5 Proven Actions To Transform Poor Teams At Work Quickly & Effectively
I am taking you through 5 proven actions to transform poor teams at work. I have transformed the worst team in a company into one of the best, in multiple different companies and in the processed generated £’millions in additional profits for those companies.
It is very daunting as a manager, when you first walk into the office and see a dejected, quiet, directionless team that doesn’t know how to be better. The prospect of working out what you can personally do to help the team can be pretty scary. There will be a lot of pressure on you to improve the worst team at work or at the very least, show visible signs you are improving what is perceived as the poor team or bad team of the company.
The 5 Proven Actions To Transform Poor Teams At Work Quickly & Effectively
- Earn trust by showing the team why and how you can help them
- Identity what is holding the team back
- Invest in removing problems publicly and privately
- Plan a path to achieving team goals and walk with the team
- Market the teams’ achievements loudly and clearly
If you are the manager or leader taking over a poorly performing team or you are joining a business that is performing poorly, then what I share with you today will help you transform the motivation, ownership, morale and performance of the team you lead WITHOUT needing to replace lots of team members.
Removing some team members may be necessary later on. Just remember replacing usually delays getting performance improvement and on its own will not help a lot. You still need to convert team potential into performance reality.
Practical Tips
For each action, I share with you practical tips and actions that you can put into practice immediately. The better your people management and communication skills, the more effectively you will be able to turn these proven actions into tangible measurable team results in a short timeframe.
I started my first board director role in a company with £150m in sales which was about to fail. Stepping into the office on my first day was like stepping into a morgue. There was nervous silence and glum faces. The group of 17 individuals I was now leading had no idea the company was in trouble. There was no communication, little teamwork, lots of figure pointing … in short it was a mess.
12 months later, there was the constant hum of voices as team members collaborated, supported and helped each other. There was banter and laughter. The team had just won the company’s best team prize and paid off the last of the £12million in debt the company started with.
The actions I took are exactly what to do to transform the worst team in a company. This is what I am sharing now.
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The first action to transform poor teams at work is to earn trust by showing the team why and how you can help them
The level of trust you build between yourself and your team, and between team members, directly impacts team performance. The more trust your team has in your ability to help them, the more willing they will be to do what you ask, to make changes and follow where you lead.
9 Actions
Here are 9 really practical actions to build their trust in your ability to help them.
- Share where you have improved performance before. Think of individuals as well as teams. Talk them through the HOW you helped others achieve success.
- Translate your expertise into practical actions that will help the team today. It could be simple things like how to use excel better or build more compelling website copy … all the way through to introducing new ways of working, new tools to use or even new systems.
- Give your team a clear vision of what good looks like and more importantly, how you are going to help them get there
- Demonstrate you put team success before individual success, including your own
- Show you are willing to make the tough decisions and take the tough actions for the benefit of the team
- Fight to protect your team from management or others and give them enough breathing space to improve
- Be willing to roll your sleaves up and help out team members directly as a way of contributing to team success.
- Be honest and open in your communication with the team. Tell them how it is and how they can improve.
- Listen to your team and take their good ideas and solutions and put them into practice. They will have a ton of knowledge and solutions that you don’t have.
The better you do each of these, the more trust your team will have in you. The quicker you take action and show you are there for them and the team, the quicker they will be there for you.
The second action to transform the worst team in a company is to identify what is holding the team back
This is one of the best actions or activities you can focus on to help the team AND win trust quickly. To find the key problems in any team, I suggest you spend a good amount of time asking questions and listening to team members. Ask them to show you what they do rather than just tell you. Look for pains, for missing resources, or things that delay them.
6 areas that I nearly always investigate include:
- The attitudes and character of team members AND how willing they are to change
- The knowledge, skills and capabilities of team members
- The way each person works – what processes do they go through and what touch points do they have with others, systems, information etc
- What the team is working on collectively and individually. How does this align and support the overall company direction and strategy
- What tools are the team using, including systems. Are these being used in the best way or are they good enough tools to deliver team goals
- What problems are being encountered with people, processes, systems, resources and working practices.
If you don’t know what is holding the team back, you cannot plan how you are going to remove the blockers for better performance. Don’t settle for surface level explanations. Dig deep into the issues so you really understand exactly what is going on.
The third action to transform poor teams at work is to invest in removing problems publicly and privately
At this point you should have a list of problems, big and small, which you potentially might want to invest in removing. Before you do anything, prioritise your list. There are lots of different ways to prioritise your list and the factors you consider will be specific to your situation.
