Whether you are part of a pro cycling team, a business team or even your family ‘team’, it is important to consider your team engagement levels and consider how you can create a better environment for everyone to share and grow together to progress your team’s results as individuals and as one.
Three key focus areas that should be a focus for all teams are;
1. Cohesiveness of your team
2. Giving and receiving feedback often
3. Being Collaborative within and out of your team environment
Being a cohesive team is based on knowing more about your team mates and building bonds with each other, this is about creating human connection and links between team members. A few ideas to build a more cohesive team include; starting your meals or meetings with an informal segment where each member shares a little more about themselves with the team. Consider the best times within a day to have important team meetings, for example a hard debrief is better when everyone is not exhausted after a hard race or at the end of a long working day. Connect with your team and celebrate milestones together, such as birthdays or life events.
Giving and receiving feedback is key for any organisation to progress. I really like the ‘feedback sandwich’ model to giving feedback. This is where the person giving the feedback highlights something the person receiving the feedback did well, then something they need to improve followed by something they learnt or progressed with. This model is disarming and allows the person receiving the feedback to be more open to accepting the feedback and taking it on board into the future. It is important to have ‘debriefs’ after races or important meetings as hard moments or times where things didn’t go to plan are the times when the most lessons can be learnt and the most progress can be made.
Being collaborative as a team is important in order to build a strong team culture and build a strong vision for your organisation. Team culture is key for getting the most out of the team and therefore delivering on the biggest stage together. If all members are proud to be apart of the team and would go above and beyond for the best interests of the team then the culture is strong. Communication clearly defining roles and responsibilities across a squad are top priorities to build team culture. Recognising results or outcomes achieved from effective team collaboration highlights a strong collaborative culture within a team environment.
Building strong team engagement and creating an action plan for an organisation to progress is a key activity for all teams and should be a priority to progress. Being a group of individuals is very different to a group of people working and supporting each other with a common goal.
Until next time,
Lauren
