Happy Valentine’s Day! It’s a great day to remember how important having great workplace relationships are. We know that teams which excel have great relationships. It doesn’t mean that you have to hang out with each other 24/7, but it is important to have trust with each other, respect for each other, and knowledge of who each person is. The ability to work across differences, and celebrate and leverage the strengths of each team member helps to excel performance.
Here are a dozen quick relationship boosters for teams – teams that are new, teams that want a bit of a booster shot, and those that have been around for a long time. They don’t require an expensive team building session, or a lot of time. Rather they are foundational items which can benefit both in person and virtual teams:
Here are a dozen quick relationship boosters for teams – teams that are new, teams that want a bit of a booster shot, and those that have been around for a long time. They don’t require an expensive team building session, or a lot of time. Rather they are foundational items which can benefit both in person and virtual teams:
- Take time to listen – focus on what the other person is saying
- Bring in a different team sparker question to each one of your team meetings. Choose from one of the 120 plus team sparker questions I've shared on Thursdays, or order your own deck of 52 different questions found in the Team Sparker Cards. Order a set here.
- Be curious = ask questions to learn more about the other person’s work priorities
- Consider where your work overlaps
- Synergize – find common ground and leverage points between you and others.
- In an upcoming team meeting, have people share a little more about the best learning event they have ever undertaken. This could be a course, podcast etc.
- Have people share their favorite book or TedTalk
- Provide team members with the opportunity to shadow another team member to learn more about their job, priorities and work responsibilities..
- Build in time to focus on the team, even if it's only one hour a month.
- Do a potluck once a month with your virtual team - sharing a little about your local environment and/or priorities;
- For larger teams - consider how you can do a newsletter/bulletin board sharing cool projects you are undertaking, achievements and recognitions. This might go out monthly or quarterly.
- Ask people to bring an item to share at the next staff meeting which represents what they love to do in their time out of work.
- Have fun! Heading out for a game of ping-pong, or donating some time to help at the local food, bank, or a lunch together does have advantage for getting to know one another outside of the office. What would be a good excursion for the team this
Jennifer Britton
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326
Potentials Realized | Coaching Team Leaders
Coaching Skills Training | Leadership Development | Teamwork
Growing Team Leaders, One Conversation at a Time(TM)
Contact us to discuss leadership, coaching or performance needs for your and your team
Phone: (416)996-8326
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