Lead and manage team effectiveness (BSBWOR502)

Lead and manage team effectiveness

BSBWOR502

Student Workbook

1st Edition

Student Workbook BSBWOR502 Lead and manage

team effectiveness

1st Edition 2015

Part of a suite of support materials for the

BSB Business Services Training Package

Acknowledgement

Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council (IBSA) would like to acknowledge HASCOM Pty Ltd for their assistance with the original development of the resource for BSBWOR502A Ensure team effectiveness.

Original writer: Christina Paizes. Revised in 2011 for BSBWOR502B Ensure team effectiveness by IBSA. Revised in 2015 for BSBWOR502 Lead and manage team effectiveness by IBSA.

Copyright and Trade Mark Statement

© 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd

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‘Innovation and Business Skills Australia’, ‘IBSA’ and the IBSA logo are trade marks of IBSA.

Disclaimer

Care has been taken in the preparation of the material in this document, but, to the extent permitted by law, IBSA and the original developer do not warrant that any licensing or registration requirements specified in this document are either complete or up-to-date for your State or Territory or that the information contained in this document is error-free or fit for any particular purpose. To the extent permitted by law, IBSA and the original developer do not accept any liability for any damage or loss (including loss of profits, loss of revenue, indirect and consequential loss) incurred by any person as a result of relying on the information contained in this document.

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Published by: Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd Level 11 176 Wellington Pde East Melbourne VIC 3002 Phone: +61 3 9815 7000 Fax: +61 3 9815 7001 Email: [email protected] www.ibsa.org.au

First published: March 2015

1st edition version: 1

Release date: March 2015

ISBN: 978-1-925123-78-4

Stock code: BSBWOR5021D

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

http://www.ibsa.org.au/

Table of Contents

Introduction ...........................................................................................................................1

Features of the training program ...................................................................................1

Structure of the training program ...................................................................................1

Recommended reading ...................................................................................................1

Your business success ....................................................................................................2

Section 1 – Build Teams and Develop Performance Plans ...............................................3

What skills will you need? ...............................................................................................4

An introduction to teamwork ..........................................................................................4

Understand team structures and dynamics ..................................................................5

Establish strategies, goals and objectives .................................................................. 13

Establish roles and responsibilities ............................................................................. 15

Performance management .......................................................................................... 24

Performance plans ....................................................................................................... 26

Support, guide and provide feedback to the team ..................................................... 29

Strategies to ensure team inputs ................................................................................ 34

Policies and procedures for effective team operation ............................................... 35

Section summary .......................................................................................................... 38

Further reading ............................................................................................................. 38

Section checklist........................................................................................................... 39

Section 2 – Develop Team Cohesion and Facilitate Teamwork ..................................... 40

What skills will you need? ............................................................................................ 41

Monitor team performance .......................................................................................... 41

Provide feedback .......................................................................................................... 44

Develop processes to recognise and address problems ........................................... 49

Engage team members to meet objectives ................................................................ 54

Support your team to resolve performance issues .................................................... 56

Model effective team behaviour .................................................................................. 60

Section summary .......................................................................................................... 63

Further reading ............................................................................................................. 63


Section 3 – Liaise with Stakeholders ............................................................................... 65

What skills will you need? ............................................................................................ 66

Facilitate communication ............................................................................................. 66

Mediate between the team and management ........................................................... 73

Regularly report to management ................................................................................. 76

Identify and escalate issues ........................................................................................ 79

Evaluate and take corrective action ............................................................................ 81

Section summary .......................................................................................................... 86

Further reading ............................................................................................................. 86


Glossary ......................................................................................................................... 88

Appendices ................................................................................................................... 91

Appendix 1 – Competency checklist ........................................................................... 91

Appendix 2 – Walk and talk ......................................................................................... 95

Appendix 3 – Climate change catastrophe ................................................................. 96

Appendix 4 – Web-based communication forum ....................................................... 98

Appendix 5 – A meeting on meetings ......................................................................... 99

Appendix 6 – Organisational health check ............................................................... 100

Appendix 7 – Mandy’s work dilemma ....................................................................... 102

Appendix 8 – Gallery exhibition ................................................................................. 103

Appendix 9 – Answers to selected learning activities .............................................. 104

BSBWOR502 Lead and manage team effectiveness 1st edition version: 1 © 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd

Student Workbook Introduction

Introduction

Features of the training program

The key features of this program are:

● Student Workbook – Self-paced learning activities to help you to develop an understanding of key concepts and terms. The Student Workbook is broken down into several sections.

● Facilitator-led sessions – Challenging and interesting learning activities that can be completed in the classroom or by distance learning that will help you consolidate and apply what you have learned in the Student Workbook.

● Assessment Tasks – Summative assessments where you can apply your new skills and knowledge to solve authentic workplace tasks and problems.

Structure of the training program

This training program introduces you to ensuring team effectiveness. Specifically, you will develop the skills and knowledge in the following topic areas:

1. Build teams and develop performance plans

2. Develop team cohesion and facilitate teamwork

3. Liaise with stakeholders.

Your facilitator may choose to combine or split sessions. For example, in some cases, this training program may be delivered in two or three sessions, or in others, as many as eight sessions.

Recommended reading

Some recommended reading for this unit includes:

● Belbin, R. M., 1981, Management teams: why they succeed or fail, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

● Belbin, R.M., 1993, Team roles at work, Butterworth, Heinemann, London.

● Bolten, R., 1986, People skills: how to assert yourself, listen to others, and resolve conflicts, Prentice Hall, New York.

● Bridges, W., 1995, Managing transitions: making the most of change, Nicholas Brealey, London.

● Chaousis L., 2000, Organisational behaviour, Pearson Education, NSW.

● Cole, K., 2000, Management Theory and Practice, 3rd edn, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

● Covey, S., 1992, Principle-centred leadership, Simon and Schuster, London.

BSBWOR502 Lead and manage team effectiveness 1st edition version: 1 © 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd Page 1 of 104

Introduction Student Workbook

● Dagan, I. and Mandell, D., 2006, Virtual Team Work, CISV International, available online, viewed August 2014, <http://www.cisv.org/EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=2215>.

● De Bono, E., 1986, Six thinking hats, Viking, London.

● Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z., 1990, ‘The credibility factor: what followers expect from their leaders’, Management Review, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 29–33.

● Maslow, A., 1998, Maslow on management, John Wiley, New York.

● Saville, J. and Reid, H., 2002, Managing effectively: customer service, continuous improvement, innovation and change, Pearson Education, NSW.

● Tuckman, B., 1965, ‘Developmental sequence in small groups’, Psychological Bulletin, vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 384–399.

● Unknown, Is anyone out there? A Guide to Virtual Team Working and Leadership, available online, viewed August 2014, <http://challengerhospitality.wikispaces. com/file/detail/Leadership+Is+anyone+out+there.doc>.

Please note that any URLs contained in the recommended reading, learning content and learning activities of this publication were checked for currency during the production process. Note, however, IBSA cannot vouch for the ongoing currency of URLs.

Every endeavour has been made to provide a full reference for all web links. Where URLs are not current we recommend using the reference information provided to search for the source in your chosen search engine.

Your business success

Innovation and Business Skills Australia has licensed the use of over 200 video vignettes from the Channel 9 television program, Your Business Success. The videos have been carefully selected and embedded into relevant learning and assessment resources in order to assist education providers and students in the learning process.

Each video is accompanied by a learning activity. Videos can be found on IBSA’s YouTube channel at <http://www.youtube.com/ibsachannel>.

1st edition version: 1 BSBWOR502 Lead and manage team effectiveness Page 2 of 104 © 2015 Innovation and Business Industry Skills Council Ltd

Student Workbook Section 1 – Build Teams and Develop Performance Plans

Section 1 – Build Teams and Develop Performance Plans

Team building and planning are essential to ensure that your team is effective. This section addresses the skills and knowledge that you will require to establish team performance plans and develop teams.

Scenario: Technical Solutions Pty Ltd

Technical Solutions is a software company that provides a mobile support service for clients. They have a fleet of ten technicians that are on the road responding to IT faults and problems. Increases in the number, frequency and complexity of service requests have forced Technical Solutions to implement the use of mobile data terminals in their vehicles. The implementation, however, has resulted in some major issues.

Technicians are having trouble using the terminals and this has impacted on the quality of the service that customers receive. Problems include jobs being lost in the system, technicians not sure how to use the new technology properly and delays in getting to the clients.

Cara is the manager responsible for the team of technicians. Cara will need to ensure that she does all that she can to ensure that the team functions effectively using the new technology.

Cara has decided that she will:

● meet with technicians to discover issues and build a common understanding of how the team should function and what its goals should be

● develop performance plans in consultation with each team member

● develop processes to support team members to reach individual and team objectives

● ensure there is a process in place to seek input from team members on aspects of operations that concern them

● develop clear policies and procedures to ensure each team member takes responsibility for work and ensures team effectiveness.

Before Cara begins work on building her team, she will need to reflect on some aspects of teams and team-building theory to ensure that the effort she puts into this project has the best chance of yielding results.


Section 1 – Build Teams and Develop Performance Plans Student Workbook

What skills will you need?

In order to work effectively as a team leader or supervisor who is planning team activities or building a team, you must be able to:

consult team members to establish a common understanding of team purpose, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities in accordance with organisational goals, plans and objectives

develop performance plans to establish expected outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators and goals for work team

support team members in meeting expected performance outcomes

develop strategies to ensure team members have input into planning, decision-making and operational aspects of work team

develop policies and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and assist others to undertake required roles and responsibilities.

An introduction to teamwork

Think about your favourite sports team for a moment. Are they successful or unsuccessful?

Successful teams don’t happen by accident. They would have planned, developed strategies and set goals. It may have taken several years, but that’s not unusual. A team that appears to be an overnight success is probably the result of well-thought out and well-implemented strategies that you weren’t aware of.

Think back to when you have participated in a sports team (or any kind of team). While the team was forming, what was the coach or team leader doing? They may have been:

● developing strategies for the team (plays, plans, etc.)

● assessing your skills and identifying skills you needed to develop

● scheduling practises

● organising resources

Basically, your team leader carried out both obvious tasks and background activities. In the foreground, they were the visible coach. In the background, they were planning and strategising. As a manager, team leader or supervisor, you have both foreground and background activities that you must carry out.



As a team leader or supervisor, you will be undertaking different background tasks for your team while the team is under development. The tasks of team management can be grouped under:

● building and planning

● leading and coaching

● liaising with stakeholders.

The structure of this Student Workbook will allow you to focus on each of these team-building activities in turn. Section 1 focuses on building teams and planning team activities, beginning with some basic team-building theory.

Let’s take a look at some team-building theory to help you understand the basic dynamics behind teams and form effective strategies for your team.

Understand team structures and dynamics

In order to build teams effectively, you will need to understand and address several underlying concepts:

● the definition of a ‘team’, including the key concept of purpose

● team skills

● stages of team development.

Before looking in more detail at the above, take a few minutes to self-assess your skills as a team leader/manager.

Learning activity: Self-assessment

You may know a fair bit about what is expected of you as a team leader or supervisor. Doing a self-assessment on your skills will provide a good starting point for you to identify what you need to get out of this unit.

A self-assessment competency checklist is provided in Appendix 1 of this Student Workbook. Complete the competency checklist and discuss with your fellow learners and facilitator.

What is a team? A team is a group of people who act together and are committed to a common purpose.



Effective teams can:

● solve problems better

● tackle bigger and more complex issues

● make better use of resources

● facilitate work flexibility

● create a sense of wellbeing and purpose.

A group in itself does not necessarily constitute a team. Teams normally have members with complementary skills. They generate synergy through a coordinated effort which allows each member to maximise his or her strengths and minimise weaknesses.

Example: Team, group or herd?

The term ‘team leader’ as the name suggests is about being able to ‘lead’ a team. That of course assumes that a ‘team’ exists.

Even though people are brought together as a work group they are not automatically a team, even if that is their title, i.e. ‘the accounting team’.

The level to which individuals work together can give you a clue as to whether they can be described as a work group or a team. Where members rely on each other to get the work done and where they share the responsibility for reaching the desired result, then they can be referred to as a team.

Team purpose and high performance

A team needs to have a clear picture of why it exists and how its contribution will support the organisation in reaching goals and objectives. A team vision is important when trying to establish your team’s goals and objectives. Each team member should understand their part in the team and how their individual contributions affect the team’s success.

When a team is clear about why they exist, what they need to achieve, and what they need to do to get there, then they are better equipped to overcome obstacles that may come up. Planning the work that needs to be done and then working on the plan to get things done can provide an effective focus for a job well done!

The focus is the end result, so having clear performance goals that indicate what that end looks like and timeframes around getting there is an important part of team planning. Keeping goals relevant and up-to-date ensures the team stays on track and performs effectively.



Generally when we look at a high performing team we can find that:

● that team members work together to meet the same clearly defined goal

● members depend on each other to get the job done and are mutually accountable for the end result.

Learning activity: What makes a team effective?

Think about a poor performing team that you have been a part of, or a team you know of, that you would consider as having ‘lost the plot’.

What were the ‘signs’ that this team was in trouble?

Why do you believe the team was unable to perform effectively?

Types of work teams In the workplace, you will encounter many different types of teams. Just take a look at this list:

Occupational health and safety (OHS) committees Tiger teams Six Sigma teams

Recognition committees Kaizen blitz teams Waste reduction teams

Leadership teams Quality circles Consultative committees

Standing teams Process improvement Problem-solving teams



Learning activity: Types of teams

Conduct some research on the types of teams mentioned above.

On a separate piece of paper, complete a chart similar to the following:

Team type Description/purpose example

OHS committees

OHS committees are usually comprised of management and worker representatives. OHS committees form to provide a consultative forum to discuss health and safety issues for a workplace and devise solutions to health and safety risks.

The OHS committee of Smith’s Electronics Warehouse is comprised of elected health and safety representatives for each work group and two representatives from senior management. The committee regularly discusses OHS issues.

Tiger teams Tiger teams are teams comprised of experts. These experts form a team to overcome technical issues that demand expertise.

Aerospace engineers form group assigned to overcome issues with hypersonic scram jet engines.



Required skills in the team In order to work in a team, people need to develop some specific team skills. Some essential skills are:

● communication

● conflict resolution

● group decision-making

● problem-solving

● time management.

