify the five areas of dysfunction in your team. What can you do to focus on team building? Whatever the strategy, as Lencioni warns, it will be painful. But the results will be well worth the challenge.

The Role of Performance Management

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For different organizations, performance management can mean different things. It can relate to a process, a system, an organization or a department. For many companies, the role of performance management is associated with an employee and is a responsibility of anyone who is in a management position. However, for many managers, performance management may not be given the attention it deserves.

First, what exactly is performance management? To help understand this concept, let’s discuss what it isn’t. Performance management is not a specific process everyone embarks on. It is not a performance appraisal or a performance review. It is not project management or goal setting. It is not achieving goals or missing deadlines. Instead, performance management is the act of managing all of these things, and more, in order to optimize performance so it is in line with the overall business strategy. We all know people are a company’s biggest asset. Performance management is the process of increasing the value of that asset.

Performance management is one of those aspects of management that is sometimes forgotten about. Organizations tend to focus on the individual pieces of performance management, like goal setting, sales processes or project management, but we need to remember to look at the big picture. All those smaller processes and activities need to be working cohesively for performance management to really be effective.

Invest in Your Talent

Controlling Turnover and Addressing Disengagement with a Complete System

Turnover alone may be costing you millions, but what about the employees you still have? Is their disengagement costing you even more?

Fortunately, turnover and disengagement stem from job fit, and you can reduce costs associated with both by using a complete hiring system. With a process that looks at hiring from the very beginning to the very end, you can consider the job, the talent, professional development and performance management. However, with reduced budgets and overwhelming responses to job ads, many companies are finding themselves skipping a system all together. Unfortunately, a move like that doesn’t come without a hefty cost, as doing nothing to ensure job fit will cost you more than implementing a complete hiring system to start controlling turnover and disengagement costs now.

With a solution for future turnover and disengagement costs, let’s turn our focus to the disengaged employees on your payroll now. Can you determine the underlying issue? It may be decreased morale, lack of direction, little job satisfaction or no motivation. Whatever the case, you need to start by using the same complete system. Assess job fit by comparing the job and talent, ensure that each person is on a professional development plan, and then manage their performance with specific motivation, communication and responsibilities that fit their unique personal style and skills.

A dip in the economy shouldn’t mean you loose track of the very asset that will turn your company around. Remember, now is the time to invest in your people.

The True Value of Talent Management

“Everything, then, must be assessed in money;

for this enables men always to exchange their services,
and so makes society possible.”
– Aristotle (384-322 BC)

Even though Aristotle made this point over 2000 years ago, it couldn’t ring more true today. Almost everything involved in transactions today are based on a price and assessed in money.

What about Talent Management?
Beyond salary and sales, there are many important aspects of talent management that are often not tied to the bottom line. Yet, “dollarizing” the value of talent management initiatives is vital to bottom-line analysis. Whether you are placing a value or cost on your current status, or calculating the ROI of your next talent management strategy, metrics that assess the monetary value will help you see the true effect on the bottom-line.

Bottom Line Statistics

Knowing the bottom line results of talent challenges will help you implement strategies with a proven ROI that you can see on your balance sheet. Find out how much you already know by asking yourself questions like:

• What is disengagement costing the bottom line?
• What was the ROI on your last training? What can be expected of future training?
• How are your team-building initiatives impacting your bottom line?
• What was the cost of your last bad hire?
• What is your overall turnover percentage? How is it related to tenure?

In a study on over three million employees, Gallup found that over 70% of Americans who go to work are not engaged. This means businesses may be operating at significantly less than full capacity, a loss that could cost millions a year.

• What is employee disengagement costing your company? Several thousands, millions, more?
• How can you calculate this cost?
• How does it compare to the investment of a proactive approach to increasing engagement?

With tightening budgets and a focus on cost-saving strategies, businesses worldwide are making drastic labor cuts. But is that always the right move? A recent study analyzed the savings resulting from changes in general and administrative functions and found that 75% of the savings came from strategies focused on restructuring and redesigning, while only 25% was from reducing.

• Would you, too, save three times as much on your bottom line by investing in your people and processes?
• Is the slash and burn approach actually costing you more?
• What would the ROI be if you restructured and redesigned your workforce?

As business associates who want to make a difference in the bottom line, we might find advice in Aristotle’s quote by remembering to assess, in money, the value of talent management initiatives so we know its true worth. How else can we place fair value on the investment in people? After all, they are a company’s biggest asset.

Facing Today's Talent Challenges

To meet today’s challenges, companies world-wide are searching for ways to do more with less. While many strategies offer streamlined processes and ways to add value, the biggest opportunities to meet this challenge lie within the talent themselves and are critical to future success:

• Finding the right talent
• Retaining your top performers
• Ensuring your best employees have the opportunity to thrive
• Aligning talent with your core competencies
  

Managing talent can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be. The key is to understand the current needs of the organization and what each unique individual brings to the job to help you make tough talent decisions.

Less than 25% of senior teams actually realize their potential.
-Chief Executive, an international study of more than 120 senior teams

While education, experience and intelligence are important, you simply cannot uncover the true picture of human talent without a total person analysis that includes an assessment of behaviors, values and personal skills. Together, these areas present a more in-depth approach to truly understanding an individual’s unique characteristics and how they apply to performance on the job.

