Episode #58: How to Develop Teamwork Capabilities in Your Organization
Welcome to THE CAREER ACCELERATOR, the podcast where corporate managers will find tips and tools to deliver results through others.
Today I will provide three tips on how to develop teamwork capabilities in your organization in 2022. I will also announce a new program that will help grow your employees’ capabilities, and your own, across different skill sets to become more effective at work.
I’m your host, Percy Cannon.
In our last episode I shared suggestions mapped to the four potential cases resulting from evaluating your employees’ performance in terms of their aptitude and attitude.
I indicated that in all four potential scenarios, you, as the manager, play an important role.
And in all four cases, your role is probably more important now given the three post-pandemic trends for 2022 outlined in a previous podcast: the hybrid work environment, the Great Attrition, and the effect of the pandemic on the mental health of employees.
Switching to today’s topic, in my coaching practice with executives and leadership teams, I am being asked more often, What does it take to be a good team player? I think this largely reflects the fact that you, as well as the majority of corporate employees, likely belong to one or more teams.
Moreover, this question seems to have gained more importance over the last two years. Since you are a part of multiple remote teams with colleagues whom you may have never met in person, the relevance of developing good teamwork skills across all levels of the organization has increased.
Understanding the teamwork skills gap is the first step to overcoming these challenges. Creating a culture of effective teamwork requires a set of skills and a common language for all employees, and these are 100% learnable and achievable through the program I will share with you in a moment— no matter where employees are located.
Here are three tips to develop teamwork capabilities in your organization in 2022 and beyond:
1. Use self-discovery. Each of us approaches teamwork in a unique way, and this diversity in perspective and personality are part of what helps teams thrive.
2. Practice. Employees are empowered to apply their skills on a day-to-day basis when tied to a simple, memorable, and actionable framework and through a common language. When employees at all levels are equipped with the same essential skills of effective teamwork, they can move seamlessly from team to team—knowing what it takes to build an effective one—and immediately begin contributing to collective results.
3. Develop trust. In his best-selling book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni introduces a powerful and approachable model for effective teamwork and collaboration, which I have shared in previous podcasts. It describes five key challenges a team needs to address: the absence of Trust, unproductive Conflict, lack of Commitment, no peer-to-peer Accountability, and a focus on Personal vs. Collective Results. The absence of any one of these five critical behaviors, especially trust, can cripple teams and organizations.
If you, as a leader, want to equip employees across your organization with the skills to “team” most effectively, we have a program that may fit your needs.
My consulting partners and I have created the Azimuth Talent Development program, where we grow the skills that company teams and leaders require to address their present challenges and future goals.
We partner with your company to build or improve your current development structures. We help you grow the key competencies needed for your teams, leaders and employees in order to increase their business impact.
Within this program, one of the courses we offer is The Five Behaviors Personal Development®, which is a Playbook to Create a Culture of Teamwork across your organization.
The Five Behaviors® can change the way you team. It is the result of a joint effort between Wiley and best-selling author Patrick Lencioni’s model for developing high-performing teams through five key behaviors: Vulnerability-based Trust, Productive Conflict, Commitment, peer-to-peer Accountability, and a focus on Collective Results.
This training teaches participants the critical behaviors and interpersonal skills needed to work together effectively by combining Lencioni’s teamwork model with personalized insights, delivered by one of Grupo Azimuth international and corporate-experienced facilitators.
The result is a unique and impactful team development solution that empowers its members to rethink their approach to teamwork; shape new, more productive behaviors to increase productivity; and create a common language that redefines what it means to work together to drive common results.
If you are interested in learning more about The Five Behaviors Personal Development® course, or any of the several programs we offer at Azimuth Talent Development through our select set of corporate-experienced facilitators, please email us at TalentDevelopment@grupoazimuth.com. You can also use the links provided in the notes section to reach us.
In our next episode I will share tips on how to strengthen your organizational and team’s culture in 2022.
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This is Percy Cannon, working to help you make the rest of your life…the best of your life®.