When teams work well together, they are able to communicate with each other confidently and comfortably. That level of team cohesion is aided considerably by team members having the skills to listen actively to capture individual inputs. Group participants need to be able to take concrete actions to comprehend what other group members are saying, retain that information and participate in the communication process. Skilful active listeners use techniques such as paraphrasing and taking notes to facilitate understanding and ensure information generated from communication is appropriately stored. The key to active listening is participation.

Team members also need skills related to conflict resolution. By its very nature, working in a team with other people means that some type of conflict will occur. Just as people are different, the sources of conflict can also be very different. An effective team is able to identify potential sources of conflict and has the necessary interpersonal skills to work through points of difference and deal with the conflict.

Team members need to identify team goals and relate their recommendations for team activity to those goals. When agreement is not readily achievable, team members need to be resourceful and devise methods for clarifying objectives, generating possible ways of achieving objectives and creating fair ways to evaluate and come to agreement on the best way forward. Some tools or techniques for conflict resolution may include brainstorming and listing positives and negatives for alternative courses of action or formal debates or discussions, for example.

Remember that sharing in the decision-making process is a characteristic of effective teams. Decisions made in consultation with team members are more likely to be accepted and supported by the team.

Effective teams are also skilled in problem-solving. Not only are team members expected to do their jobs, often in the course of doing the technical work or job specific task, the team member has to deal with a range of problems if something doesn’t go to plan. Problem-solving skills are therefore a must for team members, given problems are inevitable. Some examples of problem-solving tools or techniques include fishbone diagrams or visualisation exercises.

Finally, time management is a crucial team skill. If your team has clear goals, those goals will have timeframes associated with them. Time management techniques include the use of agendas for team meetings and developing detailed project plans or schedules.



Learning activity: Internet research

Research:

● active listening

● conflict resolution techniques

● decision-making techniques

● problem-solving techniques

● time management techniques.

Consider a workplace team scenario you have experienced.

Identify how the techniques you have researched could have improved the performance of the team.

Learning activity: ‘Walk and talk’

Read Appendix 2 and follow the instructions for the group activity.

Stages of team development Research conducted by Tuckman1 elaborated the stages of team development. The four stages of team development identified by Tuckman are:

1 Tuckman, B., 1965, ‘Developmental Sequence in Small Groups’, Psychological Bulletin, vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 384–399.

• The group comes together and gets to understand its responsibilities.1. Forming

• A struggle for clarity and trialling of group processes.2. Storming

• Reaching agreement on how the group operates. 3. Norming

• The group becomes effective in meeting objectives.4. Performing



Tuckman also mentions a final stage, adjourning, which addresses the break-up of the group after a task has been completed.

Each stage of team development, or landmark, provides learning and experience relevant to your development and performance. Your team may even find themselves following a different route having taken a short cut or detour to complete tasks, all of which will add to your learning and experience.

Progression through Tuckman’s stages can be represented as a curve. For a team that has come together for a specific project, the curve might appear as the one below.

Stages of group development for a project team

Learning activity: Stages of team development

Research team formation and dynamics:

● Bruce Tuckman

● Tuckman’s stages

● group dynamics

● forming, storming, norming and performing.

Search the internet for approaches to sustaining teams with fixed members that need to maintain a high level of performance over a long period and make notes on approaches that might prove effective in a work environment.



Some factors to consider While skills like effective communication techniques and an understanding of group development processes are important for turning groups into cohesive and effective teams, there are often other factors to be considered.

These can include:

● team size – cohesion is easier to generate in small, rather than large teams

● amount of time teams spend together

● past successes – these reinforce a positive commitment to the team and the valuing of individual team members.

Many organisations undertake team building activities in order to get their team functioning effectively. These team building activities should leverage existing team strengths to assist teams to move through the stages of team development and achieve high performance earlier.

Achieving team goals will depend greatly on how motivated your team is in reaching their objectives. Supporting and rewarding team members for their contributions will encourage a work environment that is focused on achieving successful outcomes. Recognising how individuals in your team add value to the team’s effectiveness builds confidence within the team.



Learning activity: Theories of motivation

There are many theories that attempt to explain motivation. Some of these are:

● Maslow’s hierarchy of needs

● theory X and theory Y (McGregor)

● Herzberg’s two-factor theory

● force field analysis (Lewin)

● expectancy theory (Vroom)

● goal-setting theory (Locke).

Research some of these theories of motivation and make notes explaining how you could use three of these theories to apply to building an effective team.

Establish strategies, goals and objectives

You need to be able to explain goals, objectives and strategies to your team. You must be able to explain these concisely and effectively. In order to be motivated towards high performance, your team will need to know what the purpose of the team is and how this purpose fits within the organisation’s strategic plans.

Where do strategies, goals and objectives come from? Many organisations set out their goals and objectives in a strategic plan (or strategy) on a regular basis – sometimes annually, sometimes at other regular times, such as three years or ten years.

In some cases, everybody contributes to the development of the strategy. In other cases, a group of managers will prepare it and communicate the goals and objectives to the rest of the organisation.



Goals and objectives need to be explained effectively to team leaders and supervisors so they, in turn, can make them work across the organisation. If everyone in the organisation has a shared vision about how they are going to achieve these things, then they will move towards the organisational goals together.

Goals and objectives A goal is what you want to achieve, or a position you want to work towards. Having clear goals is important, as the clearer the goal the clearer the plan to reach it can be.

Team leaders are expected to explain the goals to their team members and ensure that they understand what they are working towards. It’s your job to make the goal clear and then the team can help you plan the right strategy or approach to get there.

So you have a goal in mind, but how are you going to achieve it? From your goal you can tease out a number of intermediate objectives that will help you move along the path to your ultimate goal.

Example: Getting fit

Let’s look at a personal example first – say your goal is to get fit by June. How are you going to get there?

You need to establish some weekly objectives, perhaps starting with setting the alarm to get up in time to have a 2 km run every second morning. The following week you might increase this to six mornings plus a gym session, and so on.

Notice that there are times mentioned with these objectives. Decide on a timeframe to achieve the goal. Of course, you aren’t going to reach your objectives (or your goal) unless you are really clear about when you are going to take each step.

Objectives work in a similar way to our example in the workplace. Maybe your organisation has a goal to expand into a new overseas market area. They must set some objectives to help them move towards that.

Sometimes the terms ‘goal’ and ‘objective’ are used interchangeably, but there is a difference. There are usually a number of objectives that need to achieved on the way to reaching a goal.



SMART goals or objectives SMART goals are:

S Specific

M Measurable

A Achievable

R Relevant

T Timeframed.

Example: SMART goals or objectives

Implement a call centre sales coaching program that increases product sales from incoming calls by 20% by the first quarter review period.

Is this specific? Simple and clear: implement a sales coaching program.

Is it measurable? Increases sales from incoming calls by 20%.

Is it achievable? Consider your resources including people, systems and time.

Is it relevant? Make sure the goal fits with the organisation’s vision and strategic plan.

Is it timeframed? By the first quarter review period.

Looking at the above goal we can see that it is SMART enough to guide you and your team toward reaching this goal.

Establish roles and responsibilities

Now that we have explored some basic theory behind teams and team work, let’s look at the individuals in the team and the different roles and responsibilities that people have within a team.

Team roles Each team member will have a particular role within the group. Each role will has its own responsibilities and outcomes that each team member must achieve in order to further team goals. In addition, each role will also require certain behaviour of the individual performing that role.

Let’s look at some specific team roles. There are three role categories: task roles, maintenance roles and liaison roles.



Task roles Task role behaviours relate to information and procedures. Tackling the things that need to be done to achieve the team’s goals.

Team members who:

● collect information for the team

● provide information to the team

● clarify task requirements

● suggest approaches and ideas.

Maintenance roles

Maintenance role behaviours relate to people and their relationships within the team

Team members who:

● keep the peace and reduce tensions in the team

● encourage the contributions of others

● support communication within the team.

Liaison roles Liaison role behaviours are usually those that focus on other stakeholders in the business. These roles ensure that the team is building strong networks and relationships outside their immediate work team.

Team members who:

● establish norms and rules that will support teams working together

● clarify the needs of various stakeholders and how these can be acknowledged in the working relationship.

Team members will have different technical strengths and weaknesses as well as personality strengths and weaknesses.

It is a good idea to consult with team members to ensure that each member is assigned a role that suits the individual’s ability and personality.

Learning activity: Research team roles

Research ‘team roles’ and make notes about what you find.

Locate a questionnaire or activity that works out what your preferred roles are within a team. Try key word searches under:

● team roles

● Belbin

● team role inventory.



Selecting the team A team leader’s role is to build an effective team and then to ensure that the team remains effective and maintains a consistently high level of performance.

Example: Selecting a team

In order to build a typical house, your required team may include:

● carpenters

● plumbers

● electricians

● engineers

● concreters

● bricklayers

● glaziers.

If you were a builder, how would you select the trade workers that you need?



Where possible, you will need to select the most appropriate team members to achieve team goals. Two methods of either selecting team members or assessing the skill levels of an already existing team are:

● SWOT analysis

● skills matrix.

Team SWOT analysis In the process of working on their strategic plans, setting their goals and objectives, organisations often undertake a SWOT analysis. A SWOT analysis looks at the organisation in terms of:

S Strengths

W Weaknesses

O Opportunities

T Threats

Teams or individuals may also conduct SWOT analyses to determine suitable roles for individuals within the team and identify professional development requirements.

As a team leader you will need to be clear about the strengths and weaknesses of each team member. This includes both their technical skills and their ability to take on certain roles within the team.

You will also need to know what opportunities exist for each team member to further enhance their skills, as well as have a fair idea of any barriers or threats to their development and ultimate ability to do their job.



Learning activity: SWOT analysis

Lead a SWOT analysis for your team:

1. Divide a whiteboard or sheet of butcher’s paper into four quadrants: strengths; weaknesses; opportunities; threats.

2. Brainstorm information for each quadrant. For example list the strengths of team members.

Note: if you are working alone or do not have access to a team, conduct an individual SWOT analysis with regard to your team leadership abilities.

Learning activity: Getting the team involved in a SWOT analysis

Watch the video ‘BSBSMB403A: Employee involvement in a SWOT analysis’ on IBSA’s YouTube channel at <http://youtu.be/ONFgSRFllI0l>.

Maria’s Pasta is having a group development meeting and discussing the SWOT analysis for the business. Why is it important to get the team together when discussing the SWOT analysis?

What are some of the issues that are being brought up by Maria’s Pasta team members?

When you have completed this activity, you can view example answers in Appendix 9 of this Student Workbook.

Skills matrix A skills matrix is a tool that can help you assess the development needs of your team. It can be as simple or as complex as you wish to make it.

Often a simple table or spreadsheet can help you document the skill sets within your team. Once you have done this, at a glance you will be able to see which team members have which particular skills or qualifications.


http://www.youtube.com/ibsachannel


Example: Skills matrix for Technical Solutions

Cara has been asked to conduct a skills analysis for the technical team at Technical Solutions.

Roles that need to be allocated include:

● collecting information for the team

● providing information to the team

● clarifying task requirements

● keeping the peace and reducing tensions in the team

● encouraging the contributions of others

● supporting communication within the team

● establishing norms and rules that will support team members working together

● clarifying the needs of various stakeholders and explaining these to team

● troubleshooting technical issues

● providing possible technical solutions

● report writing.

Maintenance team

John Mary Pam James

Technical ability: general

Moderate Low

High High

Technical ability: software applications

Moderate Low High High

Technical ability: hardware

Moderate Low High moderate

Qualifications Trade Certificate Diploma of Management

Degree in Engineering

Degree in Engineering

Knowledge Completed three year apprenticeship in role

Completed all internal company leadership courses

Excellent with IT, written and verbal communication

Technical – to a high degree

Experience 1 year 5 years 3 months 2 years

Interpersonal Introverted Team leader Extrovert, friendly

Prefers to work alone



Based on information in the skills matrix Cara decides to:

● assign team leadership and maintenance roles to Mary

● assign information collection and troubleshooting roles to Pam and James who may also guide John in a subordinate role

● assign reporting role to Pam

● explore teamwork or leadership training options for John, Pam and James to further their professional development.

A skills matrix can be a useful tool, especially when you are trying to allocate tasks to the appropriate team members or determine training requirements.

Learning activity: Skills matrix

Have a look at the following website. These will give you an idea of what a skills matrix is and how it can be useful. You can also conduct an internet search for ‘skills matrix’.

● Hewitt, D., ‘How does a training matrix work?’, eHow, viewed August 2014, <http://www.ehow.com/how-does_4623554_training-matrix-work.html>.

Conduct a skills analysis for your team, or, if you do not have access to a team, conduct a self-analysis.

Team member accountabilities All team members are required to fulfil the responsibilities of their position or job description. Responsibilities describe what a team member is accountable for, or in charge of, in their position.

Let’s look at some responsibilities that can typically be found in a team leader’s job description.

Develop strategies to determine the team’s purpose.

Allocate team resources.

Coordinate and monitor team activities and performance.

Report on team activities to organisational stakeholders.

Team member responsibilities need to be clearly defined so that all members understand their responsibilities in relation to meeting overall team and organisational goals.



KPIs, KRAs, and targets A key performance indicator (KPI) is a number, percentage, or ratio, for example, that indicates some important measure of performance. KPIs typically cover the following key result areas (KRAs):

● cost

● quality

● quantity

● time

● safety.

KPIs are directly related to specific targets that have to be achieved for each KRA. Targets detail what is to be achieved, in what timeframe, and are then used to compare with actual performance. For example, an organisation’s objective could be to ensure customer satisfaction. The associated target could be that all maintenance is completed in one hour. The performance indicator could be the average time taken to complete a technical service call (in minutes).

An individual who does not meet their targets may be coached or placed on a performance improvement plan to assist them in achieving their targets. Each KRA should have only two to three KPIs, and should be focused on measuring the most critical aspects of the KRA.

KPIs and targets are typically applied at role/individual level but can also be used to measure the performance of an organisation, department or team. The principle for setting targets and measuring performance remains the same, irrespective of the level of the organisation at which they are applied.

Each member of your team needs to be clear about what is required of their role and to what standard they are expected to perform. You need to establish what the priority areas are, given the team’s objectives.

Achieving your goals will depend on the extent to which you are able to provide clear direction and advice as to the performance standards and have the necessary indicators in place to measure success.

Example: Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Indicators that measure a team’s performance may be linked to the following KRAs:

● budgets and spending

● absenteeism

● wastage

● time taken

● staff turnover

● safety

● efficiency rates

● disruptions or downtime.