In particular, a behavioral assessment will reveal HOW a people behave through their natural style in dealing with four different areas: problems, people, pace and procedure. With a better understanding and appreciation for people with different behavioral styles, communication can be enhanced, conflict can be reduced and a better job fit can be made. With an assessment of motivators, you can reveal WHY people act, or what drives a person to take action. People can be managed more effectively in an environment where their motivators are naturally satisfied. Finally, an assessment of an individual’s personal skills will allow you to determine WHAT specific talents your employee will naturally excel in and can ensure you are leveraging the skills they bring to the table. Different than hard skills, such as engineering techniques or medical procedures, personal skills are more intangible, such as teamwork, personal accountability and self management.

More than 90 Percent of Fortune 1000 companies are using multi-source assessments for developmental feedback. -International Personnel Management Association

Together, this total person analysis will give you a more complete picture of personal talent so you can make tough decisions with support, rather than relying on education, experience and intelligence alone. When you analyze this against the core competencies needed to drive your business forward, you will experience increased profits, faster execution of organization strategy, reduced employee turnover, and "raving fan" customers.

Human Skills Aren't "Soft"

I was talking with a colleague the other day about the skills necessary to carry out a strategic plan. People are hired for their technical skills and their ability to carry out complex tasks and procedures (the price of entry). However, while people are hired for skills, they are often fired because of behaviors. Many organizations and HR professionals call behaviors "soft" skills. My colleague mentioned that there is nothing "soft" about these skills. Rather, they are the necessary "human" skills to get the job done. I liked what he had to say. Calling them soft skills tends to downplay their importance in training and development. Without these "human" skills, no one could effectively get the job done and implement the strategic plan in an organization.

Yet, despite many companies acknowledging the importance of "human" skills, this area of training and development continues to take the deepest budget cuts in organizations. In a recent Wall Street Journal article by Dana Mattioli, companies historically cut leadership-development programs during downturns, but the moves backfired, prompting mid-level managers and top performers to leave when the economy recovered.

Many companies are re-evaluating their training budgets and looking for ways to communicate to their employees they care about them. Providing appropriate training is one way to do that.
But how do you provide this without breaking the bank?

First, focus on the high-potential employees and stress strategy and leadership. These individuals have the greatest potential to help your organization through the recession and recovery.

Second, tap your internal talent as trainers instead of looking to outside resources and reduce travel expenses by holding webinars if you have offices across the United States.

Finally, look for non-custom solutions. Some organizations are subscribing to online resources, free webinars, internal resources and less custom programs. One great resource is Thinkbox, an online e-coaching service available on a subscription basis.

Despite the economy, organizations do not want to be caught short of strong managers when the economy recovers.

Which is the Bigger Asset? People or Teams

Why You Should Re-Consider the Importance of Teams

Many will agree that people are the most important asset of an organization. More importantly, however, is how well those people work together to accomplish the common goal. Whether a company has thousands of people working in various locations worldwide or just a handful working in one small office, teamwork is vital to success. So, how can you ensure that your teams are performing at their fullest potential? How do people contribute to the team differently? Have you built effective teams?

To begin answering these questions, you must learn how to really understand each member of the team to identify their work style and how it compares to others in the group. You also need to look at the inherent strengths that each person brings to the table. Not their expertise or their background, but those things they seem to be good at just because that is who they are.

Once you understand the team members, you can not only build a team with the most effective combination of strengths, but you can also learn how to leverage each individual’s strengths for a dynamic team that works at its highest potential. Only then will teams reach goals that have been unattained by individuals, work at levels of productivity no single person can achieve or impact the bottom line more effectively as a group. In fact, maybe we should revisit the assets of an organization. Perhaps TEAMS are more important than people on their own?

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How a Common Theory on Communication Shapes Teamwork

The key to understanding the makeup of your team and each member’s unique strength is a common format for identifying and understanding each person’s work habits, strengths and communication preferences.

There are many ways you can classify people through observation to identify what “type” of person they are. One of the most common theories addressing styles of communicating is the theory of DISC. Derived from the early work of William M. Marston, the theory has since been applied to the world of business and used in a number of different ways to better understand, appreciate and adapt to people.

In team building, utilizing the theory of DISC helps team members truly understand why everyone is different, what each individual’s strengths are, and how each person contributes to the team. Remember, communication is more than what someone says. In fact, communication is more about what people do, or how they act. DISC considers all aspects of communication, from the words we use to how body language affects communication. By providing a common language with which to speak about our differences, DISC allows us to recognize other “types” of people, understand them better and leverage their strengths. With DISC, the team can be more cohesive, more productive and more efficient.

DISC also allows us to look at team dynamics in a whole new light, making sure that a well-rounded group provides all the strengths needed for success, and each member is in a role that suits them best. Which person is best to lead? Who should handle the details? What is the best combination for small work groups within the team?

With DISC, it is easy to identify team dynamics to begin strengthening your company’s biggest asset. Even if you have a team of star performers, they are only reaching half of their potential if they don’t work well together. Imagine the possibilities if everyone came together to work effectively as a team.