Team Working

If you read last week's article on preparing for communication emergencies, there was one question left unanswered: what should a team communication plan contain?

Here are four ways you can help your meeting participants work better during online meetings to reach your mutual objectives.

With the holiday season approaching, how can managers ensure that the remote members of their team share in the celebration, camaraderie, and collaboration that seems to happen organically when you're based in an office?

Any time you have more than one person involved in anything there's the potential for conflict. When you're working remotely from the rest of your team, that potential is not only greater, but there are unique challenges involved.

Getting your team to demonstrate proof of motives is tough. Does everyone on the team want what they want for the same reasons? Do you have faith that they will be there for you when you need them? Are they really as committed to the team (and my?) success as I am?

Many of us work on teams that span countries and cultures. But this isn't an easy way to build good working relationships and it's also easy for those of us who are the "home team" to forget how difficult it can be for our teammates who work remotely to connect with us.

Influencing people and getting them onboard has very little to do with what you want and everything to do with them. If they don't see why they should cooperate, they won't. If they see why they should want to help you, you can hardly stop them.

The three components to building trust on a team are common goals, proof of motives and proof of competence. So thinking of competence, even if your team is filled with very talented people, do they all know that?

A big complaint about web meetings and online presentations is that they aren't as effective as "real meetings". So here are some simple tips for re-creating a 'live' meeting experience online.

Work is becomming more project-based. That means that people need to organize, share and make sense of all the information associated with that work - which makes some sort of project management software a must, not just a nice-to-have.

Any meeting, whether in a conference room or online, can be run. But successful meetings need to be led – and there is a huge difference between running a meeting and leading one. That difference can mean the long-term success or failure of your team.

Once a technology becomes simple and available, people are going to want it to make their jobs easier and their lives less stressful. So how does that square with remote access software?

What are the things a new leader of a remote team can do to get started on the right foot? Here are four tips to make sure that your management is as effective virtually as face-to-face.

Trust is one of the biggest challenges to working remotely. Trusting the people your work with (and for) has never been easy. When you work remotely it's even tougher. But it can be done if you remember eight key factors.

Do you lead a remote team or a virtual team? Or is it both? The words get used interchangeably, but they are different animals. And when it comes to managing one, that difference matters.

If you follow the pack are you more likely to co-operate with others in it? The answer, it seems, is 'no'. Contrary to what you might expect, non-conformists are more likely to be team players, new research has found.

Much like a marriage, how members of a team behave when they are apart is the key to determining how successful they will be when they are together. So how can you keep the relationship strong?

Dolly the cloned sheep caused a sensation when her birth was announced in 1997. But what does Dolly have to do with the way your teams function at work?

There's more to collaborative working than meets the eye. In fact as a new book explores, there are many different types of team, each of which demand different techniques for pulling together and – crucially – different personality types if they are to function properly.

Organizations are wedded to teamwork. It is just the way things are done. And managers rarely stop and question whether the way that teams operate is as effective as it might be. But are our conventional ideas about teamwork all a bit 'last century'?

Many people believe that creativity should be as free and unstructured as possible. But I would argue that creativity can better be delivered through teams whose function and tasks are clearly and distinctly defined.

Disagreement and challenge are healthy activities. Without them, teams are denied innovation and progress. But too often, misunderstandings see discussions ending acrimoniously. What we need is a better way to disagree.

Most management teams can identify what is needed to help their company evolve. But most are much less accomplished at the sort of active, directive leadership that is required to galvanize teams and make change happen.

All actions and attitudes displayed by managers have ripple effects. We can choose to value and build up our team members, or we can look for ways to elevate our own stature. Do you know which category you fall into?

Far and away the most interesting business book of the year is published this week. "Smart Swarm: Using Animal Behaviour to Organise Our World", examines what the behaviour of swarms of insects, flocks of birds, and herds of mammals can teach human beings.

In Western culture, the sarcastic, demeaning put-down has become part of the fabric of everyday conversation. More and more people seem to view such behavior as no big deal. Well if that's your attitude, I've got news for you. It does matter and it isn't acceptable - at home, at work or anywhere else.

Gina and a colleague work closely as equals. But as their company changes, their positions are not fitting well into the organizational charts. One needs to become the manager of the other. But which one? Charles Helliwell has a creative solution.

Andrea's boss is untrustworthy, scheming and incompetent with an over-inflated opinion of her own abilities. But she is also politically savvy and popular with senior management. Charles Helliwell has some suggestions for handling a difficult situation.

When conflicts and disputes arise, the majority of companies are ill equipped to deal with them. And as they escalate, so too do the human and financial costs. So how can 21st century businesses learn to slash the cost of conflict?

Sarah is the new supervisor of a small team with more than its fair share of problems. Chales Helliwell has some advice on how she should start the rebuilding process.