Example: SMART Key performance indicators

Performance indicators also need to be SMART so that you know exactly to what standard you are expected to perform.

For example, safety audits at Technical Solutions are conducted across all workshop facilities at least twice a quarter with less than 5% non-conformance.

Specific Safety audits conducted to specific quality standard.

Measurable Across all workshops and with less than 5% non-conformance.

Achievable Resources available.

Realistic Safety is relevant to legal compliance.

Timeframed At least twice a quarter.

Learning activity: Performance that is SMART

Look at the following work tasks. Try writing these in a way that captures the required performance and the standard to which the task needs to be performed.

Task: Resolve customer complaints

Standard:

Task: Log IT service requests

Standard:



Performance management

Managing your team’s performance through clear communication, developing performance plans, monitoring and reviewing performance will enable your team to perform effectively. Managing a team’s performance is easier if the team knows exactly:

● where they are going or what they need to achieve

● how they are going to get there

● what resources they will need

● when they need to get there

● how will they know if they have done a good job.

When all of this is clear to your team, you will have established a firm foundation for managing high performance.

Building a high-performance team

As we have seen, building an effective team requires a team leader to have addressed questions and made plans in regard to the following:

● What are the team’s goals?

● Who needs to be part of the team?

● What skills will they need to have?

● What plan will we follow to reach our goal?

● What resources or support is needed to get the team to the goal?

● By when should the team have achieved the goal?

Learning activity: Researching effective teams

Conduct your own internet or online library research on ‘team effectiveness’. Search for information that defines or describes team effectiveness.

Some ideas for your search include:

● news articles

● corporate updates from company sites

● journal publications on current trends and research

● sporting bodies, clubs or associations

● team disaster stories

● business review sites.

Answer the following questions:



What have you found that you would consider interesting about high-performance teams?

What are the causes of teams not performing?



How can you overcome or prevent poor team performance?

Performance management cycle There is a lot of information available about managing team performance. It’s enough to confuse even the most experienced team leader. The most important point to remember, though, is that you need to:

1. Establish clear objectives for team members and pathways to achieve objectives.

2. Plan achievement of objectives.

3. Support and ensure achievement of objectives.

4. Monitor and review performance.

5. Provide feedback to team members on their performance.

In this section we have focused on forming the team and setting team objectives. We will now focus on performance planning and enabling high performance through training and coaching, for example.

Performance plans

To ensure each member of your team knows exactly what they need to achieve and by when is essential to effective teamwork. One tool for planning and scheduling team activities is the performance (action) plan. Performance or action plan templates or formats vary from very basic, to very complex. Your organisation will certainly have their preferred style. Let’s look at an example:



Example: Performance action plan

Objective: Reduce service request turnaround times from within two working days to within 24 hours.

Action / tasks Measures/ performance indicators

Action 1 Review and update service request process. 90% of all service requests are actioned within 24hrs.

Client satisfaction surveys indicate an improved satisfaction rating of no less than 5%.

Action 2 Communicate service request process changes to all service staff and stakeholders.

Action 3 Review and update all relevant procedures affected by the process change.

Action 4 Monitor request efficiency and ensure new process is followed.

Team performance plans Often teams are asked to work on a specific project, or are brought together to address a particular issue. If you’re leading a project team, the following guide will help you plan effectively with your team.

Example: Project performance plan

Objective: What needs to be achieved, to what standard and within what timeframe?

Due date: What is the timeframe? What date does the end result need to be achieved by?

Actions Timeline Responsibility Resources Review dates

What are the major actions or key steps that need to be taken to achieve your objective?

How do you get from where you are now to where you want to be?

What are the end dates for each separate action or key steps?

What roles will people need to take on in order for the objective to be achieved?

Who will have responsibility for which actions or key steps?

What materials, equipment, systems, processes or funds will be required?

What are the major review dates where progress can be checked by the team?

Are there any major milestone dates that require progress checks, review or sign off?



Indicators or measures of success: SMART and linked to one or more of the following:

● budgets and spending

● staff turnover

● safety

● efficiency rates

● disruptions or downtime

● absenteeism

● wastage

● time taken.

Potential barriers:

● What might hinder our progress along the way?

● What will be the process for dealing with obstacles along the way?

● Obstacles may include variations, changes or hiccups along the way that may impact on the objective being achieved.

● What contingencies or back-up plans need to be developed?

Dependencies:

● What support, advice or assistance outside the team might we need to call upon to ensure the objective is achieved?

Group activity: Technical Solutions’ media campaign

Technical Solutions, in addition to resolving computer issues for clients, designs and develops interactive multi-media products.

A recent recall of the company’s most popular online console game has had a negative impact on consumer confidence in the company’s products. Recent media publicity has contributed to the drop in sales, due to a leaked media report from within the company.

The report refers to an increased risk of potential seizures for game users, twice that of any comparable product on the market. The accuracy of this information has been disputed by Technical Solutions, stating that the information in the media is wrong and refers to early prototypes of the game, not the final version.

Despite this, the company has been forced to recall all games pending independent testing of the product.

Team task

Imagine you are a member of the public communications team for this company. Your team has been asked to develop a media campaign to restore consumer confidence in your product lines and rebuild your image as a vibrant and trusted new generation company. You will need to form into groups (teams) to develop an appropriate response strategy and present a performance plan of the actions you intend to take to senior management.



You will need to consider and include:

● your project team’s goal

● the team’s performance objectives

● a team action plan allocating appropriate tasks to team members with the appropriate skill sets

● the necessary resources and timelines for each step in the project

● the key measures your team will use to evaluate the success of the project

Present this action plan to the stakeholders (your whole group acting as stakeholders) for approval.

Support, guide and provide feedback to the team

To ensure the success of your team, you will need to support the team as it develops and support individuals within the team to achieve their individual performance targets. Several ways to provide support are:

● coaching

● mentoring

● training and development opportunities.

Coaching Coaching refers to the act of directing, guiding and training an individual or group. Coaching often involves modelling what to do. In the sporting context, a coach helps the athlete to maximise their performance and this is what coaching in the workplace should aim to achieve. Coaches:

● work closely with individuals to set realistic learning objectives

● guide and monitor an individual’s performance

● provide feedback that is specific and useful in improving their skills.

GROW coaching model A useful coaching model to follow is the GROW model.

G Goal

R Reality

O Options

W Will



Firstly, collaborate with the underperforming team member to establish reasonable performance goals. Next, establish the reality of current performance and the existence of a performance gap to overcome. Obviously, if the team member doesn’t believe there is a performance gap to overcome, the improvement process will stall. You may need to come prepared to coaching sessions with evidence of underperformance.

Next you should discuss options for closing the gap. It is important to use active listening to uncover root causes for underperformance and talk through the possible options to generate effective solutions.

Finally, and perhaps, most importantly, you need to establish the willingness of the team member to improve. You should establish willingness by encouraging the individual to commit to taking practical, observable measures to achieve performance goals. In this way, the individual will be unable to hide a lack of commitment, through making vague promises.

Note: The coaching conversation does not need to rigidly follow the order above. Any genuinely two-way conversation will develop in unplanned ways. Nevertheless, each element of the GROW model should be addressed at some point in any coaching session that is likely to be effective.

Learning activity: Coaching

Imagine you are the manager of a project team. You have a team member who is having trouble meeting a number of performance targets. The team member:

● is quiet during meetings and does not contribute despite their targets to collaborate and contribute to each team meeting by providing at least one instance of input

● has not completed a report on technical issues which they were expected to present to the work team.

You plan to hold a five minute coaching session with the team member to establish how to help the team member reach their performance targets and determine what steps the team member should undertake.

Complete the following coaching plan for the session. Some possible questions have been provided. Try to think of at least three questions to ask at each stage of the coaching session.

Goal What are your KPIs?

What performance goals have you set for yourself?



Reality How do you think you are going?

Options

Will

Mentoring In many organisations, formal mentoring programs have been established to encourage the sharing of knowledge and experience of more senior professionals with others on the organisation who could benefit from such a relationship.

Organisations are becoming increasingly aware of the positive impact of a mentor for a team member’s development and encourage these relationships.

The mentoring relationship can provide advice, feedback and professional support.

Mentors:

● inspire, or earn, trust and confidence from the person they are mentoring

● support and give advice for growth and development, both personally and professionally

● motivate and encourage.



Example: Finding a mentor/buddy for a new team member

Sometimes you will need to organise a mentor for a new team member.

Sandra has recently joined the sales department of Technical Solutions. She has been trained and her manager has provided her with support and resources.

Nicholas, another member of the team, has extensive sales experience and recognises that he needs to develop his leadership skills.

You suggest that Nicholas mentor Sandra to provide both a leadership growth opportunity for Nicholas and the opportunity for Sandra to gain advice from and model her behaviour on Nicholas.

Learning activity: Mentoring and coaching

Answer the following questions

Do you have a mentor? What is it about this person that makes them a good mentor?

What do you consider to be the characteristics or qualities of an effective coach?

If you were to choose a mentor to support you with this unit of study, who would it be and why? How can you make this happen?

What are the benefits of coaching as a performance improvement tool?



List the benefits that coaching can provide for the organisation?

What benefits does coaching provide for the person being coached?

A team leader may find that they are both coach and mentor, depending on the team member and the stage of the team’s development.

Training and development Training begins as soon as you enter an organisation and is ongoing. When a new member enters your team you will need to show them the correct procedures to follow in order to do their job properly. In other cases you may need to arrange for training.

Learning plans You may need to develop learning plans for individual team members. For example, consider new systems or processes have been introduced. The new system is sufficiently complicated and different team members may be more or less skilled in using the new system. You will need to have a way of identifying team members’ current competencies, development needs and what actions will be taken to address these needs.

You may wish to use tools such as a skills matrix and create individual professional development plans based on identified skills gaps. You may also wish to consider individual learning styles and what type of learning may be appropriate for individuals in your team. Planning a team member’s development opportunities is a joint responsibility, but your team will expect you to support them in this process.

Learning activity: Learning and development plans

Read the scenario described in Appendix 4.

As the team leader of the pilot team you have been asked to work closely with the ‘virtual communication project’ team to identify and address the training for this new virtual communication forum. Your task is to determine the training and development needs of your team, so that your team members can actively engage in and use this new system effectively.



● What skills, knowledge and attitudes will the team need in order to use the new system? Identify what competencies need to be trained.

● Develop a process to determine which team members will need the training.

● Identify the learning objectives for the team. What will team members be able to do by the end of the training?

● Develop a skills matrix to capture which team members will require what type of training.

Strategies to ensure team inputs

To ensure that each member of the team contributes to team cohesion and achieving organisational goals, you will need to develop strategies to ensure effective participation.

So far, we have explored strategies to build high-performing teams. Many of these strategies work because they facilitate clear understanding of roles and accountabilities for individuals within teams.

As a by-product of participation in planning, many problems can be avoided, such as the lack of completion of team activities due to misunderstanding or lack of support on the part of team members to team objectives.

Possible strategies to ensure participation include:

● ensuring group participation in planning clarification of roles and expectations

● developing policies and procedures for group planning

● utilising electronic communication devices and processes, such as intranet and email communication systems, to facilitate input into planning

● long-term or short-term plans factoring in opportunities for team input

● implementing mentoring and ‘buddy’ systems to support team members in providing input

● providing recurrent newsletters and briefings

● planning training and development activities.

Learning activity: Strategies to ensure team input into planning

Consider a work team you are a member of or one that you are familiar with.

Suppose you want to ensure participation in planning and encourage team support of operations and objectives.

Describe how you could implement a few of the strategies outlined above to ensure effective participation. Give concrete examples.



Policies and procedures for effective team operation

You will need to provide your team with documented policies and procedures or develop policies and procedures in consultation with your team to ensure team members take responsibility for their own work and support others to perform.

Policy A policy is a statement of intent related to an issue or function such as coaching or team building. A policy should include:

In general, when writing policy, you should keep in mind the size and specific needs of the organisation.

• The context of the policy, why it is required, the desired standard or overall objective.

Purpose statement

• The application of the policy (particular location, workgroup, department clients that will be impacted).

Scope

• Additional documents, related forms, etc.Resources

• Who is responsible for what in the implementation of the policy.

Roles and responsibilities

• Identification of any legislation applicable to the policy.Legislation



Effective policies should:

● relate to organisational goals and objectives

● state the overall approach, principle or rule, but not deal with implementation

● define and explain specific or specialist terms.

Example: Technical Solutions’ coaching policy

Technical Solutions Coaching Policy Purpose

The aim of this policy is to establish Technical Solutions’ commitment to ensuring high quality coaching.

Scope

The scope of this policy covers all managers with responsibility for coaching and all employees subject to coaching.

Policy

Technical Solutions is committed to providing quality coaching to team members to help them achieve performance targets and develop professionally. Coaches are expected to follow coaching procedures to ensure the success of the coaching process and conduct coaching in a way that adheres to legislative requirements.

Procedures

Refer to Procedures Manual.

Responsibility for implementation

Managers of teams are responsible for monitoring team members’ performance and intervening as early as possible to address underperformance. Managers are responsible for:

● the effective implementation and regular review of performance

● consultation with employees on performance requirements

● providing and maintaining a safe system of working practices

● providing support, training, and supervision to employees

● providing adequate resources to perform adequately in roles.

Related legislation

● Fair Work Act 2009 (Cwlth)

● Privacy Act 1988 (Cwlth).

Approved by

General Manager

30 June 2014



Procedures Procedures are developed to support the implementation of the relevant policy. A procedure states the complete instructions for completing an activity covered by the policy.

Procedures include the following as applicable:

● step-by-step instructions for carrying out tasks and processes

● training requirements

● process for monitoring, reviewing and reporting

● requirements for documentation and recordkeeping.

Procedures are specified series of actions, operations or instructions that need to be followed as prescribed for a job to be done properly. Many organisations have procedures documented. These can be in the form of step-by-step instructions or a series of connected activities.

Procedures need to be followed as specified by the organisation to ensure that operations flow effectively.

Effective procedures should:

● relate directly to policies

● outline the implementation and application of the related policy

● clearly communicate step-by-step instructions that can be easily followed.

The language for policy and procedure documents should be simple and clear and not contain jargon or technical terms unless necessary. Procedures should use basic vocabulary where possible and simple grammar.

Example: Technical Solutions’ coaching procedure

Technical Solutions Coaching Procedure

Purpose The purpose of this procedure is to ensure that all managers responsible for coaching team members complete coaching tasks.

