June, 2009
Volume VII, Number 6 In this E-Zine:
Additional Resources:
Contact Information:Cheryl Mann, MBA, CPCC |
A Few Notes From Cheryl
June teleclass: I hope you can join us for this month’s teleclass on June 24 at 12:00 Pacific / 3:00 Eastern time for “High Morale During Low Times: How to re-energize your team to new heights!” See details and registration below or on our Speaking page. Be sure to mark your calendars for the 4th Wednesday of every month (through October) at 12:00 Pacific / 3:00 Eastern time for the rest of the teleclass series. New addition to the family: Just four weeks ago, my partner and I adopted a new four-legged member into our family. Chloe is 1.5 years old, a very sweet dog and from the best we can tell, is some sort of Basenji / Chihuahua mix who was on the streets until recently being cared for by a pet rescue agency. She joins our family with Ernie, our 8 year old beagle (also a rescue, years ago) and together they are navigating life’s lessons of sharing toys, beds, and human affection. Ernie is still trying to determine whether he is glad that Chloe is here, or whether he’d rather go back to being the only child…one of a few unintended impacts of Chloe’s arrival! The rest of us, too, are very much impacted by her energy and behaviors that we’re all still adjusting to! We are also realizing what a huge impact we’ve made in her life as well. Feature Article: To honor Chloe’s arrival, and as a reminder of how each of us has an impact on our team members (even unintended consequences), this month’s feature article is on that topic. Enjoy!
Feature Article: What Impact Are You Having on Your Team?With a few teams that I’ve been working with lately, as well as from my own recent personal experience of bringing “someone new” into our home “family team” I have been reminded many times lately that each of us has the ability to positively or negatively impact the rest of our team in any given moment. Whether we acknowledge it or not, we constantly impact those around us through our words and actions! Every time we do any of the following, we impact our team in some way:
I invite you to look at how you impact your teams at work and at home, and ask yourself:
Case study:Here is an example of an actual work team to illustrate how learning new tools to be intentional in your communications can help save your team time, energy and resources. This team was recently running into some communication challenges. They called us to help, because the entire team was being impacted by their communication dynamics, and they didn’t know what tools to use to start changing their dynamics. There was one team member who we’ll call “Joe” (not his real name), who sometimes would communicate in a way that he thought would be understood by the others but, in fact, Joe’s communication style was actually contributing to a couple of the other team members getting defensive – clearly the impact he intended was not being received by his team members. Another team member who we’ll call “Jane” would then try to help communicate Joe’s message, but this unfortunately just added fuel to the fire and the team would get even more defensive and often spiral into a toxic cycle of blaming each other. The key messages were getting lost. This happened repeatedly, with Joe, Jane and all of their team members becoming increasingly frustrated, until the team leader finally said “something is not working – we need to figure out how to do this differently if we are going to be a successful team.” By doing some development work with this team, we helped them create more safety and trust with each other (much needed tools), so that the team members could start opening up and talking about this particular dynamic, as well as how the entire team was impacted by Joe and Jane’s communication styles. Not only would some of team members historically get defensive (negative impact to the team), but they would also sometimes shut down completely using a toxic communication style called “stonewalling” (another negative impact to the team). In addition, some team members would change the subject and/or act as if the situation wasn’t happening because they were so uncomfortable with the dynamics (yet another negative impact on the team). After just a couple of tailored team development exercises, the team started opening up and exploring why the blame, defensiveness and stonewalling was occurring. About halfway through one exercise, the team members had an epiphany: they realized that each of them was impacting that communication dynamic, whether they were verbally part of those discussions or not! This was a big “aha” for this team, and one of the most significant tools they could use to start changing their dynamics, because up until that moment they had been blaming Joe and sometimes Jane for all of the problems. However, once they started talking about this in more depth, they realized that each and every one of them was contributing to the problem (even the ones who weren’t saying a word!) and, most importantly, that each of them could also start contributing to the solutions moving forward! Moving forward, this team agreed to be more aware of their own dynamics in the moment, and they learned new tools to help support each other to create more positive impacts. These new ways of working together will save them time, energy and money down the road – and they’re already increasing their productivity as a result! Accountability and Possibilities
The choice is yours!
Upcoming Workshops "The New Leadership Paradigm: Using Team Dynamics to Maximize Productivity" Health care financial management leaders are constantly challenged to achieve greater results with fewer resources. To achieve this, teams must function at full capacity! Leaders must strategically connect and align individual talent into a cohesive collective effort to tap the full potential of their teams. This workshop provides the insights needed to maximize your team’s dynamics and results -- and re-energize you to more effectively invigorate and lead your team!
During this interactive and experiential session, attendees will learn powerful new ways to enhance their leadership skills in order to more effectively lead their teams. They will also experience ways to help make their teams more cohesive in order to enable a more effective, productive, and harmonious work environment to achieve their team’s desired goals. AFTER THIS SESSION, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
~~~ "How To Take Back your Life and Become a More Effective Leader by Achieving Your Ultimate Work Life Balance" Many healthcare industry leaders are burned out from the industry pressures and the pressures of working for healthcare delivery organizations. Demanding health care delivery environments means keeping up with the daily challenges of keeping up with new IT systems, staying current on more stringent and specific payer requirements, remaining compliant with ever changing regulatory issues, nursing shortages and heavier patient loads. Staff are working longer hours to keep up after the close of the business day. These long work long hours often don’t leave industry leaders or their staff with much energy for a personal life, which may include family, friends and having fun. Because most organizations don’t offer healthcare leaders the opportunity to look at this issue of work-life balance, this break-out session will be ideal for conference attendees - you will come qaway from the conference with a new outlook on how to take ownership in creating more balance in your life and you will have created your own action plan and support structure to achieve greater balance, ultimately creating happier more energized state of mind when you return to your office.
~~~ “High Morale During Low Times: How to re-energize your team to new heights" - 2009 Teleclass Series Wednesday, June 24, 2009 12:00 noon - 1:00 pm Pacific / 3:00 pm - 4:00 pm Eastern During this teleclass, you will learn how to:
For complete details with all dates in this series and to register click HERE ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Team Building Events and Off-Site Meetings:Could your team use some help to be more cohesive? Some teams know that something isn't working, but they don't know exactly what that is or how to improve it. Some organizations hold team building seminars and employee retreats because they know it's time to enhance their teams' productivity and relationships. Do either of those statements describe you/your team? If so, and if you haven't already contacted us to discuss your needs, feel free to give us a call to see if we can help you. We offer a variety of programs to enhance the performance of your teams as well as improve the ways in which your teams interact, so we invite you to visit our Training and Seminar page. This is a great way to show appreciation for your team and enhance their productivity, thereby improving the bottom line for your organization! About Goals InSight, Inc.Goals InSight helps organizations achieve their desired results in the following ways - click on any of the links for details:
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