team building Archives - Page 4 of 8

January 22, 2017 By Joyce Weiss Leave a Comment

5 Team Building Strategies to Keep Your Star Employees Motivated

Team building strategies are a very important part of any leader’s tool box. The challenge comes when star employees leave the company. Many of my clients have told me that they left jobs because they didn’t feel part of the team. They couldn’t make decisions without having to go through many layers in the company. They didn’t get support when they made smart mistakes and poor performance was not addressed.

Do these questions sound familiar?

How can I encourage people to make decisions when management is absent?
How can I encourage calculated risks so our company stays current?
How can we act as a team, instead of individuals striving for separate goals?

The answer is in one word…MOTIVATION. Motivation gives confidence, strength, and trust in your own decisions. Successful businesses know the impact of a motivated team.

Learn the 5 P’s of motivation to support dedicated people who’ll bring long-lasting results:

Team Building Strategies #1: Permission…to make decisions and take risks.

Help people see how they’re setting up roadblocks to their success. You may hear people saying “I’m not ready yet”, or “I don’t know enough”. If I waited until I was ready to make that perfect keynote speech, I’d still be waiting! Encourage calculated risks! These positive statements need to become standard in your workplace:

“Everyone fears new things when they are in unfamiliar territory.”
“The only way to get rid of the fear of doing something is to go out and do it.”
“There are three kinds of people – those that make things happen, those that watch things happen, and those who wondered what happened!”

Team Building Strategies #2: Protection…even if they make a mistake.

Make sure the penalty for failure is not greater than the penalty for doing nothing. Professional growth is all about learning from our mistakes. Make sure you stand by your team, even when they fail. If they make a mistake, ask this very important question, “What did you learn, and how would you handle it differently if this situation came up again?” Share mistakes that you made in order to be transparent and let them know what you learned about the mistake.

Team Building Strategies #3: Purpose… Know the company’s goals and answers to the typical conflicts that arise.

Challenge your team by asking why and why not. This forces constant improvement. Recognize market changes. Encourage problem-solving and brainstorming. Technology is expanding at an amazing rate, making some present techniques obsolete. Look at trends and then be ready. Listen when your team speaks about products or processes that are not working anymore. This seems so obvious. My clients have left companies when leadership was stuck in the status quo and their egos. They knew the company was sinking before leadership saw it coming.

Team Building Strategies #4: Proficiency… Know the difference between complacency and excellence.

Encourage people to think of themselves as the owners of their own careers. Help them learn features and benefits of every product and service in the company. Train people to listen to the client’s needs. Role play with common objections, so staff is prepared when they’re rejected. This way, everyone will be more prepared. Make sure to be consistent and discipline or train team members who are not doing their job. Your star employees are watching when leaders let complacency and mediocrity rule the culture.

Team Building Strategies # 5: Pay-off… Appreciate and recognize superior work.

All people have a basic need for appreciation. Let your team know the success of the business is partly due to their efforts and achievements. Star employees need to know that their opinion and efforts are making a difference. Make sure to concentrate on them or else they will leave and find a company with a better culture.

When you use the 5 P’s of motivation you’ll see an increase in morale, productivity, retention, and success. These are my tried and true methods – experiment with your own, then sit back and enjoy the fabulous results!

I want to hear from you!
CLICK HERE to send me your questions about how you motivate your team. What is your experience keeping star employees from leaving?

Do You Want to See How Your Communication Impacts Your Success at Work?
CLICK HERE to take the easy and fun Communicate with Impact Quiz. I will send your results immediately and you will learn more about setting boundaries to be more effective at work and in your life. Sound good?
Here’s the LINK

Until next time,

This is Joyce Weiss, Communication Strategist and Coach

You can learn how to improve your leadership skills by communicating your important message to both star employees and those who keep you up at night! 🙂 I will do whatever it takes to help you improve your quality of life.

VISIT our Team Building Consultant Services page to see how we can help your team become even more successful.