Procedure 1. Consult with team member to establish performance goals, and explain

performance review process. Ensure and explain fairness of approach.

2. Document performance plans and store securely.

3. Ensure realistic performance objectives, support and resources in place to allow achievement.

4. Establish regular performance review schedule and gain agreement with employee

5. Monitor performance.



6. Document record of performance and store securely.

7. Arrange and plan coaching sessions.

8. Conduct coaching session professionally and fairly.

9. Ensure employee agrees with actions to take.

10. Arrange follow-up to ensure actions taken.

11. Document coaching activity.

12. Store all coaching records securely.

Learning activity: Team policy and procedures

Using the examples provided as a guide, develop policy and procedures documents for the formation of project teams at Technical Solutions.

Ensure the policy and procedures documents you produce:

● clarify roles and responsibilities

● outline responsibilities towards assisting others in the team.

Section summary

You should now be able to explain team building and how to form effective teams. You should be able establish team performance plans in consultation with team members, develop strategies to ensure team participation and develop policies and procedures to ensure team members understand and are able to perform responsibilities assigned to them.

Further reading

● Belbin, R. M., 1981, Management teams: why they succeed or fail, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

● Belbin, R. M., 1993, Team roles at work, Butterworth, Heinemann, London.

● Bolten, R., 1986, People skills: how to assert yourself, listen to others, and resolve conflicts, Prentice Hall, New York.

● Tuckman, B., 1965, ‘Developmental sequence in small groups’, Psychological Bulletin, vol. 63, no. 6, pp. 384–399.



Section checklist

Before you proceed to the next section, ensure you are able to:

consult team members to establish a common understanding of team purpose, roles, responsibilities and accountabilities in accordance with organisational goals, plans and objectives

develop performance plans to establish expected outcomes, outputs, key performance indicators and goals for work team

support team members in meeting expected performance outcomes

develop strategies to ensure team members have input into planning, decision-making and operational aspects of work team

develop policies and procedures to ensure team members take responsibility for own work and assist others to undertake required roles and responsibilities.


Section 2 – Develop Team Cohesion and Facilitate Teamwork Student Workbook

Section 2 – Develop Team Cohesion and Facilitate Teamwork

This section focuses on the knowledge and skills required to develop the team as an effective unit and support team activities. Section 2 addresses how to monitor performance and provide feedback; develop processes to identify and resolve issues; encourage team members to participate; and overcome team performance problems. This section also addresses how to ensure your behaviour models effective team behaviour.

Scenario: Technical Solutions

Recall that increases in the number, frequency and complexity of service requests have forced Technical Solutions to implement the use of mobile data terminals in their vehicles. The implementation, however, has resulted in some major issues.

Technicians are having trouble using the terminals and this has impacted on the quality of the service that customers receive. Problems include jobs being lost in the system, technicians not sure how to use the new technology properly and delays in getting to the clients.

To date, Cara has built a core team of technicians to address implementation issues and troubleshoot solutions. She has developed a performance plan for each team member and each team member has clear objectives to achieve.

In consultation with the general manager and team members, Cara has written a coaching policy and procedure. She has also studied team dynamics and theories of team motivation and planned her approach to managing the team.

Cara has decided that she will:

● monitor the team regularly, coach and provide feedback to team members which should motivate the team to achieve

● develop processes to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognised and addressed promptly to ensure high performances

● encourage team members and individuals to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes which should act to reinforce team spirit and encourage support of organisational and team objectives

● support the team in identifying and resolving work performance problems.

Above all Cara needs to ensure that her own contribution to work team serves as a role model for team members to emulate and to build the team’s profile in the eyes of stakeholders such as senior management and customers.


Student Workbook Section 2 – Develop Team Cohesion and Facilitate Teamwork


In order to work effectively as a team leader or supervisor, you must be able to:

provide feedback to team members to encourage, value and reward individual and team efforts and contributions

develop processes to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognised and addressed

encourage team members and individuals to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes

support the team in identifying and resolving work performance problems

ensure own contribution to work team serves as a role model for others and enhances the organisation’s image for all stakeholders.

Monitor team performance

Monitoring your team’s performance will be one of the most important things you do as a manager or team leader. Monitoring the performance of your team provides you with the data you need to ensure quality performance and provide effective coaching and feedback based on solid, verifiable evidence.

You need to encourage team performance that is of a high standard and is sustainable (does not place unrealistic demands upon team members). Basing your feedback on a rigorous monitoring process ensures that feedback on performance and recognition of achievement is based on measurable and fair benchmarks. On the other hand, if you provide positive feedback without reason, you risk undermining your credibility and reducing motivation on the part of team members to perform to their potential.

The elements: Performance monitoring comprises three main elements:

1. Establish performance expectations with team.

2. Set targets and performance indicators.

3. Analyse results and provide performance feedback.



Step 1: Decide what you will monitor The first step in monitoring performance is deciding what it is that should be monitored. To determine this, you should think about what is most important to your team and achieving team goals. For example:

● expenses

● quality

● sales

● productivity

● customer satisfaction

● employee engagement.

You also need to consider high risk areas that could cause substantial damage to the organisation if something went wrong – these should be included in your monitoring program.

Next, you will need to determine key result areas (KRAs) for your team.

Step 2: Determine how you will measure performance Once you have identified your team’s KRAs, you should ensure each KRA has measurable targets, and that the data required to measure performance is easily accessible.

For example, in a team charged with problem-solving the implementation of a customer management system ‘customer satisfaction’ might be important for organisational success, which can be measured by the following KPIs.

• How long does it take to resolve the customer's technical issue?Time

• How many customer issues are resolved to customer satisfaction?

• How many customers have to make a repeat call to resolve their technical issue?

Quality



You will also need to determine how you will monitor performance and what tools you will use. For example:

● direct observation of performance

● team member reports

● team member self-assessment.

To ensure that your monitoring strategy is effective, make sure your team understands the monitoring process and how it applies to them. Your team should also understand the system itself and how it will be applied fairly. In addition, ensure your team understands how the system ensures that their performance relates to organisational goals.

Step 3: Analyse results Now that you have identified what needs to be monitored and how it will be measured, you have to analyse the data produced. You will be analysing data to understand what is actually happening, compared to what should be happening.

Use your monitoring tools to produce performance reports for the purpose of providing feed back to your team or reporting to senior management. A good performance report will specifically address each of the identified key result areas, allowing for easy monitoring of performance.

There are two main types of data –quantitative and qualitative – that you can analyse to find out how your team is performing.

Quantitative data Quantitative data are statistical data that can be measured numerically, for example:

● turnaround times

● completion rates

● production output

● faults or wastage.

Qualitative data Qualitative data are perceptions or opinion that cannot be numerically expressed, for example:

● satisfaction surveys

● observation of behaviour.

All this information can be analysed and used to monitor how well your team is performing in relation to team objectives.



Using performance reports to monitor KRAs involves three simple steps:

1. Identify any performance shortfalls against target:

a. For example, the target is eight units and actual result is ten units.

2. Analyse the shortfall to determine the cause:

a. Is the shortfall a one-off? For example, if service calls were missed due to a blackout and therefore computer systems could not process requests.

b. Has the underperformance been building over time and therefore needs further investigation? For example, completed service calls have decreased by 2% each month for the last six months.

c. Is there an explanation for the performance? For example, if calls are down for January because the company technical service department was closed for two weeks for holidays.

d. Is there some systemic reason for the performance shortfall? Are team processes and procedures as efficient as they could be?

3. Take corrective action where required:

a. Take action to improve individual performance such as coaching.

b. Make changes to the monitoring system itself: improve KPIs, and monitoring tools; increase awareness or understanding of the system.

Tip: Monitoring performance

● Develop regular ‘catch up’ sessions to discuss team members’ work progress. Sessions can vary from regular formal meetings to an environment where your team feels comfortable coming to you for advice, or just to ‘keep you in the loop’.

● Trust your team! Team members should feel they have the power to do things without having to check with you all the time.

● You need to model good communication. If you keep your team members informed, they will keep you informed.

● Positive reinforcement brings out the best in people. Remember to tell them what they are doing well, not only what they need to be doing better.

Provide feedback

Once you have monitored team performance through a monitoring system such as the one outlined above, you will be in a position to provide meaningful performance feedback.

The purpose of feedback with respect to building team cohesion is to encourage high performance and reward team effort. Feedback may also be given in the context of coaching and overcoming underperformance.



Explanation: Feedback – friend or foe?

Giving feedback is not complicated but it can be productive or counterproductive, depending on how you go about it and your intention.

Feedback that is collected and then used to punish, embarrass or make someone look and feel incompetent is not useful to anyone. You won’t benefit from it, the person you are giving it too certainly won’t and it is not likely that the organisation will see any major improvement from it.

However, feedback that is communicated respectfully, even if it is about something that needs to be fixed, helps to make people aware of the problem and gives them the opportunity to fix it. If they don’t know about it, they can’t fix it.

Giving feedback Giving open and honest feedback to assist in a person’s professional growth and development is a skill that team leaders and managers need to develop. Feedback that is considered, tied to the facts, and delivered respectfully will provide valuable and productive insight to team members on their performance and should indicate how to overcome underperformance.

Tip: Giving feedback

Here are some useful suggestions about giving effective feedback2:

1. Clarity – be clear about what you want to say.

2. Emphasise the positive – don’t forget to encourage.

3. Be specific – avoid general comments such as ‘you always’ or ‘ you never’, and give examples of behaviour.

4. Focus on behaviour rather than the person.

5. Refer to behaviour that can be changed.

6. Be descriptive rather than evaluative.

7. Own the feedback – use ‘I’ statements.

8. Be very careful with advice. Allow the person you are giving feedback to the chance to suggest a program of improvement that works for them. Make specific suggestions that indicate a realistic pathway to success.

Building effective relationships with your team and encouraging and valuing their contributions will create an environment where feedback is not only accepted but expected!

2 I. McGill and L. Beaty, 1994, Action learning: a practitioner’s guide, Kogan Page, London, pp. 159–163.



Learning activity: Values and effective feedback

To complete this exercise you will need:

● poster paper/cardboard

● various magazines

● scissors

● glue

● coloured markers.

Reflect on what is important to you, what you believe in and stand for as a team leader. This activity is part of building a profile of why you do what you do!

Instructions

Think about what inspires your beliefs and guides your behaviours as a team leader or manager.

1. Use magazines to cut out pictures or words that represent your values or beliefs. These are pasted on to the poster.

2. Create a visual representation of yourself.

3. Once completed write an explanation of what your poster is saying. Use this writing as an opportunity to do some reflective journaling. How do you think your profile affects how people receive feedback from you?

Let’s look at feedback and ways to deliver feedback to achieve the best performance outcomes.

Feedback and performance Feedback must have a positive impact, whether you are giving it to improve a person’s performance or to encourage continued high performance.

Feedback can be destructive if it is not given properly and with the intention of improving performance. Feedback needs to be about growth and development. The only things that grow from poorly delivered feedback are:

● distrust

● low morale

● poor productivity.

Feedback that is treated and delivered with the respect that it deserves will increase:

● motivation

● productivity and efficiency

● team effectiveness.



Feedback needs to be understood and accepted as valid by the team member. Remember to be prepared to back up your feedback with evidence.

Finally, if your feedback is to have an impact on performance, you must ensure that the person you are giving feedback to is in a position to do something about their performance. You may need to discuss a range of options including training solutions.

Remember that although you need to create a positive team environment in order to foster achievement, you can’t do this at the expense of open and honest discussion of actual performance. Build a sustainable positive team spirit by ensuring a realistic view of actual performance and an optimistic view of future performance by providing realistic pathways.

The feedback sandwich approach A common method of delivering feedback and staying positive at the same time is to deliver a ‘feedback sandwich’. Delivering a feedback sandwich means:

1. Beginning your feedback with a positive comment.

2. Delivering negative feedback in the middle.

3. Ending by giving additional positive feedback.

This approach can be useful, but, if overused, or used to create an artificial sense of achievement may undermine the performance objective of giving feedback. In fact, misuse of this method will destroy credibility and trust and devalue praise.

Don’t use this method if you need to make up positive feedback for the sake of delivering bad news. Teams will quickly perceive the dishonesty. The last thing in the world you want to do is to devalue positive feedback or praise by signalling that praise will always be followed by criticism of performance. Perversely, team members may begin to fear praise and avoid all forms of feedback.

Learning activity: Feedback sandwich

Research the term ‘feedback sandwich’.

Make notes on ways to deliver feedback to achieve the best performance outcomes.

Visit the Success Strategies website at <http://www.successtrategies.com/the-feedback-sandwich-is-out-to-lunch/> and read the article ‘The feedback sandwich is out to lunch’, by Shelle Rose Charvet.

● What is the danger inherent in always adhering to the feedback sandwich approach?



● What is the importance of mental states in changing behaviour?

● What method does the author suggest to deliver feedback?

● Consider a situation in which you have had to deliver negative feedback or in which you received negative feedback. Describe how this method could have been deployed to improve performance.



Learning activity: Giving feedback to improve performance

Imagine you have Cara’s role at Technical Solutions (managing the team of technicians). Stephen is part of the Technical Solutions sales team. Recently you have noticed that he hasn’t been collecting and entering all the necessary details on the client order forms. As a result, he has had to follow up with several clients and this has put him behind schedule.

In addition, orders cannot be actioned without all the details and this has impacted on the team’s sales figures for the month.

What performance feedback do you need to give Stephen? How will you give this feedback?

Develop processes to recognise and address problems

Teams may implement their own processes to describe how things get done. For example, team members that enter complex data (like enrolment data and course details) onto databases all need to do it the same way, treating particular codes and information in a standardised way.

There are all sorts of processes in an organisation:

● problem-solving processes

● communication processes

● technology processes

● management processes.

In some organisations processes are called ‘procedures’. Usually, procedures are more formal: they often respond to legislation of some kind (like health and safety) and they require approval by management before they are implemented.

Processes that can be particularly useful for you as a team leader include problem-solving processes and communication processes.



To maintain a high performance team, you will need to develop processes to ensure that issues are identified and dealt with effectively and as soon as possible. Monitoring and providing constructive feedback plays a big role in identifying performance issues. Not all issues, however, are necessarily about team or individual performance. Issues may arise with regard to the way the team interacts or different legitimate approaches to problems for which team members may argue passionately. Such issues call for an open consultative approach. Methods to identify and address issues may include:

● brainstorming options with the team for addressing concerns

● creating a matrix of issues and concerns and distributing for comment

● holding discussions with individuals regarding their concerns

● distributing drafts for comment with a range of options for resolution of concerns

● training and development sessions.

