Even the best of teams can become disengaged. Getting your staff communicating again can help keep your business efficient and prevent turnover.
“Ongoing communication it can help stop problems in advance,” says April-Lynn Levitt, a Calgary-based coach with the Personal Coach, “That puts you in a proactive mode as oppose to a reactive mode. Most people want their opinions to be heard and valued and it just makes it a lot easier to work.”
Follow these tips to get your team back in sync:
> Get to the heart of the problem
Find out the cause of the team’s disengagement.
Hold one-on-one meetings with staff and then later meet as a team to discuss why things are no longer working, she says.
Sometimes a personality conflict is the root of the problem. Or it could be a larger concern within the company or the industry as a whole that is causing a team to become dysfunctional or disengaged, Levitt says.
> Get your team talking
Promote communication within your team.
Remind team members that they are free to bring any comments or concerns to you.
If the team’s mood is particularly sour, it may be best to bring in a third party, Levitt says, such as a coach or an HR representative.
“Staff will sometimes tell me things that they would never tell the employer,” she says. “Even though they know it’s something I’m going to tell the [employer], unless they tell me it’s confidential.”
> Find answers
Have staff members suggest solutions to get the team working again.
Levitt’s firm uses a method called “Continue, Start, Stop” to get team members talking about issues and how they can be fixed.
The process essentially asks team members to discuss what they want others to continue to do, what they want them to start doing and what they want them to stop doing.
For example, the exercise may reveal that team members would prefer if an advisor were to email notes to an associate instead of writing them out by hand, or the advisor sharing with staff his long-term goal.
> Put it in writing
After you have revealed the source of the problem and what must be done, write out action plans, Levitt says. Explain what has been agreed on and what each person will do, and include deadlines to keep everyone accountable.
If you don’t already have formal job descriptions and a mission statement for your team, you should also create those immediately, she adds.
> Check in on your team
To make sure your team, and your business, runs smoothly and stays on track, hold regular reviews and meetings.
You should have mission and vision statements that you re-evaluate every five years. Also, hold an annual review for your business, Levitt says, and hold quarterly check-ins with your team and your business plan.
As well, organize weekly or bi-weekly team meetings to address issues right away before small problems put your team off track.
> Be prepared to take action
You may have to take further steps if the problem persists and an individual team member is the cause.
If a team member continues to create problems for the others, you may have to have further discussions, give warning letters or consider letting him or her go, says Levitt.
IE