Feel free to call me (800.713.1926) concerning your own team/executive retreats, workshops, and on-line professional growth coaching.

Remember…You Get What YOU Tolerate!

See YOU Next Week.

P.S. Do you want more information about keeping your star employees motivated?
CLICK HERE to read my article on How to Deal with Mediocrity at work

VISIT our Knowledge Base on Team Building for more articles and podcasts

August 10, 2014 By Joyce Weiss Leave a Comment

You Don’t Need a Lever to Turn it Up a Notch

Do you want…

An easy activity to do with your team to get their input?
Constructive feedback from everyone during a meeting?
Ideas how to improve your team?

If so, this strategy will help you improve communication and reduce conflict in the workplace. I have found that when large groups are asked to give their input, the response is not always great. Divide your team in groups of 3 or 4 people. There are many ways to divide groups in a creative way -ask them to find people who have a birthday in the same month or season. Then find out if there are any team members who share the same birthday.

Give each team a sheet with the following information on it:

Team’s Need for Improvement

A Great Need for improvement = Great Energy Drain.
Some Need for improvement = Some Energy Drain.
No Need for improvement = Positive Energy.

Great Energy Drain
Great need:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Some Energy Drain
Some Need:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Positive Energy
No Need:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Once teams have enough time to share their ideas in small groups ask them to give their best ideas to the large group. Ask someone to write all the ideas down. Once all the teams have given their input, start discussing each idea and prioritize which ideas to work on first. Ask ALL team members to sign up on committees to follow through on the team’s need for improvement. I strongly suggest that there has to be an accountability factor built into this process. Deadlines and follow up feedback need to be part of the accountability plan. I see the biggest mistake when groups get together and become very motivated to make changes and there is no follow up or resolution. Remember when people respect the process, they resolve issues and get outstanding results.

Click here to read an article on You Have an OK Team…Now Make it An A Team

Want to Use this Article in Your Newsletter or on Your Website?

Of course! You are welcome to print this, and any other articles we send, if you use the following byline:
A recognized expert on Resolving Conflict in the Workplace, Joyce Weiss, M.A., CSP is an author, accountability coach, and a Certified Speaking Professional. To book Joyce to speak at your event or company call: 800.713.1926 or email: Joyce@JoyceWeiss.com
Visit her website at www.JoyceWeiss.com to sign up for your own FREE video series and Communicate with Impact Weekly to Resolve Conflict in the Workplace.

Was this helpful?

Please send me any comments that you may have about this article. Hit the link at the end of this post to share your ideas or questions. Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts to reduce conflict at the workplace and home. There may be someone in your life who is feeling stressed out…who could benefit from the inspiration and knowledge on improving their working condition or home life.

Until next time,

This is Joyce Weiss, Business Conflict Resolution Consultant
I help people become top level leaders who get GREAT results.
How do I do this?
I teach them to tackle the tough conversations with bullies and negative people to build employee engagement, accountability, and rock star performance…
The Result? My clients get a better night’s sleep!

Feel free to call me concerning your own team/executive retreats, workshops, on line professional growth coaching, and keynote speeches.

Remember…You Get What YOU Tolerate!

P.S. Click here for an article to get more ideas on… You Have an OK Team…Now Make it An A Team

May 25, 2014 By Joyce Weiss Leave a Comment

Enhance the Workplace to Increase the Work Pace

Tom, a client of mine exhibited the qualities of a leader on fire by trusting his team to run meetings their own way. He knew that his meetings had to improve. His team was bright and creative yet the meetings were not. He told them that they could be in charge of future meetings. Tom was still going to give them quick updates at the end of the meetings.

Tom was pleasantly surprised when Sue, one of his quietest employees volunteered to lead the next meeting. This meeting was the best one of the entire year. Are you asking yourself what Sue did? She asked everyone to write down their goals and how they each needed support to reach these goals. Sue wrote each goal on a piece of large paper. Everyone put down their name on the sheet of paper where they could help their colleagues overcome obstacles.