Regularly scheduled and planned use of these methods can assist the team in identifying issues early, before they affect performance and potentially become the cause of disruptive conflict. These methods can also allow you to leverage conflict to create better, more sustainable solutions to group issues.

For example, brainstorming solutions can facilitate the input of a wide range of possible solutions from a range of different team members with different skills, knowledge and experience. Remember that the more people you include in problem-solving the more likely the solutions will gain the acceptance of the people who will be affected by or who will implement the solutions.

Learning activity: Processes

Consider a time in which you were working in a team and an issue arose.

● What was the issue?

● How was it identified? Was it suddenly discovered, or was it discovered through a planned activity or process?

● What process was followed to resolve the issue?

Describe how processes discussed to identify and resolve issues could be used to resolve issues. Give examples.

● How can you ensure such processes become part of the way the team works and are available to the team before issues arise or become more serious or disruptive? Give examples.



Some notes on managing conflict It is important to recognise that conflict may be unavoidable. When conflict happens our minds may be bombarded with many questions:

It is important to look at all the information you have available to you, analyse this information and then approach conflict in the most productive way possible.

Resolving conflict Your job as a leader is to recognise sources of conflict and to deal with the issue effectively. Your aim, at the end of the day, is to come to some kind of resolution:

● permanently

● efficiently

● with minimum cost

● which provides the best outcomes for everyone.

Focusing on negative emotions, such as the potential for embarrassment at being seen to ‘lose’ and doggedly sticking with ideas that you are emotionally attached to, is sure to reduce the chances of a negotiated settlement.

What do I want to

achieve?

Can I negotiate?

Can it be resolved?

What has caused the

conflict?

How long has this conflict

existed? HEADACHE!

How will I tackle this?

Who can I blame? Whoops wrong thought!

What do I feel

about the people involved?

What’s it going to cost me? Time, trouble, stress,

money?



In addition, focusing solely on who has the decision-making authority may prove counterproductive in that, while it may provide a quick resolution, lingering resentment may undermine team cohesion.

While some things, such as organisational requirements are clearly not negotiable with your team, it is important to focus on common objectives. Recognise that objectives may be legitimately achieved through different approaches championed by different people.

Acting as mediator and negotiator Negotiation is about reaching agreement and it is important that you consider the following:

● What is it you want to achieve? What is your main goal? Write it down and be specific.

● What do you need to achieve as the bare minimum? What is a must? No deal if this minimum is not agreed.

● What is it that you should achieve? Trading or bargaining may be a possibility here.

Moving through the negotiation process:

● Before you begin negotiation, discuss and consult with other parties to work out a process to resolve the issue which is fair and which all parties agree to. For example, decide on the criteria for evaluating different approaches. Agree on common objectives. Agree on how you will test ideas to reach those objectives. Agree who will act as a final arbiter if no agreed solution can be reached.

● Consider your approach and your negotiating goals – practise the points you want to make and the strategies you will use. Be open to different approaches that will achieve your goals.

● During negotiation, build rapport with the other person/s and practise your skills of persuasion. Intimidation tactics are not a good look for you or your team.

● Negotiate with a clear head. You need to be in a good place or space mentally, so stay clear of negative focus. Focus on patience, being attentive, and willingness to achieve a win/win outcome, through compromise if necessary.

Tips to remember!

● Don’t be intimidated.

● Stay consistent.

● Respect the process.

● Remain professional and goal-focused.



Learning activity: Negotiation

Describe a negotiation you took part in, particularly in a workplace or team context. What were your goals?

Describe the process you took to negotiate an outcome.

What was the outcome:

● In terms of the goals you set?

● In terms of the emotional impact on you and others?

● In terms of the impact on relationships and ability to work together in future?

If you were to renegotiate today, how would you approach the negotiation with a view to improving the outcome.



Group activity: Climate change catastrophe

Read Appendix 3. Use this activity to experience some of the dilemmas associated with sources of conflict. It’s an extreme scenario, but you will discover and experience a range of interesting behaviours.

Discussion/debrief

How did you experience the following during this group activity?

● working together

● collaboration

● consensus

● negotiation

● decision-making.

Explain what happened and how this relates to the learning so far in this unit and particularly this section.

Engage team members to meet objectives

In order to facilitate team effectiveness and build team cohesion, it is important to ensure that all team members participate in achieving team goals. The goals of the team will be achieved more easily and with less potential conflict if everyone visibly performs their team duties. It is important for team cohesion that no team members are seen to be given privileges.

Taking responsibility for team activities We have already discussed the need for team to have a clear purpose and to know where they are heading. Sometimes it is the team leader’s job to refocus the team and to make sure that all team members are working to the best of their abilities and contributing equally.

Tip: Let’s go back to our sports coach

Just like a sports coach you need to encourage the team to participate and take responsibility for team activities. This may include making sure that players:

● Attend training sessions on time, every time.

● Behave according to set codes and practices on and off the sporting arena.

● Are involved in developing strategies and the game plan for tackling the next round of competition.

A major part of your role as a team leader is make sure the team knows exactly what needs to be done and has the right strategies and resources to make it happen. Making it happen, though, will depend on how ready, willing and able your team is in finding the best way forward.



Involving team members in sharing ideas and information can go a long way toward facilitating effective communication within the team and the organisation. Solving problems or issues becomes a less daunting task when the whole team is involved in finding a solution and the problem doesn’t rest on the shoulders of the team leader alone.

It is also important for each team member to be actively involved in order to reinforce their own sense of belonging to a team. Active involvement in group effort can reduce stress and improve confidence. Positive emotional states are well known to be conducive to innovative thinking and higher quality input.

Tip: Encouraging participation in team activities

You can support and encourage your team to participate and take responsibility for team activities by creating an environment where your team members:

● want to participate

● have confidence that their ideas will be listened to

● feel valued and respected as competent/skilled workers

● are provided with the opportunity to participate

● have built strong working relationships with each other and value the contributions each members offers

● value, respect and embrace as strengths any differences or diversity within the team.

Strategies for involvement In order to foster active involvement, it is important to include active participation in group activities in individual performance planning. Individuals should know that they are accountable for such participation and that this aspect of their performance will be monitored. You will also need to encourage and support team members to participate if they are not naturally outgoing. You may need to arrange for training, coaching or mentoring to encourage active team behaviour from all team members.

Possible strategies to ensure participation include:

● clarification of roles and expectations

● development of policies and procedures which encourage or mandate participation

● electronic communication devices and processes, such as intranet and email communication systems, to facilitate input


● mentoring and ‘buddy’ systems to support team members in providing input

● training and development activities

● holding regular meetings.



It is crucially important to follow up on your strategies. It is counterproductive to simply declare that active participation is mandatory and then not monitor this aspect of performances, provide feedback on it, or provide the support necessary to achieve the objective.

Learning activity: Strategies to ensure individual input into planning

Suppose you have a team member who is highly technically competent; however, the team member in question has a speech disability which prevents them from quickly expressing their ideas.

The team member is socially shy and introverted and does not participate in meetings without direct encouragement. Consequently, the team often does not have key technical information to allow it to function effectively to achieve organisational goals.

Explain strategies you could deploy to ensure that the team member participates and so that the team can achieve its goals.

Support your team to resolve performance issues

As a leader or manager, you need to not only monitor and provide feedback on performance; you need to work actively to ensure performance improvement. There are a number of ways in which you can support teams and provide the means for team members to improve performance. Common methods already discussed in this unit include:

● coaching

● mentoring

● training and development opportunities

● clarification of roles and expectations

● developing long-term or short-term plans in consultation with team members

● team and one-on-one meetings.



You may use these approaches in isolation or in combination to address team performance issues. Regardless of the approach or approaches you take, you should follow the general method below:

1. Familiarise yourself with the performance problem, get to know it.

2. Define it. The type of performance problem will affect how you decide to approach the problem and techniques and approaches you will use to solve it. If you have already developed team KPIs and targets, this task will be considerably easier.

3. Break down the performance problem. You need to try and understand it so unpack it layer, by layer, by layer. For example, if a team member is not performing, identify specific ways they are not performing.

4. Collate the data once you have gathered information in order to understand the problem.

5. Search for ideas and solutions.

6. Evaluate the ideas and the solutions.

7. Select the most appropriate solution/s.

8. Implement the solution.

9. Evaluate the implemented solution.

Problem-solving tools The following diagram identifies a number of useful problem-solving tools that are available to assist with:

● evaluating ideas and solutions

● generating ideas and solutions

● implementing solutions

● identifying root causes.

Evaluating ideas and solutions: Generating ideas and solutions:

● Pareto analysis – 80/20 rule

● force field analysis

● decision trees

● De Bono’s six hat thinking.

● brainstorming

● nominal group technique

● mind mapping.

Implementing solutions: Identifying root causes:

● Gantt charts

● action plans.

● cause and effect or fishbone diagram

● flow charts

● 5-Whys.



Learning activity: Types of problem-solving tools

Conduct some internet research on the types of problem-solving tools that you or teams may use to work through performance issues.

On a separate piece of paper, complete a chart similar to the following:

Problem-solving tool Description/purpose Workplace example

Brainstorming A process in which a facilitator will lead a group of people to generate a list ideas for a certain time period.

All ideas are accepted. No ideas are judged or criticised.

Later, ideas are evaluated , impractical ideas are eliminated, and the list of potential ideas is reduced to a list of practical solutions.

Nominal group technique

Is a method of deciding the most acceptable solutions from a list of potential solutions.

Each member of the group ranks four of their most favoured solutions giving scores from 1 to 4.

Solutions that nobody favours are eliminated

Scores are totalled and the solution with the lowest score is chosen.

Cont.



When you have a problem – tips

● Separate the problem from the person. Most of the time systems or processes are to blame and not people! Updating or changing a procedure is usually easier than changing people. So worry about the problem and not the person.

● Talk about what you can do, not why you can’t! Talking about what can’t be done will only create negativity. People want their needs met, telling them what you cannot deliver won’t fill them with confidence.

● The 3 C’s: cool, calm, collected. Don’t take things personally. Remember that getting angry and frustrated isn’t useful, nor is it solving the problem.

● To use a metaphor, there’s no use putting a bandaid on something that requires stitches. Take the time to investigate the extent of the problem in order to come up with the best solution.

● Solving a problem means that you need to understand it first. Gather all the facts and work from there. Analysing the problem will help you understand it and increase the chances of solving it effectively.

● Think before you speak! It is easy to say something you regret if you don’t think carefully about your speech as well as your email or text responses.

● Don’t complain…or talk behind someone’s back! Go to the source and deal with it. Telling everyone else about what Bruce did to upset you and not telling Bruce will only stir up tension, divide your team and complicate the issue.

Learning activity: How MYOB resolves difficulties

Watch the video ‘BSBWOR502A: How MYOB resolves difficulties’ on IBSA’s YouTube channel at <http://youtu.be/tBCI4Y0jnM4>.

MYOB founder, Craig Winkler is discussing how his company managed to overcome a difficult phase with the introduction of the GST. Describe how he overcame the difficulties experienced.



How can Craig capitalise on this experience with the introduction of the GST and have his teams working more effectively when future difficulties arise?

When you have completed this activity, you can view example answers in Appendix 9 of this Student Workbook.

Model effective team behaviour

In this unit so far we have discussed many of the varied roles and responsibilities of a team leader or manager. Some of the common themes include setting goals, providing direction, performance management, motivation and support for the team.

It is important that your team see you as a skilled team leader and role model. You need to model desirable behaviours to set an example and inspire similar behaviour in your team.

What sort of role model are you? Think about yourself and what qualities you would bring to your role as team leader or manager.

Learning activity: Role model reflection

What behaviours are you going to model as a team leader and why?



Leadership theories and approaches Some of the leadership theories you can research, debate and discuss include the following:

• The focus here is on the person. The saying 'you're a born leader' subscribes to this theory.Trait theory

• Look at managerial behaviours, what a leader does rather than who they are. Focus is on the behaviour, not the person.

Behavioural theories

• This body of work looks at functions and responsibilities. This approach discusses leadership in terms of skills that can be learned and developed as part of the job.

Functional approach

• Categorises types of leadership styles and elaborates the attributes of each style. Discusses the effect of each style on those being led.

Styles of leadership

• The leadership style adopted will depend on the 'situation'. This theory explores the links between the effects of skills and motivation for those being led and the skills and style of the leader.

Contingency or situational

leadership

• Focuses on the development of the 'whole person' and inspiring others to perform at their peak.

Transformational leadership

• Looks at the characteristics or traits of the charismatic leader, e.g. self-confidence, change agent, strong visionary convictions.

Charismatic leadership

• Looks at characteristic and typical behaviours of the leaders as servants - there to serve others through encouragement to succeed.

Servant leadership

• Skills required of leaders in a learning organisation. The focus is on system, attitude and relationship development to foster organisational learning.

Leader of the learning

organisation



Learning activity: Leadership profile

Create a leadership profile of yourself!

Start with the following websites, and then continue your own research online.

● ‘Leadership Assessments’, Professional Sales Academy, viewed August 2014, <http://www.salesacademy.ca/page167-free_leadership_assessments.htm>.

● Is anyone out there? A Guide to Virtual Team Working and Leadership, viewed August 2014, <http://challengerhospitality.wikispaces.com/file/detail/ Leadership+Is+anyone+out+there.doc>.

Answer the following questions.

What are your leadership strengths?

What leadership qualities have you noticed about yourself recently?

In what ways do you inspire or motivate others? What’s your style here?

What do you look for in a leader? Would people that know you believe that you have these same qualities?

Think about your values. How does this fit with the type of leaders you are drawn to?

How have you asserted your leadership with the people you have been working with in this unit?



Tips to build trust as a leader

Team leaders need to build trust and confidence within the team and this can happen when you treat your team members and yourself with respect.

● Be honest with your team members and other stakeholders. Lies spread like wildfire and you will get burned.

● Share information. Information is power. It’s about being empowered. Trusting your team is just as important as them trusting you.

● Acknowledge the contributions of others and recognise their efforts. Despite what you might tell yourself sometimes, you really can’t do it on your own.

● Never bluff! You won’t always have the answers, but that’s all right. If things don’t go to plan and events go ‘pear-shaped’, at least your integrity will live to see another day.

