Developing a Winning Team at Work
You’re managing productivity and targets, but there’s quite a bit of office talk these days about culture and building a winning environment within organizations. For managers this can be a tricky tightrope to keep. On the one hand you need to ensure productivity is met, targets are achieved, and progression is set forward. On the other hand, keeping a happy work environment in today’s office setting is what may ultimately make or break you.
How do you manage productivity and targets while maintaining a happy work setting for your team?
Clear Targets and Buy In
This is not our parent’s office environment. For the most part, gone are the days of an over-pressing boss who is able to easily dictate and manipulate his or her employees on directives and goals. The “my way or the highway” managerial style of the past may not hold as much weight in today’s office setting with job opportunities more available to today’s employees.
Managers should set clear targets and goals for the team that are both understandable and achievable. Of course there will always be cases where individuals, as well as the department as a whole, need to push harder to achieve certain goals, but with a clear understanding of the team goals and why they are important for the overall success for the department or company, it will create a more effective way for the team to roll up their collective sleeves to achieve.
Buy-in is also another important factor in today’s office culture. Allowing the team to feel as though they had some sort of say in the outcome creates a bit more of a buy-in culture. The team may not have say in each and every task that is placed upon them, but the feeling as though they had some sort of voice in the decision-making will go a long way in helping achieve team targets and goals.
Communication
Be open toward making change with yourself when it comes to your communication style. If the majority of your team think you don’t communicate enough of the important issues impacting the team, then be open to correcting it.
When it comes to your communication style, if the perception from the team is you don’t communicate effectively enough, then you need to make some concessions with yourself on how to fix it.
As a manager, building a winning culture in the office is as much about making changes from within as it is making changes on or to the team. A team follows its leader, so making changes in your own communication style may go a long way in achieving an overall winning culture.
Focus on Relationships
There was a point in time where my manager didn’t want to know a thing about me. He didn’t want to know about my family, my outside interests, and barely cared about wanting to know about my career objectives. His rationale was that it was better as the manager to not know about his teams personal lives so in the event he had to let us go, there wasn’t an emotional tie broken there. At least his communication was strong and he let us know off the bat that our relationship was strictly on business and nothing else.
Even so, focusing on building relationships with your team as it helps foster an environment and culture that the everyday business at hand is the number one priority, but knowing how your employees tick and what’s important to them in regards to their career, job at hand, and priorities, will assist in creating a culture and strong environment within the team. You don’t need to become best buddies with everyone on the team, but understanding them more and building a relationship may help you in building that winning culture.
Looking for a job and a company with that winning attitude? Contact Kane Solutions for your next job opportunity. Kane Solutions focuses on job placement in engineering, manufacturing, IT and many more professions. View our jobs page to find your next opportunity.
