Victor Brown, MSOL

Team members will work in silos unless leaders mandate collaboration. When collaboration is a requirement, it has the potential to increase organizational effectiveness. While technology tends to increase efficiency, it also tends to have the opposite affect of decreasing face to face interaction between team members. Cross training can serve as an "icebreaker" to create team collaboration. Leaders should not wait for crisis to occur to demand collaboration. It should be approached as a strategy to strengthen team functionality. Collaboration should be required, as it will allow team members to obtain a greater understanding of roles of their co-workers, which in turn will contribute to increasing overall value to clients.

Traditional management systems tend to focus on processes that show no concern for the needs of team members. In the 21st Century, those systems are not optimal. Leaders in the current marketplace will benefit from knowing each team member individually. There are several assessments tools, e.g., Predictive Index, DiSC, et. al., that leaders should consider to build their skills in communicating with team members. HR consultants with a background using these tools are worth their weight in gold. Senior leaders with the motivation to uncover the workstyles and personality traits of their team members, and who create a system of leadership that empowers their employees to execute critical strategies will achieve impressive success.

I have observed that team members need support on an ongoing basis. Some leaders may wait until a point where a gap could have been filled days or even weeks before an issue surfaces. This could cause a minor issue or minor problem to become a major problem. Leaders can avoid this on a consistent basis by building in frequent check-ins with team members--at least once per week. More frequent communication will provide the leader with an opportunity to make adjustments, provide additional resources (if needed) and create a climate that will allow team members to exceed expectations for the client. This will lead to exceptional team culture, and the creation of a system that will provide sustainability and organizational effectiveness.

Model the behavior you want your colleagues to emulate, and lead by example. Micro managers with a "Boss Mentality" may view this as counterintuitive. The fact of the matter is, everyone wants to delegate. No one wants to be delegated to. Effective senior leaders demonstrate what delegation looks like, its benefits, and what it accomplishes. Colleagues in many organizations who refuse to take on delegated tasks (or who say they will handle a task, but fail to do so), will witness what effective delegation looks like, and how its done. Collaborators in the organization who accept delegated tasks and delegate to others within the enterprise will create more buy-in and accountability among team members.

Survey feedback is one way organizations can improve customer satisfaction. Businesses should adhere to a consistent process for responding to challenges their customers have faced in their business relationship. Gone are the days of large customer service departments. There is a skills gap within some organizations that, if filled, will create greater value for the purchasers of the products and services offered by suppliers and vendors. Team members accountability for responding to customer requests and complaints is paramount. Negative customer feedback is an early warning system that, if ignored, could eventually result in the end of the customer relationship. Leaders are well advised to implement rapid response to customer concerns.

Corporate leaders know that change management will yield increases in productivity and profits. Lewin’s model for effective change management can be useful in implementing needed change. The model has three stages: 1) unfreeze (demonstrate the need for change); 2) change (change implementation); and, 3) refreeze (stabilization and employee acceptance). As employees gain required skills to handle the demands of organization change in technology, new processes, managing stress, compliance, and buy-in for change reasoning, using Lewin’s model will support and enhance change management efforts.