● Admit what you don’t know and do something about it. As a team leader your technical competence is also important.

● Get onto problems straight away. Don’t sit on them, put things off or hope they will go away.

Section summary

You should now be able to develop teams though monitoring performance and giving constructive feedback. You should be able to address issues through following processes to resolve issues and reduce conflict. You should be able to build team cohesion and facilitate teamwork by including all team members in discussions, support the team to perform and model team behaviour.

Further reading

● Dagan, I. and Mandell, D., 2006, Virtual Team Work, CISV International, available online, viewed August 2014, <http://www.cisv.org/EasySiteWeb/GatewayLink.aspx?alId=2215>.

● De Bono, E., 1986, Six thinking hats, Viking, London.

● Kouzes, J. M. and Posner, B. Z., 1990, ‘The credibility factor: what followers expect from their leaders’, Management Review, vol. 79, no. 1, pp. 29–33.

● Unknown, Is anyone out there? A Guide to Virtual Team Working and Leadership, available online, viewed August 2014, <http://challengerhospitality.wikispaces.com/file/detail/Leadership+Is+anyone+ out+there.doc>.



Section checklist

Before you proceed to the next section, make sure that you are able to:

provide feedback to team members to encourage, value and reward individual and team efforts and contributions

develop processes to ensure that issues, concerns and problems identified by team members are recognised and addressed

encourage team members and individuals to participate in and to take responsibility for team activities, including communication processes

support the team in identifying and resolving work performance problems

ensure own contribution to work team serves as a role model for others and enhances the organisation’s image for all stakeholders.


Student Workbook Section 3 – Liaise with Stakeholders

Section 3 – Liaise with Stakeholders This section focuses on the knowledge and skills required to establish and maintain communication links between organisational stakeholders and the team. This section also addresses how to evaluate problems raised by internal and external stakeholders and take corrective action.


Recall that increases in the number, frequency and complexity of service requests have forced Technical Solutions to implement the use of mobile data terminals in their vehicles. The implementation, however, has resulted in major issues. To date, Cara has built a core team of technicians to address implementation issues and troubleshoot solutions.

The team is functioning exceptionally well. All team members are performing their duties with respect to performance plans and generating practical solutions. The team is currently preparing a report containing recommendations to improve the implementation, which will be presented to senior management.

Cara is encouraged by the performance of her team; however, she is concerned that the team needs to maintain its connections to all company stakeholders in order to stay on track and continue to achieve the organisational objectives. To ensure the team remains responsive to all stakeholders, Cara must establish and maintain open communication processes with all stakeholders, including:

● technicians attending to the service requests

● clients requesting the service

● call centre staff logging service requests

● developers of the new system

● training department

● senior management

● customer service centre.

Cara needs to:

● communicate information from senior management to the team

● relay unresolved team issues uncovered through scheduled problem-solving processes and follow up with management and other relevant stakeholders

● evaluate and take necessary corrective action regarding problems raised by internal or external stakeholders.

Cara's first order of business will be to ensure that she has identified all relevant stakeholders. Cara will then need to plan and implement strategies to foster open communication links to the team.


Section 3 – Liaise with Stakeholders Student Workbook


In order to work effectively as a team leader or supervisor, you must be able to:

establish and maintain open communication processes with all stakeholders

communicate information from management to the team

communicate unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by team members and follow up with management and other relevant stakeholders

evaluate and take necessary corrective action regarding unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by internal or external stakeholders.

Facilitate communication

To ensure organisational and team goals, you will need to develop processes to facilitate open lines of communication between the team and others within the organisation.

In order to ensure that your team is able to function effectively within the context of the organisation as a whole, you need to ensure open lines of communication between the team and other important stakeholders. Stakeholders need to be aware of what is happening so that they can integrate their work with the work of the team and so that the organisation can benefit from productivity and information generated by the team. Likewise, your team needs to aware of the needs of stakeholders in order to respond to their needs in a timely, organised manner, and in keeping with organisational goals.

Apart from the benefit to the organisation, regular communication of team achievements to the rest of the organisation can contribute to the recognition of your team by important stakeholders. Such recognition is an important reward for effort and can have a positive effect on the team’s sense of value within the organisation. This sense of being valued by the organisation can be an important motivating factor in further performance improvement.

Some key reasons for keeping the lines of communication open are:

● interacting and working with stakeholders

● informing stakeholders of team progress

● developing project plans in consultation with stakeholders

● resolving conflict or problems in relation to team or organisational systems or workflow

● contracting new business and negotiating with customers, suppliers or partners

● communicating changes to organisational policy or work procedures

● giving performance feedback to team members

● providing updates to senior management on the team’s progress

● supporting the team to perform their jobs by providing them with all relevant resources and information.



Communication is a two-way street. Just as you need to ensure that your team communicates with stakeholders, you also need to ensure your team benefits from open lines of communication.

Making sure everyone is kept informed and knows what’s going on is your job! The following section will discuss the things you need to do to make sure that people throughout your organisation, including management and customers are kept in the ‘loop’, are involved and connected with what your team is doing, and are able to recognise its achievements for the organisation.

Communication flow Let’s examine the flow of information within organisations and consider associated strategies and processes that can make communication more effective in your workplace. The flow of communication may be:

● downward

● upward

● lateral or diagonal.

Downward communication may mirror the hierarchy of an organisation, in other words, from company directors to senior management to middle management, down through to the lowest level of authority. In other cases, communication may come direct from the top, skipping intermediate levels. The objectives of such communication may include communicating company-wide changes in strategic direction or communication of key messages throughout the organisation in a way that is likely to maintain the consistency and authority of the message. Company-wide emails, messages on noticeboards or company intranets are typical of this type of information flow.

Upward communication, as the name suggests, flows from lower levels of authority to higher levels. Company policy may determine how this communication can occur. Going over the heads of superiors may not be a good idea in a highly structured and hierarchical organisation. Upward communication is still crucially important and provides feedback on actual implementation of company policies and strategic directions. The objectives of this type of communication may include:

● making complaints to senior management

● informing superiors of work issues to invite intervention by authorities to resolve lower level issues

● providing routine reports to management.

Lateral communication may flow from peer to peer, within teams, for example, between different departments, or diagonally, from different levels of authority and different departments. The potential complexity of this type of communication flow makes it difficult to regulate on an organisational level. Nevertheless, this type of communication has the potential to improve operations of organisations by introducing a fresh perspective or specialised knowledge that is not found in your own department. Such communication may help identify opportunities for increased efficiency and synergy between individuals or teams that may otherwise duplicate the work of others or that may benefit from information or work generated in other areas of the business. As a team leader or manager you may wish to develop policies and procedures or team practices that encourage such communication.



In order to ensure such communication takes place between your team and other stakeholders within the organisation, you will need to develop team processes in consultation with your team. You may need to ensure such communication becomes part of the way the team conducts business by measuring performance in this area. You may also need to plan regular opportunities for downward, upward and lateral communication to occur and provide resources such as access to appropriate media, for example, teleconferencing tools or feedback-gathering tools. You will definitely need to develop processes to capture information from organisational sources and report back to the team. In this way, the whole team will benefit from individuals’ interactions with the rest of the business.

Learning activity: Communicating with stakeholders

Read through the Bernard Matthews case study, ‘Communicating with stakeholders’, on the Business Case Studies website:

● <http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/bernard-matthews/communicating-with-stakeholders/introduction.html#axzz3BTChpPjo>.

Describe the flow of communications within the company.

Describe how the company ensured effective communications between internal stakeholders. What is the strategic purpose behind facilitating regular communications with internal stakeholders?



Learning activity: Communication flow

A good way for you to understand the flow of communication within an organisation is to research and examine an actual example relevant to your industry or interests.

Use an organisation of your choice as your ‘research study’. If possible, talk to the people within the organisation and find out the following:

1. Who talks to whom on a regular basis? What type of information are they exchanging in relation to the business?

2. What types of meetings do people attend in a typical week?

3. What is the flow of communication and where does it come from, such as

a. senior management to middle and junior teams

b. information that comes ‘up’ to management from the team

c. other team leaders or teams at the same level of responsibility within the organisation

d. information the team provides to others outside that team or organisation

e. information the team receives from other external sources?

4. Considering the above communication flows, which are not as effective as they should be and why?



5. What systems exist for these groups to stay connected and informed?

Planning your communication to your audience Planning to communicate so your message is received as you intended does not need to be a complicated process. You simply need to work what you intend to achieve through your communication and what your message is. You will also need to consider the needs and expectations of your audience to ensure that your message is heard, understood and actioned if necessary.

Tip: Ways of avoiding ‘foot in mouth’ disease

Consider the following.

● What is the reason that you are communicating?

● What information do you want to send your audience?

● Is the information you are sending relevant and accurate?

● What is the best way to convey this information?

● Is there scope to use an engaging way to deliver this information that has the audience in mind?

● What is the best channel?

● What is the best or most appropriate medium: Mass email? Face-to-face interaction?

Communication media Communication media are the vehicles you use to communicate to the rest of the organisation – email, SMS, company intranet, etc. Can you think of other communication media in use within your organisation?

Your team may use any number of media to communicate with various stakeholders. Different media are appropriate for different types of messages. For example, you might email your manager a progress report on a team project. You could post blogs on your team’s monthly achievements on the company intranet. You might prefer face-to-face communication methods to communicate and work through problems with individuals on your team rather than mass social media more appropriate to larger, less private audiences.



Learning activity: Compare communication channels

Some communication channels are better than others, depending on the message you want to send. In the blank boxes state why a particular channel may help or hinder communication.

Channel Can facilitate communication when …

Can be a barrier to communication when …

Email Instant, written communication that is moderately formal is appropriate.

● formal communication is required or expected by the audience

● message requires a more personal touch.

SMS

Blogs

Facebook

Linked In

Body language Supports and reinforces verbal messages. For example, when a smile reinforces verbal praise.

● contradicts messages in other media.

● distracts from message.

Tone of voice

Video To communicate an important message (with verbal and visual elements) to large numbers of people.

Uses too many resources and requires team time better spent using cheaper and easier media

YouTube



Channel Can facilitate communication when …

Can be a barrier to communication when …

Websites

Company Intranet

Virtual communication and virtual meetings Electronic modes of communication are now more commonly used in business as a communication tool. With today’s communication tools, linking teams and (teams with other stakeholders) across the world isn’t as difficult or expensive as it once was.

Real-time electronic communication can take many forms and meetings can be conducted by way of teleconferencing, audio conferencing, video conferencing and web conferencing.

Learning activity: Virtual meetings

Compare the ‘virtual meeting’ form of business communication with the traditional face-to-face approach.

Describe what might be considered as potential barriers to communication when conducting virtual meetings. How can these barriers be minimised or reduced?

What are the advantages of the virtual meeting?

Describe teleconferencing tools used in your workplace to bring teams together with various stakeholders.



Describe a teleconferencing tool and how you would use the tool to facilitate effective communication between your team and other organisational stakeholders.

Group activity: Web-based communication

Refer to Appendix 4 of this workbook.

This group activity requires learners to create their own web-based communication forum. Learners are encouraged to use this tool throughout the unit and then to reflect on its effectiveness including what worked and what didn’t.

Mediate between the team and management

Communications from management to your team are an important part of the communication flow within your organisation. Your team needs to receive communications from senior management in order to integrate the team’s work with the work of other organisational stakeholders and with the strategic aims of the organisation.

Importantly, your team needs to be aware of developments within the organisation and any changes to operations that developments entail. New policies and procedures are constantly being implemented in organisations as a response to one change or another.

As a team leader, you will need to support your team with the required information during times of change. Sometimes the move from one way of doing things to another will challenge not only your team, but others in the organisation. Problems will arise and new ways of working don’t always go to plan, so ‘glitches’ or ‘hiccups’ will need to be ironed out with all stakeholders.

Effective communication As with all forms of communication, when communicating to your team from more senior management you will need to plan your communication with respect to media, message and audience.

As communication is also a two-way street, you will need to take a consultative approach to communicating with your team. Use methods or strategies discussed previously in this unit to engage team members in discussion and allow then to provide feedback.



Some ways of ensuring a consultative approach include:

● clarification of communication roles and expectations

● development of policies and procedures that encourage or mandate participation in two-way communication

● using media such as intranet and email communication systems to facilitate input


● mentoring and ‘buddy’ systems to support team members in providing input

● training and development activities to improve team members’ communication abilities

● holding regular meetings to provide the maximum opportunity for input.

Team meetings Meetings can be a useful forum for you to communicate with your team and to keep them informed. Not all meetings are productive ones, so you need to make sure that you create a meeting environment where team members can contribute openly, honestly and respectfully. Create ground rules to regulate how issues are discussed within your team. Use team decision-making techniques where appropriate. Create agendas to distribute to team members before meeting to provide opportunity for team members to process information beforehand and generate ideas. Ensure there is a process in place for your team to provide input to management decisions where there is an opportunity for the team to shape aspects of management decisions such as implementation. Teams may also have input into how performance is measured and in target setting.

Group activity: A meeting on meetings

Read Appendix 5.

Discuss – Meetings can be useful forums for:

● regular updates on changes

● daily or weekly focus on priorities

● team feedback on performance

● reviewing or revising team plans

● building team relationships

● productive debate and discussion.

Barriers to effective team communication There are many potential barriers to effective communication. Some barriers include:

● lack of team cohesion and trust

● lack of trust in leadership

● lack of trust in management

● inertia and fear of change

● poor in-team communication processes

● individual or team objections.



You will need to overcome these barriers to communication to ensure your message from management gets through. Some of the barriers, such as lack of trust or team cohesion, cannot be overcome at once and involve team building over time, as discussed in previous sections, to provide the foundation for team effectiveness.

Overcoming other barriers will require you to work hard to understand the needs of your audience in order to communicate effectively to them.

● What do they already know?

● How do they expect or want to be addressed?

● What do they want?

● What do they fear?

● What is the best way to get the team as involved as possible with the message?

● What is the best way to get the team to own and action and be accountable for any new responsibilities that flow from the message?

Remember, your attitude towards management and the team will be crucial to the success of communication. You need to believe in the message to lead the team.

Learning activity: Guys, the boss wants me to tell you that …

Sadly, a very common feature amongst team leaders and supervisors is the need to remain ‘one of the boys, or girls’. As a result, you often find team leaders that don’t embrace organisational goals, integrate them into their work or advocate for them effectively.

When they have to explain these goals to their team, they portray the goals in a negative way.

