Team engagement and productivity have both become hot topics recently.
Whether your business is recruiting, or you have a hiring freeze, ensuring you maximise the output of your team while also engaging each member in the vision for your business is vital for growth.
In addition, the move to hybrid working has opened up additional challenges for many businesses.
In this article, we outline three steps for improving team engagement, based on our work with one of our clients- a leading sports federation.
Whether your team is hybrid, remote or fully office-based though, these steps are relevant for improving your team engagement and productivity.
A hybrid team that had never physically met:
When we initially engaged this leading sports federation, most of the team had not met physically, and they were preparing for their next large-scale event.
Since their previous event, new members of the team had joined, and COVID had caused huge disruption in their sector- as it had in many.
The hybrid team was made up of individuals from across Europe, with around half working in their headquarters, and the rest working remotely.
A feeling of something impacting team engagement
Our founder had previously worked with the CEO of this leading sports federation, to improve internal communication and employee engagement in another business, so when similar (albeit slightly different) challenges arose in his new business, we received a call for help.
While there were no real conflicts among the team members, there was a vague feeling that something was impacting the team and their cohesiveness, but they were unaware of what it was.
This may be the same for your business, or you might notice real internal conflicts.
Below we outline the three steps we took to improve team engagement within this leading sports federation. The same three steps could just as easily be implemented into your business too.
Step 1: Taking a step back
A few months ago we highlighted the importance of taking a step back and having a helicopter view of your business.
When you are caught up in the day-to-day details of the business, you struggle to see what is right in front of you, or what might be impacting your team’s productivity and engagement levels.
This sporting organisation was planning its next big event. Stepping back, the CEO knew he needed to maximise team cohesiveness and engagement to top the high standards they had set at their previous event.
How do you take a step back from the hamster wheel within your business?
Step 2: Understanding their individual characters first
As we have highlighted previously, perfect – and therefore highly engaged- teams, start with knowing yourself.
The concept dates back to Greek philosophy, with Aristotle saying that “knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom”. Socrates is also said to have coined the phrase “know thyself”.
With that in mind, we asked each member of the team to take our short Perfect Teams profiling indicator, which gave each of them individual reports so they could better understand their own characters.
Whichever profiling tool you use, we recommend you get as detailed insights as possible.
Step 3: Starting a conversation
Using their individual reports, we were able:
- Identify the hidden talents among their team
- Highlight the gaps that needed filling, and
- Outline what motivates each individual team member
Knowing the above provides the basis for improving team engagement. In addition, with all the team members in one room, we were then able to use the team maps, as well as the individual insights of each team member, to start an open conversation.
Our facilitator asked each person to discuss their reports, and then explained the importance of each character on the team map.
Having a conversation about each other’s reports meant they could start to understand each other’s characters.
In short, it made the invisible, visible, and relationships between new and existing team members were deepened.
Following our work, the team went on to put together the biggest international sports event of its kind for over four decades.
The CEO has since commented that our approach is “very powerful” and that “it generated insights for the team to understand the dynamics of communication and their interaction with colleagues”.
Have you noticed that your team is less engaged, productive, and effective than it used to be?
Our founder Neil, and our team, have over thirty years of experience in executive development and have worked with more than 6,760 business owners and leaders to improve team engagement and productivity.
To find out more about how we can help you improve team engagement and productivity, click here to book your free ticket to our next executive seminar, which is specifically for senior managers, directors and managing directors.
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