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Teamwork begins at the top, most of us will set back and nod our head as people and training organizations tell us that teamwork is important, but we don’t realize that applies to us. We think yeah it would be great if the technology department would be a team or if our Human Resource department would step it up together. We don’t realize though that the team effort of a business starts at the top. It is the executives, managers, supervisors and leaders that set up the environment of team work.

If a leader isn’t willing to enforce teamwork then they are wasting their breathe when they try to implement teamwork among departments if they themselves are not willing to adhere to the same team values. For instance a team is willing to accept ideas from any of its team members, no matter what position they hold. As a leader in the organization are you willing to do that? Not just listen and not but evaluate and give feedback and perhaps even implement the idea? If not then you are undermining the very principle you want implemented.

How is your team rewarded for performing as a team? Often organizations teach teamwork, expect it and say that is the core of the company but then the only people who get rewarded are individuals who had the most public role in the project. Instead of rewarding people, reward teams for doing the job. Maybe give them a budget to through their own team party. Or give each team member tickets to an upcoming sporting event or play. Or even bring in a caterer for lunch to reward the group as a team. This fosters working together rather then competing.

Finally remember things that are done well and recall them often. Say things like remember when the sales department collectively sold out our entire water bottle product line. Recalling these experiences will inspire other teams in your organization to earn your recognition but they want to earn it as a team because that is who you as a leader praise.

Teamwork can push your business to new heights if it fostered in an atmosphere that emphasizes its importance. Learn the tactics that will truly inspire your organization to work together rather to work against each other.

Teamwork can increase your productivity, improve your work environment and foster creativity. Why not invest the time it takes to form this valuable resource? There are ways to start creating it today, but you may also consider hiring a corporate trainer to come in and motivate your team.

Bart Icles has seen organization that have benefited from teamwork and organizations that we’re in desperate need of a solid team. He would recommend to anyone to contact CMOE and learn about their Teamwork and Strategic Management training.

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Businesses know that it is a important to create a culture where the customer feels they are receiving value and being valued. It is ultimately the customer that is supporting your business and their words and their feelings are what are going to keep your business successful. Leading your organization in a way that encourages customer orientation takes some strategic management.

First, make sure everyone understands the priorities. If there is confusion on what the real priority is there will be confusion on what should be happening. If customer value is truly important to your organization then communicate that to your teams of people. In meeting communicate this important topic, make sure your team leaders convey it every chance they get and remind all areas that this priority is first and foremost. Also reward individuals and teams that excel or make an extra effort for this priority.

As a leader in the organization you need to not only preach this priority every chance you get but live it always. Your organization and/or team is watching your actions, make an effort to make this priority visibly important. If customer service and value is important make sure the way you talk about your customers is respectful. You can’t sit and degrade or complain about them in your planning meeting and then expect your staff to go out and treat them with the highest respect they can.

Feedback is vitally important in an organization. Give your staff immediate and factual feedback. They need and want to hear how they are performing. This feedback is another time to convey the importance of customer service. If they are doing a good job let them know, and you will find they try even harder. Don’t just let they fact that you are ‘allowing’ them to keep their job be the only way you let them know they are doing well. People love hearing they are performing well and it inspires them to continue to perform well. Of course if they are struggling let them know and challenge them to do better.

When you strategically manage your staff so they see, hear and know that customer service is priority in your company you will see your business sore in that area. Making your priorities known in strategic and effective ways will inspire your staff to be the team you want and need the to be. Start today to make the focus of your business known to everyone in your company.

Bart Icles recommends getting professionals come into your business and train them in the major topics such as Strategic Management and Teamwork. Topics like this will have immediate and long term effects on your business.

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Wikipedia has probably one of the most complete yet simple definitions of teamwork

“Teamwork is the concept of people working together cooperatively as a team in order to accomplish the same goals/objectives.”

If you stop and think teamwork is one of the most important aspects of every business. There isn’t a business that doesn’t talk about the need to their team to work together. Why though is it viewed as so beneficial? The majority of us are programmed to think what is in it for me, what reward will I get, what leadership will I gain and what power over others will I have. Why then fight so hard to overcome these instincts?