Tom was so proud of Sue and told the president of the company that the entire team gave her a standing ovation after the meeting. The results were apparent. Each team member is now planning their own creative way to lead the meeting. Tom stirred things up. He changed the status quo with his strong and creative team. I told him how impressed I was with the fact that he knew that his meetings needed help. Tom is an excellent leader who could give his own workshops on employee engagement!

Here are 2 more ideas on how to enhance the workplace to increase the work pace.
Ask yourself…

1. What negative behavior am I letting slip by?

Nip negativity immediately since it is extremely contagious

2. What rules or policies do we need to get rid of?

Many teams have outdated policies. Outdated rules ultimately hurt morale and hinder customer service.

Want to Use This Article to Share with Others?

Was this helpful?

Please send me any comments that you may have for this article. Hit the link at the end of this post to share your ideas or questions. Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts to reduce conflict at the workplace and home. There may be someone in your life who is feeling stressed out…who could benefit from the inspiration and knowledge on improving their working condition or home life.

Until next time,

This is Joyce Weiss, Business Conflict Resolution Consultant

I help people become top level leaders who get GREAT results.
How do I do this?
I teach them to tackle the tough conversations with bullies and negative people to build employee engagement, accountability, and rock star performance…
The Result? My clients get a better night’s sleep!
The next time you need a consultant for a company retreat or meeting, think of Joyce Weiss Training and Development LLC.

Remember…You Get What YOU Tolerate!

May 4, 2014 By Joyce Weiss Leave a Comment

Creating a Better Work Place for Innovative Employees

This blog post is an interesting article written by the innovative people at IncFile.com Incfile.com began with the goal of helping individuals and businesses meet their incorporation needs. Their mission is to deliver the best incorporation value, online or offline, and to provide service that is fast, friendly, and efficient. Let me know how you enjoy the article. Thanks to IncFile for writing this post just for Communicate with Impact Weekly.

When it comes to owning a corporation, it is extremely important to create an environment where employees can be creative and innovative.

Having creative and innovative employees is a huge plus for any business: such workers not only offer great new ideas, but they also become increasingly more invested in the business as they begin to generate ideas in and for the place they work. So whether you are starting up a new corporation, or simply looking for ways to improve your current business, it is always beneficial to create a workplace geared towards innovative employees. Here are some ways that you can do exactly that:

Break down walls

People are far less creative and innovative when they feel as though they are locked behind bars. High walls separating cubicles is a way to positively shun creativity. Instead, remind people that they are in a fun office space – not a prison – and their brains will run with ideas.

You can even go a step further by adding an atrium or a few fountains to create an atmosphere and ambiance that produces creativity in all of your employees.

Open up the space and create common areas

People also become far more creative when they have open spaces where they can interact with fellow creative minds. Apple’s innovative founder and CEO Steve Jobs was famous for designing a company campus where employees had to interact throughout the day, because he felt that it led to great thinking, and the churning of excellent new ideas.

That building utilized features such as a common room and lunch room in the middle of multiple areas, so that employees from different sections of the company would all meet together and start talking. He also placed bathrooms far away from many workers, so that they would have to walk past other employees constantly.

All this new found discussion in the workplace may look like simple water cooler banter, but in reality it’s great ideas and innovations blossoming before your very eyes.

Have a boss accessible

Many creative minds shut off their innovations while at the workplace because they feel that their ideas will not be heard, or that it’s too much trouble to have their ideas heard. This can all be solved by having an easily accessible boss.

If a boss has an office placed right among his or her employees, with an open door, then workers are far more likely to feel creative, because they believe that their ideas are growing in a workplace where they can be heard.

Weekly innovation meetings

Employees are the most innovative when they are encouraged. Weekly innovation meetings can do exactly that.