For example, when delivering a message that may be confronting or unpopular, team leaders often use phrases like:

● ‘Management wants you to …’

● ‘The boss has asked me to tell you …’

● ‘Don’t shoot me; I’m just the messenger …’

It’s no wonder that people don’t feel motivated about changes.

Explain how you might make the message more positive and reinforce your leadership role.



Communicating on change As a team leader or manager you are expected to be an ‘agent of change’. William Bridges, in his book Managing Transitions3, talks about ‘change’ in terms of ‘endings’ and ‘new beginnings’. With every change some part of what we know or are familiar with will end, and something different will begin! Our reaction to this can range from excitement to feelings of fear and insecurity.

Tips: Supporting your team through change

● Coach and guide them. Be clear about what is expected and lead the way.

● ‘Walking the walk’ … If your team trusts you they will follow your lead.

● Use the ‘3L’ rule – look, listen and learn.

● Facilitate communication.

Learning activity: What do the experts say about change and communication?

Research the topic of communicating change in an organisational context.

Try searching under the following headings:

● De Bono’s six thinking hats

● Carr’s seven keys

● Kurt Lewin

● communication model

● change model or change cycle.

Regularly report to management

Team leaders are required to report on their team’s progress at various times. Some organisations will require you to provide formal progress updates monthly, weekly, or even daily.

As a team leader or manager, you may be required to report to a number of different groups or individuals. Take a look at the following scenario.

3 W. Bridges, 1995, Managing transitions: making the most of change, Nicholas Brealey, London.



Scenario: Who do I need to report to and what am I reporting?

Technical Solutions has a customer call centre department. This department has 20 customer service operators that handle incoming calls from customers. This department is the main contact centre for the company and handles all general inquires including:

● product enquiries

● product sales

● billing queries and payments

● initial service requests (if they can’t help, the call is transferred to a technical support call centre)

● complaints.

As team leader, you need to provide a report from performance information contained in balanced score cards such as the one below for Paul Cooper.

Balanced Scorecard

Paul Cooper – Call centre team member

KRA Target Weighting Achievement

Financial Generate $1100 sales per day. 25%

Customer Handle 55 inquiries per day 25%

People Prepare two coaching reports per month with regard to junior team member

25%

Process Order processing errors under 3% 25%

Comments:

Your manager requires you to prepare a monthly report on your team’s performance including individual performance, and overall team performance, against targets.

Analyse information and develop reports A good performance report will specifically address each of the identified key result areas, allowing for easy monitoring of team performance. Reports generally also contain specific recommendations for improvement based on the performance data.



Examining data to develop performance reports involves three steps:

1. Identify any shortfalls against targets:

a. use the targets and KPIs you developed in consultation with your team during the creation of performance plans

b. use balanced scorecards and other organisational data.

2. Analyse the shortfalls to determine the cause and identify trends:

a. establish and examine any causal links between aspects of performance, for example between the number of coaching sessions performed and customer satisfaction ratings

b. identify trends to anticipate future performance based on present data; identifying trends may enable you to prioritise and focus on important aspects of performance before problems become too entrenched

c. develop logical and convincing explanations for trends or performance shortfalls.

3. Develop recommendations based on your analysis of the performance data in order to overcome shortfalls and improve performance. Make sure you refer to specific data that support your recommendations.

Group activity: Organisational heath check

Just as a doctor conducts a series of checks and balances in caring for their patients, so too does a team leader in monitoring and reporting on the health of their team.

Refer to the statements in Appendix 6 and discuss them with your team. Consider the following questions:

● What might these statements be telling you?

● What tools could you develop to help diagnose the problems?

● How might you use the data you collect?

● Who should this information be made available to?

● How would this information be useful?

● What recommendations will you make to your manager to address the issues?

Meet organisational reporting requirements You will need to be aware of organisational and stakeholder requirements for reporting. There are various ways – both formal and informal – that a team leader can report information about their activities and progress toward team goals. For example, your manager may require your reporting to be presented in a particular format and contain specific performance data and recommendations. On the other hand, your manager may wish to meet with you from time to time to discuss team performance on an informal basis.



Your organisation may also require you to prepare reports using organisational templates. You will need to ensure that you are aware of all organisational reporting requirements as well as the expectations of individual stakeholders.

Formal and informal reporting processes may be scheduled in advance and form part of a regular reporting cycle.

Identify and escalate issues

So far in this section we have looked at the importance of keeping the organisation informed through effective reporting and communication processes.

You will need to ensure that your team has procedures in place to regularly discuss issues as they arise. You will also need to support team members to provide a forum, such as regular team meetings, to raise issues before they become barriers to success. To facilitate honest discussion, you will need to ensure the team environment is supportive enough to encourage team members to speak up. To the best of your ability, you will try to resolve issues within the team.

Sometimes, however, despite the efforts of a team leader to resolve a problem or concern within the team, there may be issues that need to be dealt with at a higher level or with the support of other departments. There will be times when issues need to be brought to the attention of others in the organisation and additional support or influence will be required to bring about the desired outcome.

As a team leader, you need to know when it is time to escalate an issue to a higher authority. Sometimes the influence or support of others in the organisation is enough to lobby action or change where necessary.

You need to know who your stakeholders or support networks are within your organisation. You will also need to be familiar with organisational procedures for escalating issues.

Let’s look at the following scenario as an example of when a problem requires you to take further action.


The team at Technical Solutions has been working on potential solutions to the implementation of mobile terminals in service vehicles.

Several issues have arisen over the course of team meetings.

● Several team members have worked more than normal hours on this project and would like overtime rules relaxed so they may be adequately compensated in the future.

● The team has found that a performance target set by senior management to ensure all implementation problems have been overcome this financial quarter is not achievable due to unforseen technical challenges.

● The team requires additional technical expertise to troubleshoot two issues. The team requests the engagement of two external skilled technical consultants for 10 days at $1,000 per day.



● The team has been unable to reach agreement on two equally effective solutions to a technical issue. One solution is more expensive and more likely to be effective long term. One solution is cheaper, but is only likely to be effective for less than two years. Company strategic guidelines currently provide no clear basis for reaching agreement. Team members are very passionate about the positions they are arguing for.

In regard to the first three issues, according to organisational policies and Cara’s role description, Cara does not have the authority to decide. In regard to the third issue, Cara does have the authority; however, in the best interests of the organisation, she would like to consult with senior management to gain a better understanding of company strategic plans in order to ensure that team efforts remain aligned with company strategy.

Cara decides to follow company procedures for escalating issues and consult with her immediate manager.

Learning activity: Issue escalation

Consider your own organisation or an organisation you are familiar with.

● What procedures are in place to ensure issues are raised in a timely manner?

● What procedures are in place to regulate escalation to more senior management?

● How is a team environment created and maintained in which team members feel comfortable both raising issues and then working to resolve them with team members and other stakeholders?



Evaluate and take corrective action

Corrective action is about taking the necessary steps to correct a problem or address an issue. But it is more than just fixing the problem, often it means looking carefully to try and understand what is causing it. Corrective action means taking the necessary steps to make sure the problem does not reoccur.

Corrective actions may include:

● reviewing supplier performance, i.e. regular audits

● reviewing service level agreements with contractors

● implementing quality processes to ensure compliance

● increasing employee motivation and performance

● implementing quality check and review processes

● setting clear performance standards

● preventative measures.

Problem resolution procedures Team leaders do not need to be experts and have all the answers. What they do need to do, though, is to be skilled enough to plan ahead, involve the team and empower them to make decisions, follow up and follow through.

Documented procedures that provide a clear process for problems to be logged, investigated and addressed are usually part of an organisation’s commitment to quality, customer service and continuous improvement.

Procedures that document complaint handling, grievance or problem resolution processes are usually the means by which organisations handle disputes that arise from internal or external sources. These procedures can usually be found on, or in:

● company internet sites

● human resource policy manuals

● quality assurance policy

● collective employment agreements (CEAs).

Learning activity: Problem resolution procedures

Conduct an audit within your own workplace, place of study, club or association and complete the following. Source a complaint, grievance or hazard reporting policy or procedure and answer the following questions.

How accessible was it?

Were team members aware of its existence?



How are issues, problems, concerns raised? Where and how are they captured?

Who has the authority to deal with the problem?

Does the process differentiate between the type of problem, degree of severity and when or how it will be addressed?

What does your research tell you about policy and procedure versus reality within the organisation?

Is there a timeframe for issues to be actioned and resolved?

How are unresolved issues monitored and followed up on?

How are corrective actions agreed or negotiated and who is responsible for following through on this?

What types of preventative measures are suggested?



Problem-solving approaches Although decisions must often be made by individual authorities and imposed externally, the focus of this unit is on what can be done within teams and within groups of decision-makers. To ensure team support of the decisions that are ultimately made, it is important for the problem-solving approach taken to be as consultative and inclusive as possible. Consider what you can do as team leader or manager to resolve issues internally.

It may also be the case that you must work consultatively at a higher level to make decisions that affect the team. You will then need to work in much the same way to reach decisions among other managers or stakeholders.

Tips: Six simple steps to problem-solving

1. Identify the issue, problem or concern.

2. Analyse to understand.

3. Explore alternatives – throw around ideas. Consult widely.

4. Narrow down the best alternatives, weighing up implementation requirements versus potential benefits.

5. Select and agree on a solution.

6. Plan to make it happen.

In Section 2, we looked at several techniques to resolve problems (see page 57). Consider how you may use these methods to resolve issues among the team, among other team leaders, managers and peers. You may consider holding a team workshop or forming a team ‘think tank’ to focus on solving the issue at hand.

Scenario:

Recall that Cara’s team has been unable to reach agreement on two equally effective solutions to a technical issue.

● Solution A is more expensive and more likely to be effective long-term.

● Solution B is cheaper, but is only likely to be effective for less than two years.

Company strategic guidelines currently provide no clear basis for reaching agreement. Team members are very passionate about the positions they are arguing for.

Cara has escalated this issue to her manager. Her manager, in turn, has discussed the issue with the board. In fact the board of directors had been considering scrapping the current system and replacing it with an entirely new one next year. This would seem to indicate that Solution B would be best.

However, Cara’s manager has been impressed with her team’s troubleshooting efforts and feels the system might be salvaged and free up money for reinvestment. Cara’s manager has asked her to lead the team in a three day workshop to reconsider the issue in light of whether the current system is salvageable and could be maintained over the next five years.



Cara will need to report back to her manager within two weeks so that the manager can report to the board. Cara will need to get her team to consider all resources required so that a thorough cost-benefit analysis can be performed by the company.

Group activity: Mandy’s work dilemma

Mandy: I can’t get the reports for David completed on time because Sean has not sent through the necessary data again.

Anjie: What is the problem this time?

Mandy: He said it was a software problem. There’s always something not working properly. Last week the reporting database was down, and the week before Sean said that he hadn’t received all the data from the marketing department. These constant delays are starting to stress me out.

Refer to Appendix 7 to read more about Mandy’s work dilemma.

Form a ‘team think tank’ and discuss how this problem can be addressed and in particular how the corrective action taken will ensure that the problem does not reoccur.

Taking corrective action After taking as inclusive an approach as possible, you may, nevertheless, reach a point when you will need to make a decision before the team has come to an agreement. As we have seen, workplace problems or issues come in many different shapes and sizes and workplace relationships, like any other relationships, will have problems at some stage. How we choose to tackle those problems, though, will require planning and the right approach.

You will need to take action fairly and in consideration of the team members who will be affected by decisions or corrective actions. You will need to plan corrective actions so that decisions will be smoothly implemented and provide the least amount of inconvenience. Remember to remain open to opportunities for consultation on how to implement decisions to achieve objectives in a way that achieves the most support from team members.


Recall from a previous scenario (see page 79) that:

● several team members have worked more than normal hours on the troubleshooting project and would like overtime rules relaxed so they may be adequately compensated in the future

● the team has found that a performance target set by senior management to ensure all implementation problems have been overcome this financial quarter is not achievable due to unforseen technical challenges.



Cara consulted with her manager on these two unresolved issues. The manager has decided that overtime will be paid only to limits agreed in union negotiated contracts. If work cannot be completed within these limits, then performance targets will need to be renegotiated. Overtime already performed will be honoured.

Cara will relay this information to the team. To implement her manager’s decision she will consult with team to renegotiate performance plans, and associated targets to allow project work to be completed within a normal work week. Overtime will be available as a built-in buffer to cover unforeseen work demands.

Learning activity: Communication review

Reflect on the tasks you have been working on throughout this unit.

1. Choose and list two tasks on which you have worked.

2. Describe the ways you chose to communicate for each task

3. Review the communication paths chosen and how effective they were in keeping people informed, involved and connected.

4. What worked and why?



5. What didn’t work and why?

6. Describe what you would do differently next time.

Section summary

You should now be able to evaluate options for creating and maintaining open communication links within your team and between your team, senior management and other stakeholders. You should be able to relay information to your team from management, report to management, escalate issues appropriately and in accordance with organisational procedures, and take corrective action to resolve issues.

Further reading

● Bridges, W., 1995, Managing transitions: making the most of change, Nicholas Brealey, London.

● Chaousis L., 2000, Organisational behaviour, Pearson Education, NSW.

● Cole, K., 2000, Management theory and practice, 3rd edn, Prentice Hall, Sydney.

● Maslow, A., 1998, Maslow on management, John Wiley, New York.

● Saville, J. and Reid, H., 2002, Managing effectively: customer service, continuous improvement, innovation and change, Pearson Education, NSW.



Section checklist

You should now be able to:

establish and maintain open communication processes with all stakeholders

communicate information from management to the team

communicate unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by team members and follow up with management and other relevant stakeholders

evaluate and take necessary corrective action regarding unresolved issues, concerns and problems raised by internal or external stakeholders


Glossary Student Workbook

Glossary

Term Definition

Balanced scorecard A balanced scorecard measures organisational performance across several KRAs such as financial, customers, internal business processes, and people development. Financial and non-financial KRAs are balanced to give a total picture of an individual or team’s performance. For example, each KRA may be worth 25% of a total performance evaluation.

Coaching A managerial performance improvement practice whereby a worker is monitored and supported in all aspects of their role.

Coaching is most effective in response to a performance issue, or when there is a need for a more holistic personal development, as opposed to the learning of tasks and skills.

Competency An ability to perform defined by what you can do, how you must do it (in what context and under what conditions, and how well you must do it (to what standard).