Teamwork has a unique outcome when it is truly applied to a project or goal. When several people are working together with the ‘what’s in it for us’ mentality things are done faster, more efficiently and with more innovation. We cannot all be masters of everything but we do have things we excel in. When you get a group of people together working on various aspects of one project you will find that what would have taken you hours or even days to complete only takes someone else a fraction of the time.

People specialize in various areas and struggle in others, experience teaches us the best way to do things so allowing others to do what has taken them precious time to learn will save everyone time.

Problem solving as a group also sparks your own mind. For instance I was in a meeting once where we were asked to come with our ideas and then share them with the group. I thought and thought and had a whole page of ideas for the meeting. I got to the meeting and realized that as other people spoke it triggered something else in my brain and I had another idea. By the time the meeting was done I left with 2 additional pages of ideas. Thinking together is effective because it triggers parts of our own experience we weren’t able to trigger on our own.

Teamwork has great power in a workplace and all though we have to fight nature it seems to accomplish it, it is worth it. There are more ideas out there to be had, more projects and goals to accomplish and teamwork is an effective way to think, complete and reach them. It will take an extra effort in your business to create a teamwork environment but your results for doing so will improve your business.

Bart Icles knows the importance of working as a team especially in the workplace. He recommends visiting CMOE for more information on their Teamwork and Strategic Management
training.

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We all know what is like to have a hectic morning where you just don’t seem like you had enough time to get ready or sleep or prepare for work. We rush in through the office door and then sit down and start to work on our list of tasks with the same frantic effort. We rush around over 5 or 6 different tasks starting several but never really knowing what we are accomplishing. We are busy the entire time we are at work but by the end of the day we aren’t any closer to our goal then we were.

We won’t be able to avoid those crazy mornings were time is short and we have to rush into the office. From there though we can control how the rest of our day goes. Imagine instead of rushing into the office and then frantically attacking your tasks with the same haphazardness you instead sit down and a lot yourself 15 minutes to adjust.

Those 15 minutes are dedicated to strategically managing your time so that you can be as effective as possible. You visualize what you are going to do that day and how. You may know how to do your tasks but have you stopped to think if you are doing them the best way possible? Is there a faster more effective way to do those same tasks rather then just letting tradition govern your routine?

Also during those 15 minutes you pull out a sheet of paper and make two lists. One list are the things you have to get done today in the order they need to be accomplished. That way you can start on those very first and ensure that you accomplish them. The second list you make is at least one if not more, ideas of something that you can do that day to make your tasks more effective.

Then at the top of the paper write the overlying goal that you have for the day. Something pretty general that you can focus on. For instance ‘be a better communicator’ or ‘Keep track of my time better’ or ‘Do more than is expected’. Learning this strategic management technique isn’t for people looking to go to work put in their hours and go home. It is for those people who want to excel and learn from what they are doing.

Strategically managing your time is one of the best ways you can become a better employee. Employers want someone willing to make the business better and if you can make your area as efficient and productive as possible then you are accomplishing that goal.

Bart Icles know that strategically managing your business is worth every effort it takes. Visit CMOE for more information on topics such as Teamwork and Strategic Management
.

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The booming Asian economy is drawing an increasing amount of business process outsourcing. Many US companies are seeking help to improve communications and team efficiency through intercultural management training. It may confuse you to realize that the challenges you counter are not unique to your team and the offshore group.

Avoidable misunderstandings over the significance of deadlines and relationship building are blown up not only by distance and time zone; they are also embedded in the core values of our different societies. Building an understanding of the core values via cross-cultural training assists to escape from problems before they culminate into project-defeating disasters. This is where cross-cultural senior management finds significance. This article will provide you with some much needed guidance regarding this.

Asian economy is an amalgam of various cultures. As is the case cross-cultural senior management is an indispensable part of the management sector in Asia. Unlike technical knowledge, intercultural understanding and skill are not something you can attain just by going through a “how-to” manual or getting familiar with a simple formula.

How people’s cultural backgrounds affect their character and way of thinking is quite clear in some ways and quite subtle in others. Appearance, names, language, accents, artifacts and shared worlds of reference are displayed at once. However, Intangibles - approaches towards time, commitments, success, status, authority, accountability, planning, negotiation, rewards, teamwork, personal boundaries and social interactions - are not visible all of a sudden.