Consider starting (or ending) the week with a meeting where employees can suggest ideas, or bounce thoughts off of one another; make sure to also use this time to check in on past innovations, to see if employees are following through with their work.
With these ideas, you can create a workplace that is ideal for innovative employees.

About the Author: IncFile provides incorporation services specifically to entrepreneurs and can help create a low business entity to register with your secretary of state and start a new company immediately. You can follow them on google+, twitter or facebook.

Want to Use this Article in Your Newsletter or on Your Website?

Was this helpful?

Please send me any comments that you may have for this article. Hit the link at the end of this post to share your ideas or questions. Loyal readers like you help us find more people who could benefit from these posts to reduce conflict at the workplace and home. There may be someone in your life who is feeling stressed out…who could benefit from the inspiration and knowledge on improving their working condition or home life.

Until next time,

This is Joyce Weiss, Conflict Resolution Consultant
I help people become top level leaders who get GREAT results.
How do I do this?
I teach them to tackle the tough conversations with bullies and negative people to build employee engagement, accountability, and rock star performance…
The Result? My clients get a better night’s sleep!

Remember…You Get What YOU Tolerate!

April 12, 2014 By Joyce Weiss Leave a Comment

You Have an OK Team…Now Make it an A Team

You’ve worked hard to create a successful team.

People are getting along and things are going well…but you know that they can become more engaged. You may want to improve accountability with some of your team members. Morale is OK yet you want the environment to be a bit more positive.
This article is a good start for you to turn your team into an A team.

Here are your next steps to develop an even stronger team:

1. Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the team.
It will be easier to assign tasks to team members.

2. Agree on team rules.
Strong teams have written rules which they develop themselves. Start with these helpful rules: Tell a person when you don’t agree, don’t talk about people behind their backs, and never be late for trivial reasons.

3. Find or create a team leader
Great teams don’t just happen. Find someone to take charge – whether it’s the manager or anyone interested in group leadership.

Click here for more ideas on How to Create an A Team

Thoughts from Joyce

My clients know that good is not good enough today due to stiff competition. Our brainstorming sessions are always very exciting when we discuss ways to change how teams communicate. There is always a better way to communicate and conflict is there even if you think it is not present. Think about your own team and what rules it can come up with to reduce conflict in the workplace. I will write about the Code of Honor in the next article which will give you more ideas on how to do this. Feel free to call me at 800.713.1926 to discuss how we could make your team into an A Team.

Want to Use this Article in Your Newsletter or on Your Website?

Of course! You are welcome to print this, and any other articles we send, if you use the following byline:

A recognized expert on Resolving Conflict in the Workplace, Joyce Weiss, M.A., CSP is an author, accountability coach, and a Certified Speaking Professional. To book Joyce to speak at your event or company call: 800.713.1926 or email: Joyce@JoyceWeiss.com
Visit her website at www.JoyceWeiss.com to sign up for your own FREE video series on Resolving Conflict in the Workplace.

Was this helpful?

Until next time,

This is Joyce Weiss, Conflict Resolution Consultant

I help people become top level leaders who get GREAT results.
I teach them to tackle the tough conversations to build employee engagement, accountability, and rock star performance…
The Result? My clients get a better night’s sleep!

Remember…You Get What YOU Tolerate!

PS Click here for more ideas on How to Create an A Team

5 Team Building Strategies to Keep Your Star Employees Motivated

Team Building Strategies #1: Permission…to make decisions and take risks.

Team Building Strategies #2: Protection…even if they make a mistake.

Team Building Strategies #3: Purpose… Know the company’s goals and answers to the typical conflicts that arise.

Team Building Strategies #4: Proficiency… Know the difference between complacency and excellence.

Team Building Strategies # 5: Pay-off… Appreciate and recognize superior work.

You Don’t Need a Lever to Turn it Up a Notch

Enhance the Workplace to Increase the Work Pace

Creating a Better Work Place for Innovative Employees

You Have an OK Team…Now Make it an A Team

Contact Joyce

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