Simon has a new job managing a small team. Everyone is on board except one very employee who is rude, disrespectful and seems determined to cause problems. Workplace psychologist Dr Rob Yeung has some timely advice to turn the situation around.

Why would somebody choose to do something other than help your team or project to be successful? The answer is hardly ever that they want to sabotage things intentionally, but that they chose to do something else instead.

With the turn of the annual calendar, many New Year's resolutions include eating a more balanced diet to get in better shape. But why not extend the same analogy into the workplace? Many businesses suffer from either meeting bloat or meeting starvation. What they need is a more balanced diet of meetings. Here's how.

Mary has recently been promoted into a senior role within an all-male technical team. But with a background in sales, her colleagues seem to have little respect for her opinions and criticize her for a lack of technical knowledge. What can she do?

Do you really value outspoken high performers who point out problems and strive to deliver the best they can? Or are you unintentionally breaking their spirit and encouraging a culture that rewards mediocrity?

Louisa's teams spend too much time backstabbing and finding reasons to complain. All her attempts to get their behaviour back on track fail. "I could really use some help," she says.

Virtual teams are much more prone to relationship breakdowns that can quickly send their performance plummeting unless they are carefully managed.

Do you have toxic co-workers in the office? I'm not talking about the types who need to wear more deodorant during the summer months, but the type of guy whose departures is considered like a holiday by everybody else in the company.

One of the secrets to creating passionate, engaged employees and to motivate teams to top performance is actually very simple. Engage people's desire to contribute by showing them how their work is part of the bigger picture.

Harry has landed his dream job. But his task of implementing change is being undermined by an aggressive, back-stabbing colleague who seems determined to resist all of Harry's initiatives and who even their mutual boss is unable to control. What can he do?

Anne is a newly-appointed department manager at a community college. With a demoralised skeleton staff and severe budget issues, she is already disheartened. Charles Helliwell has some advice to help her build morale and start to manage effectively.

Relationships with a new boss do not start with a blank slate. They are very much influenced by the quality of the relationship with the previous boss and employee expectations of the relationship they are likely to have with the new incumbent.

One of David's employees generates around 30% of his company's sales. But she is a nightmare to work with, alienating colleagues and poisoning the atmosphere. Dan Bobinski suggests how to deal with the situation.

A bit like inserting grit into an oyster to create a pearl, parachuting an outsider into a team can lead to better decisions and improved team-working.

Whether the recession ends this year or next, managers are going to have to get used to the reality of being in charge of ever more culturally diverse and geographically remote teams.

The mere mention of the term "office politics" instantly makes many people angry. But there's another way of looking at it. Don't think "politicking". Instead, think of the process of building relationships and influencing people as "lobbying".

It's good to communicate - but if you want to get the most from your team, you need to stop having dreary meetings about things everyone already knows.

While Remote Teams might be virtual, and Virtual Teams are almost always remote, there is an important distinction between them. A smart manager needs to know this, because the roots of success or failure lie in this distinction.

Agile project management is fast becoming the next big thing. The more I learn about it, the more I'm convinced that while there are extremely valuable lessons to be learned, there are also some warnings to be heeded as well.

Your boss isn't the only thing that can make work a living hell. In a modern office, the cubicle situation generally means you practically sit on top of each other. This can be a bad situation if you really hate the people who work around you.

It's all very well saying that people skills are the most important thing a manager can possess, but surely technical, nuts-and-bolts knowledge is important, too.

Kate works as an assistant to eight people. All are demanding, but one crosses the line between the professional and personal and acts like a jerk when she asks him not to. Charles Helliwell has some advice on dealing with him.

If you and your boss just are not getting along, it may be that you two are just not compatible. In fact the same sort of terms we often use in connection with dating can also apply to the manager/employee relationship.

There is a very fine line to walk at work these days. You want to stand out from the crowd and make sure that your managers know how valuable you are. At the same time, no one likes someone who is a "brown-noser."

Sometimes it seems like working with the people you spend eight hours every day with is killing you. Maybe your boss is making you angry or a co-worker is annoying you to the point of violence. In which case, you need some help.

Promoted into a new role, Mary has come up against a subordinate who wants to make her look as bad as possible. The trouble is, she is also a favourite of Mary's boss. What can she do? Charles Helliwell has some suggestions.

Carla has just started a senior government job to find herself with a deputy who was passed over for the same job. He is hurt, angry and causing trouble. Is there anything she can do salvage the situation? Max McKeown thinks there is.

When I ask teams what they would like from their supervisors, the same simple things keep coming up. You might think they're obvious - but if they are, teams wouldn't continually be mentioning them!

Do you manage a team or a group? The distinction is an important one, because there's no point in trying to develop a team ethos amongst a group of people who do no real need to work cooperatively together.

Would it surprise you that a dead-end job with no benefits is still an ideal environment for workplace backstabbing? You don't say!