You will find many problems block other problems being solved. Good project management skills will help you a lot to identify and sequence the problems you work on.
When you have your prioritised list, get support and permission from bosses and other stakeholders to remove the problems. This takes persuasion and building solid business case for each mini project as well as lining up the resources you need.
Don’t start removing problems until you are confident you can practically deliver a workable solution. Don’t shy away from making difficult decisions, for example if team members are the problem. Always try to improve before you consider removing.
When you remove problems, make sure your team and bosses know what you have done and how it helps them. Communicate this clearly and repeatedly as needed.
The fourth action to transform the worst team in a company is to plan a path to achieving team goals and walk with the team
Setting clear achievable goals that align with company and functional goals is very important. Much more important is planning how you and your team are going to reach those goals.
The clearer the plan and the better and more often you communicate the next steps in the plan to your team, the more likely your team will successfully reach their goals. Break the plan down into actions, activities and projects for each person in the team and measure the speed and quality of progress against the plan.
You need to measure progress to increase responsibility and accountability AND to help you quicky identify problems so you can help remove them. Spend the time to create suitable KPIs or measures of success to a sensible level of detail.
There are different ways you can create the plan of action for the team. You can sit down and create a plan and tell the team about the plan. At the other end of the options is running a series of workshops with the team and creating the plan with them. Or you could do something in between. There are pros and cons for each option, in terms of speed, quality and ownership of the plan. I personally use a combination of creating steps myself and with other team members.
Always create a plan of how you and the team will achieve goals.
Then visibly work alongside the team and with the team to achieve those goals. Personally be an active part of the team.
The fifth action to transform poor teams at work is to market the teams’ achievements loudly and clearly
Doing great work and NOT shouting about it within the company is doing yourself and your team a disservice. Always professionally market your team’s achievement to bosses and team stakeholders.
Share clear goals you are very confident your team can beat. Give bosses and stakeholders updates on progress towards those goals. Drop team achievements into conversation, into meetings, into newsletters etc. Shout about the team, not yourself. Your team’s performance reflects your performance. You will personally get plenty of credit and rewards from improving team performance.
Just as importantly, praise your team members directly for the good actions and decisions they take and the good behaviour they display. Praise them publicly and privately. Praise them to their face, in emails and reports. Give credit where it is due.
These actions will help build team self-confidence and positively reinforce the expectations you have set.
Managers and colleagues outside of the team will appreciate how your team is pulling their weight and helping the company be successful – when you spell it out to them. Over time, their opinions and attitude towards your team will change. The negative comments, put downs and bad jokes will go and be replaced by respect, admiration and appreciation.
Your team members will see, hear and feel this reputational change. Another great way to support your team’s confidence, development and success. Shout about your teams’ successes in all the updates you communicate to stakeholders and bosses.
in summary
Transforming poor teams at work takes a series of deliberate steps that any manager with reasonable people skills can take. It takes courage to take the first steps. Every action you take makes the next one easier. Start implementing everything we have covered today as soon as you can.
You may already be doing a number of these steps. Be honest with yourself and ask yourself – “How can I get better at taking each of these steps with my team?” The better your skills and more wholeheartedly you take each step, the more improvement in team performance you will get and the quicker it will happen.
Focus on what is right for the team. Take the first steps now.
As a reminder, the 5 proven actions to transform poor teams at work quickly & effectively are:
- Earn trust by showing the team why and who you can help them
- Identity what is holding the team back
- Invest in removing problems publicly and privately
- Plan a path to achieving team goals and walk with the team
- Market the teams’ achievements loudly and clearly
I coach managers and leaders in transforming the performance of poor teams – to turn the worst team into the best team. Coaching will help you achieve amazing team results a lot quicker, with a lot less stress and nearly aways produces a great return on investment for you and your business. Click here to learn more.
If you have any questions on “5 proven actions to transform poor teams at work quickly & effectively” or on how to transform the worst team in a company, please email me at support@enhance.training and I will get back to you.
Turn Potential Into Performance
Most teams have good potential to be high performing teams. 9 out of 10 employees want to do a good job, to be appreciated and to be there for their colleagues. When the manager knows what to do and works at building their skills to turn potential into reality, transforming the performance of team is a process, a set of interdependent steps. How big an improvement in performance depends on how hard the manager works for their team and their expertise.
Really commit to putting these actions into practice in the best way you can, and you will be thrilled with improvement in team performance, motivation and culture. Don’t hold back. Work hard for your team!
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