6 Mistakes when Leading Teams

Leading teams can be fraught with difficulties. Here are just a few of the most common ones.

Believing your whole team understands and accepts the team goals.

Issue: When did you last check that your team understood the overall team objectives and their role within that? Teams are made up of individuals and unless all the individuals are on board with the basic messages then there will always be forces pulling the team in different directions.

Next step: Set up meetings with individuals, groups, whole teams and ask them what they believe their goals to be.

Believing team name does not make a difference.

Issue: Your name is part of your identity. So it is with teams. Call a team Complaints Dept and they will. Teams need to be branded in a way that they find acceptable and ideally presents a positive image to the people they have to deal with outside the team.

Next step: Conduct a team branding exercise. Ask about perceptions of the team as it stands and what needs to be change. Make the team and brand an aspirational place to work.

Allowing the latest person to join the team to be trained by the last person to join.

Issue: Ever heard of Chinese whispers? Everyone puts their own interpretation on instructions and if training is conducted by someone different each time, then the messages on how to do jobs well is likely to get diluted. Training someone to do their job well needs to be done by someone who understands the job objectives and the purpose of the team. Not paying attention to the messages that people are receiving in the early days in the job means that bad practice gets spread around and become entrenched.

Next step: Always be involved in some aspects of the training and make training part of someone’s job description.

Teams need to be controlled

Issue: High performing teams have a clear sense of direction, but they do not need to be controlled. There needs to be to be regular check points but not to the extent that they get in the way of the teams’ performance.

Next step: Set fair performance targets for the team with a way of measuring and rewarding tasks that get done well.

Teams that appear alright on the surface are OK.

Issue: All good leaders should be aware of any underlying problems in their teams and look for ways to tackle them before they become a major issue. Ignoring problems very often means that they will just fester under the surface and inhibit a teams progress.

Next step: Build trust with your team, one at a time if necessary. Teams don’t necessarily have to like each other, but they do need to respect each other. Make sure respect is one of your teams’ values.

The leader knows better than the team.

Issue: Great team leaders know when to listen to their team. Team members are doing the job day in and day out and their opinions are vital to the success of the teams’ objectives. As team leader you need to take on board members views and where appropriate act on them.

Next step: Set up a listening post – some form of process for allowing your team to past back vital bits of information about the operation, project, product, customers – whatever - so that you can act on it.

Manual Handling training made fun

Manual Handling comes under one of those categories where everyone goes "why do I need to know about that!" that is unless they already have a bad back, or have damaged themselves by carrying heavy objects, awkward parcels or recently had an office clear out!

So when we set out to train a group recently, we made sure that not only did they learn some valuable skills which will help them look after their spines and other bits of their skeleton and bodies, but that they also had fun in the process!

So next time you are thinking of moving something heavy or awkward, stop and think:

• does it need moving?
• am I the best person to move it?
• how clear is my route?
  do I need help?

Stay safe and look after yourself!






Find out more in the book Changing the Culture of Manual Handling

Five course menu and Drumming!

Just had a great couple of days with a team who chose to create a five course menu and follow it the next day with a drumming session. Great fun had by all.

Not only that they felt that they had got to know each other better and had re-energised as a team.

Which hat are you wearing?

With all the doom and gloom that has been around, you could be forgiven for wearing your black hat. This looks at all the negatives and what else can go wrong. For many, they seem to be wearing a red hat for anger. Anger with Fat Cats and anger with the politicians. A White hat may keep you aloof and concentrating on the facts and figures, whereas with a Green hat your imagination could run wild. A Blue hat would allow you to summarise everything and tkae a longer term view. Personally I prefer the idea of a Yellow hat. Let's keep things as sunny as possible and find some positives out there!

I used the "Six Thinking Hats" - Edward de Bono

Spinning the plates

Images of customers spinning plates on the JamBerry stand at Let's Do Business last week. All the talk there was about re-energising people and teams for the future.

Pitfalls of Managing Change

"There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all who would profit by the new order.

The lukewarmness arises partly from fear of their adversaries which have the law and tradition in their favour and partly from the incredibility of mankind who do not truly believe in anything new until they have had actual experience of it."

Machiavelli (1513)

Reshuffle Your Cabinet

With a reshuffle in the air, what shoud Gordon Brown remember about change management?


1. Establish a sense of urgency - there's nothing worst than change that drags on, leaving everyone frutated in its wake.
2. Develop a vision and strategy - make sure you are clear on where you want to get to and when
3. Communicate the change vision - don't forget to tell everyone where the organisation is now headed for and why
4. Introduce new customs and practices - make change visible so that it doesn't just become bsuiness as usual
5. Empower a broad base of people to take action - action makes change happen, without it you are lost
6. Generate short term wins - and celebrate them appropriately
7. Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate

Good luck Gordon!