To be efficient as a global IT manager, you need to be informed of the major underlying cultural values that have direct or indirect impact on business relations and organizational functioning. The skills you require are those “soft” skills, which are, in fact, considerably tougher to attain than the “hard” technical skills. Some managers are lucky to have innate strength in these fields, most require education and training, a few are so adamant that it would be better to exclude them of major global management responsibilities.

Cross-cultural senior management focuses on utilizing one’s ability to triumph in global management. If you are contemplating to appoint someone to a key position cross cultural training is a must. This kind of training is required to make your multicultural teams combine more effectively or when you are seeking to configure an appropriate management style for your global company.

Cross-cultural senior management defines some crucial skills for successful management in a culturally diverse environment. You must pay close attention to developing and sustaining these winning skills.

First of all you must have a good understanding of your own cultural values and how they influence your attitudes and behaviors. You must try to always stay aware on global trends and events. Acquiring a fair knowledge about cultural behaviors in a non-judgmental way will be a definite help.

You have to acclimatize appreciably to a wide spectrum of operational practices, business styles, and social ambiences. Making people of distinct backgrounds feel at ease, recognized and valued for their perspectives will be very good idea.

For successful cross-cultural senior management, it is necessary to make a sincere effort to get people from contrasting backgrounds to work together effectively as unified teams. Expressing yourself persuasively while genuinely listening what others are conveying to you is another advisable skill.

You have to lead in ways that trigger employees to embrace responsibility and initiative, collaborate, and contribute the creativity of their differences. You have to show integrity, openness, reliable behavior, and candor in all your interpersonal exchanges.

You should be inclined to work with other people’s requirements and timetables, keeping your attention on long-term goals, and not spoiling your goodwill capital on achieving immediate results. Always remember that cross-cultural senior management and success are two sides of the same coin.

Hunt Partners is a high end Executive Search firm providing search and human capital solutions for global and regional clients who require discreet search of top management and board level positions.

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What does it take to truly motivate an employee? What breaks an employee’s resistance to showing up on time and lets them work with joy? What makes employees brag about the company that pays them?

How do successful corporations succeed in keeping loyal employees? Not by fear or intimidation. Once pressure is applied ‘to perform or produce,’ either more or better, the average employee becomes less effective.

Many employees are completely self-motivated and never need any outside impetus. They are content with fulfilling their own inward goals. Others need some inspiring, positive feedback in order to apply their most creative and heartfelt energies to a job. They need an incentive to feel they belong, to have a sense of identity with the corporation they work for. The desire for recognition resides in all of us and having this need acknowledged is an important part of one’s work life.

Although an employee is an individual and works as an individual, there is always a need to be aware that the employee is also a part of the whole group, the total corporation, and that each individual is important. When the corporation treats the employees as someone important, the employees will also feel the corporation is important and will feel proud to be a part of its success and growth.

The secret of employee performance comes from the awareness by management or peers that a person is doing a great job and then outwardly recognizing that performance. One proven technique is giving corporate awards that recognize the unique contribution that an employee provides. To be powerful, this award needs to be of a lasting nature and something that others will be able to see and recognize. A sincere compliment is always welcome, but material objects such as rings make the difference in employee loyalty. The inspiration received from a corporate gift can transform an entire department. Motivation to do an even better job enlivens the atmosphere.

Employees aren’t usually going to blatantly ask for recognition. Actually, when singled out for a special award they will appear shy and mutter something about not really deserving it. However, inside they are glowing and are probably having a hard time holding back tears of appreciation — making acceptance speeches isn’t part of one’s everyday activity in ordinary corporate life. When an employee receives a reward in the form of a pay raise, the reaction is usually one of relief. “Whew! I actually got it!” When one receives a Safety Award Ring or a Company Ring with a special inscription on it, awkwardness can be expected. The implication, silently stated, is, “You are unique and special! We truly appreciate you.” Acceptance of this appreciation is often best expressed with eyes meeting in trust and a nod of the head.

The power represented by an award of this type goes beyond the dollar value in a corporation. Without loyal, fantastic employees a corporation doesn’t exist. Those who are the life blood of the corporation truly deserve all the awards and recognition that are bestowed upon them.

Dave Cohen founded Onera Company Rings in 1990 to create employee service recognition incentive awards jewelry that can be worn with pride. Dave has been in the jewelry business 25 years.

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