Dynamic In relation to human relationships, ‘dynamics refers to the characteristic quality of their interactions with each other, particularly a quality that conditions or shapes outcomes from personal interactions.

In coaching or mentoring you may have:

● a dynamic of dependency

● a dynamic of conflict

● a dynamic of mistrust

● a dynamic of interdependency

● a dynamic of cooperation, etc.

● a dynamic of mutual respect.

In coaching or mentoring it is important to foster a suitable interpersonal dynamic to achieve desired outcomes.

Goals Objectives, targets or aspirations. Goals may be directly related to performance KPIs (key performance indicators). Goals may be broad or holistic such as improving interpersonal skills. Goals may be strategic, such as completing training to gain a competitive advantage.

As much as is practicable, goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timeframed.


Student Workbook Glossary

Term Definition

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Objective measures of performance. KPIs are directly linked to your job role.

KPIs may determine performance targets in terms of:

● number of coaching sessions per month

● 360 degree evaluation scores on dimensions of management, such as leadership, dependability, fairness

● total sales by team

● ratio of OHS incidents to number of team members.

Key result areas (KRAs)

KRAs are performance categories of strategic importance to an organisation. Typical areas include:

● financial performance

● customer satisfaction

● people development

● adherence to company processes.

Learning style A characteristic or preferred way of learning for an individual. For instance, some learners prefer to listen to a lecture or view an example to emulate; other learners prefer to do activities to figure out the best way on their own.

There are several models:

● Kolb’s model

● Honey and Mumford’s model

● Anthony Gregorc’s model

● Fleming's VARK model.

Legislation A collection of laws: Acts, Regulations, etc.

Mentoring Mentoring is a hierarchical relationship where the senior (experienced) person in an organisation accepts the responsibility of passing on knowledge and skills to a more junior (less experienced) individual.

Performance appraisal/review

A standard procedure in most businesses where workers meet with their supervisors to identify strengths and weaknesses and means to develop.

Performance development plan (PDP)

A plan outlining development goals and skills. PDPs usually contain action plans to achieve development goals.


Glossary Student Workbook

Term Definition

Position descriptions

Documents created by organisations that describe the parameters of their worker’s tasks and duties in their roles.

SWOT analysis SWOT = Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats.

A team SWOT analysis can result in a greater understanding of your team’s competitive advantage and/or disadvantage. Information gathered from an individual team member’s SWOT analysis may feed into their PDP.

Stakeholders All those who have an interest in an organisation as a whole or its activities. Stakeholders may include customers, partners, employees, shareholders, owners, government, and regulators.

Targets Performance goals directly related to KPIs.


Student Workbook Appendices

Appendices

Appendix 1 – Competency checklist

Element 1 – Establish team performance plans

As a team leader, I have the following skills and knowledge

Don’t know

Know some

I can do this

Notes

Writing a clear vision statement

Writing team purpose statements

Writing SMART objectives

Defining a team’s responsibilities and expected outputs

Aligning team roles/strengths to team action plans

Creating a team action plan

Effectively planning processes and techniques

Developing team member performance


Appendices Student Workbook

Element 2 – Develop and facilitate team cohesion


Don’t know

Know some

I can do this

Notes

Running team meetings

Methods for gaining the team’s input (focus groups, brainstorming)

Strategies for ensuring team member accountability

Giving effective feedback

Planning for team member performance

Developing processes to support team members in resolving issues

Writing a complaint /grievance policy or procedure

Problem-solving methods and techniques



Element 3 – Facilitate teamwork


Don’t know

Know some

I can do this

Notes

Identifying the dynamics within my team

Establishing agreed team values and behaviours

Acting as a role model for my team

Identifying steps to making clear decisions

Coaching for performance

Identifying my own leadership strengths

Motivating and empowering my team

Ways to survey my team



Element 4 – Liaise with stakeholders

As a Team Leader, I have the following skills and knowledge

Don’t know

Know some

I can do this

Notes

Techniques to gather data on effective team communication

Reporting and presenting to stakeholders

Barriers to effective communication

Knowing my team and ways to build trust

Conflict resolution methods

Ways technology can support communication within my team

Using mediation processes to resolve team communication issues

Ways to negotiate a resolution



Appendix 2 – Walk and talk

Instructions 1. Pair up with a member of the team you have not met or worked with yet.

2. Go for a walk around the grounds and get to know each other.

3. Take turns to talk about your personal and leadership qualities for three minutes ... without interruption.

4. Use the remaining walk time to get to know each other.

5. Report back what you have found out.

What skills do you believe your partner will be able to offer as a team member to the team?

What knowledge do they have which will add value to the team?

Describe their personality as you have experienced it so far? What behaviours have influenced your perception of this person?



Appendix 3 – Climate change catastrophe

Purpose The purpose of the activity is for team members to experience and deal with conflict, disagreements, biases and leadership struggles. Team members are required to reach agreement via consensus.

Scenario Technical Solutions has been working on a virtual reality game dealing with climate change and the potential catastrophic outcomes of global warming. The problem though is that this world of virtual reality is closer to reality than anyone ever imagined.

The developers of the game have been working closely with the Technical Solutions science labs and during intense research concluded that a major catastrophe was looming and all scientific indicators lead to one conclusion – a series of natural disasters would be triggered by unprecedented earthquakes, all of which were in the direct path of major nuclear reactors. In short, the world was in danger and there was nothing virtual about this, only a frightening reality.

Technical Solutions was also able to access secret intelligence information by hacking into government systems and so was able to confirm their concerns. In addition, the government has planned to send eight people into space on a shuttle for a month and to return to earth after the catastrophe.

Instructions You are part of a team that has to select who potentially survives this catastrophe by joining the shuttle crew. Apart from two astronauts, six civilians are to be included and you must choose from the following descriptions.

● Step 1: Individually select who will join the shuttle crew.

● Step 2: Discuss your selection and come to a team consensus.

Remember, you will need to support your decision, and may need to compromise or negotiate for the final selection.

The data over the page is the only data you have to aid you in the decision-making process. Remember that in the worst case scenario there will be nothing but total death and devastation upon their return to earth, and these people will be responsible for rebuilding society.



Profile of candidates Your choice Team consensus

26-year-old medical student

37-year-old biochemist

35-year-old master winemaker

25-year-old professional athlete and fitness expert, partner and baby

22-year-old world-famous artist and novelist

30-year-old mechanical engineer

50-year-old Nobel prize winning economist

46-year-old world-respected religious leader

65-year-old Prime Minister

36-year-old carpenter/ builder/architect

30-year-old plumber/ sanitation expert.



Appendix 4 – Web-based communication forum

Purpose Create a team Facebook profile (or similar social networking website) to explore effective team communication.

Instructions ● Create your own team Facebook (or similar social networking website) page.

● Give your team a profile name and invite each other in as friends.

● Discuss your profile and agree on a name.

● Be selective and careful about how you use this as a communication tool. Remember to make your page private and only invite in members of your team.

● You may wish to create alias characters and profiles of yourselves and then invite each other onto the system as friends.

● Plan how this forum will work.

○ How can you utilise this tool effectively to keep in touch during your studies.

○ What will be the rules for accessing and communicating on this system?

○ All of this will be up to you as a team to decide.

● At the end of the activity you can evaluate the effectiveness of this tool for identifying and discussing positives and negatives as a communication tool.



Appendix 5 – A meeting on meetings

Guidelines on what makes a meeting effective are not a new thing but whether or not these guidelines are adhered to is a different thing. Your task is to conduct your own research on meeting effectiveness and to then present this information in a meeting forum to your team.

To do this you will need to:

1. Research the characteristics of good or productive meetings. Use the internet help source this information. Your research will lead you to guidelines that refer to:

a. agendas

b. duration

c. location

d. numbers

e. chairing ‘do’s’ and ‘don’ts’

f. environment

g. outcomes.

2. Create a survey that will assist you in researching team effectiveness. The design is up to you. It may be an online chat forum, face-to-face interview or hard copy paper check list – whatever you feel will give you the data you require.

3. Distribute the survey to people you know (or members of the class) and get their feedback or experience of the effectiveness of meetings they regularly attend at their place of work.

4. Now use the same criteria to evaluate your own experience of meetings when your team has arranged meetings as part of the work that needs to be completed for this unit. How do your team meetings rate or compare to your research?

5. Arrange a team meeting. The purpose of this meeting for team members to share research information the characteristics of productive meetings and to agree on general guidelines that they can commit to and follow for future meetings.

6. Prepare a plan or agenda for how this meeting on ‘meetings’ will be run. Who will facilitate this discussion or meeting, and how?



Appendix 6 – Organisational health check

The following statements provide some insight into what may be going on in a team where the lines of communication are not supporting or facilitating the team to perform effectively.

Let’s look at the following statements and consider some of the issues and work conditions that may underpin the attitudes of the team members who made them:

● ‘No one here knows what’s going on.’

● ‘He only tells us what he wants us to know.’

● ‘People like pushing their own agendas.’

● ‘Joe just does his own thing and I never know what he’s up to.’

● ‘I feel like they keep changing the goal posts and I’m always chasing my tail.

● ‘I’m sick of this stupid machine; this is the third time I’ve reported it faulty. Does someone need to get hurt before they do anything about it?’

● ‘The meeting keeps going round in circles and we don’t seem to be getting anywhere.’

● ‘Charles keeps leaving early without letting anyone know and I end up having to do his work for him.’

● ‘It’s not what you know around here but who you play golf with.’

● ‘Emails are a waste of time; nobody reads them and there is never anything relevant to us anyway.’

● ‘You need to get things signed in triplicate around here before anything can be done.’

● ‘We can’t move on projects because we need to wait for management sign off. The proposal for software updates has been sitting on Jim’s desk for two weeks.’

● ‘There’s no point applying for the technical support position. I’ve been asking to be trained for a while now and they keep telling me they will, but I’m still waiting. Now a position has been advertised and I still haven’t been trained.’

● ‘This issue keeps getting raised time and time again, nothing ever changes.’

● ‘We know why she got the job! They stick to their own around here.’

Let’s assume the above statements were gathered through a recent staff survey about how team members feel in relation to the organisation’s level of communication and commitment to its employees. What are these telling you about the organisation?

Discuss the above team member comments with your manager.



Suggest recommendations that will open up lines of communication within the organisation.

The following questions should be addressed in your discussion with your manager:

● What communication systems should be reviewed?

● How can meetings be made more effective?

● Is current communication technology being used effectively?

● How is training being used to promote team effectiveness?

● Should immediate attention be focused in particular areas to improve communication within the organisation? What do you consider the immediate needs?



Appendix 7 – Mandy’s work dilemma

Read the following dialogue.

Mandy: I can’t get the reports for David completed on time because Sean has not sent through the necessary data again.

Anjie: What was the problem this time?

Mandy: He said it was a software problem. There’s always something not working properly. Last week the reporting data base was down, and the week before Sean said that he hadn’t received all the data from the marketing department. These constant delays are starting to stress me out!

Anjie: What did David say about the delay?

Mandy: He doesn’t know! I haven’t said anything because I don’t want to cause a problem for Sean. He seems run off his feet over there. I don’t think they have enough people to handle the workload.

Anjie: It sounds like you have been put in a difficult position again.

Mandy: I tried contacting Sean’s new manager to discuss the situation and work out whether we could make this process more efficient. Sean hasn’t been here all that long and I wanted to make sure he understands how important it is that we get the data on time.

Anjie: What did he say?

Mandy: He was rather defensive and I don’t think I got through to him. Now Sean is upset with me because he was told he was not doing his job properly by his manager. The last thing I wanted was for Sean to get in trouble.

Anjie: I think you should speak to David and make him aware of the situation.

Mandy: You’re right, I think it’s time I did.

Mandy has decided to speak to David, the Manager, about her concerns.

How should David plan to resolve this issue? Create an action plan.

Outline the actions he will need to take to ensure speedy and acceptable resolution is reached where all parties are satisfied with the outcome.



Appendix 8 – Gallery exhibition

Purpose The purpose of the activity is to represent your profile as a team leader having completed the work in this unit. Collective art work is created to reflect on and acknowledge team progress.

Learning experience/debrief discussion ● showcasing achievements

● reward and recognition

● motivation

● acknowledging contributions.

Materials The creative medium is to be chosen by the learner. Suggestions include:

● canvas and paint

● woodwork

● slide show

● jewellery

● knitting

● plaster

● sketch/drawing

● video.

Instructions Create a piece of artwork to display at a team gallery exhibition. The artwork needs to represent your journey during this program. You can be as innovative and creative as you like.

Write an exhibition item description card that gives your story for the exhibition guests to read when they look at your work.

Prepare a brief introduction and oral description of what your work represents about you as a leader and your experience of team effectiveness as you worked your way through the learning in this unit.

This piece of work should be a celebration of your learning and development.



Appendix 9 – Answers to selected learning activities

Learning activity: Getting the team involved in a SWOT analysis

Watch the video ‘BSBSMB403A: Employee involvement in a SWOT analysis’ on IBSA’s YouTube channel at <http://youtu.be/ONFgSRFllI0>.

Maria’s Pasta is having a group development meeting and discussing the SWOT analysis for the business. Why is it important to get the team together when discussing the SWOT analysis?

It is important to discuss the SWOT analysis with all team and departments within a company as it ensures teams have clear communication about goals and direction.

What are some of the issues that are being brought up by Maria’s Pasta team members?

That staff are seen as a strength as well as the quality of service; that there is quality of products, good range of products, good location of the shop; the frozen food outlets sell well; opportunity for capital investment; and the need for a new presentation folder for the sales team.

Learning activity: How MYOB resolves difficulties

Watch the video ‘BSBWOR502A: How MYOB resolves difficulties’ on IBSA’s YouTube channel at <http://youtu.be/tBCI4Y0jnM4>.

MYOB founder, Craig Winkler is discussing how his company managed to overcome a difficult phase with the introduction of the GST. Describe how he overcame the difficulties experienced.

Craig mentions that his team’s put in an extra effort to work together to answer phones, faxes and emails, and pulled together to get their customers understanding how to use MYOB during this phase. He explains that without this teamwork, he could not have had such success.

How can Craig capitalise on this experience with the introduction of the GST and have his teams working more effectively when future difficulties arise?

Craig could make sure that all team leaders are informed of external circumstances and the economic environment that may affect MYOB clients. This would need to be communicated to the teams. He could then delegate team leaders to create solutions and plans to manage change in order to have teams running smoothly when difficulties arise.


Lead and manage team effectiveness (BSBWOR502)

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