In this Newsletter:

Five Tips for Sharpening Your Team's Focus

News Briefs

Chuck Csizmar CCP, the founder and Principal of CMC Compensation Group, writes that low balling job candidates for wages is not a good idea for long term business growth. One reason is that resentment builds and eventually infects the entire company. Read more.

Scott Kaplan, a division CFO at Prudential Financial states that companies need to review their flex time policies and how they relate to employee advancement to attract top talent. One day a week spent at home accomplishing work can often produce higher levels of productivity than office hours with frequent interruptions. Read more.

How Hilton CEO Chris Nassetta keeps all 500,000 of his team members headed in the same direction is a tip-filled article. And it ushers in the topic of this newsletter, Five Tips For Sharpening Your Team’s Focus.

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Five Tips For Sharpening Your Team’s Focus

Have you ever lived through a week where Monday blurred quickly into Friday because you were so busy you were unable to stop and review what was most important on your “To Do” list?

This often happens when details from previous weeks pile into the present week and, before you know it, “busyness” gets confused with productivity. When this happens, productivity usually suffers and stress increases.

Business meeting Much of the problem stems from confusing the completion of multiple tasks with being productive. And though the information age has many benefits, we are bombarded with social networks, personal e-mails, instant messaging, spam and e-mails from colleagues who could easily pick up the phone or suggest grabbing a cup of coffee in order to simply talk with you. Often, this communication blitz leads to an inability to sort out the key information needed to achieve weekly goals.

As a result, many leaders begin to cut back on tasks that are the very thing they need to do most. Life and work become reactions rather than pro-actions with both work and home life accelerating into an out of balance state.

From a team perspective, it becomes more critical because as one member becomes unfocused, it makes it more difficult for the team to achieve shared goals. This soon escalates into the goal conflict which can become personal very quickly, resulting in lowered team morale. More responsibility is loaded onto to other team members as goals are achieved.

Time taken to reflect on tasks that need attention to reach current weekly goals brings out-of-control tasks back into perspective. From a team leadership perspective, here are four questions you will want to answer to ensure your team is achieving your objectives.

1. Identify how a task moves your team forward.

Evaluate the work being accomplished by your team and align it with your organization’s goals and strategies. Does the task being performed move your organization forward?
Does the task result in the achievement of your team’s goals? Do the meetings you are now holding result in implementing your goals?

2. Determine how much time you need to allocate for tasks.

From a project management perspective, identify how long it will take to complete a task and create a time line. This will help your team estimate the time they will need to accomplish major milestones.
Give your team time to asses this time line for feedback and make some realistic adjustments if necessary. The more buy-in you have for the timeline will equate to higher levels of team productivity. And, the team will adjust their meeting time to discuss what has been accomplished rather than analyzing what needs to be done.

3. Determine how tasks impact your team’s deliverables.

Is access to getting questions answered immediately bogging down tasks? If work progress is stuck until an important question is answered, pave the way for team members to get their questions answered immediately. Waiting for another team member to sort through their e-mail to respond is a time waster and causes team members to lose focus.
Identify which team members need to receive specific information. Many team members only need to be updated at the beginning of the work day while others need this information during the day to achieve their tasks. Isolate and identify your communication flow so that it builds productivity rather than detract.

4. Take time to reflect and adjust on a weekly basis.

Schedule a weekly 15 minute team huddle to address the most important tasks to be accomplished during the week. That way if a team member has completed their task yet another is struggling, you can add help where it is needed.
Schedule 15 minutes for daily updates. E-mail updates will bog your team down. Messages need to be sorted through, then the right e-mails selected for review, then responses written or the information stored. Only e-mail what absolutely needs to be stored for records should be sent. Otherwise, rely on verbal updates.

5. Look forward to what is coming up next and plan accordingly.

Look ahead in your timeline to make sure if resources are needed or information required, it is on hand when your team forges forward into this milestone. Do not wait until the last minute to pull your assets together. Preparation helps your team to pursue the next achievement without missing a step.

CEO Jason Levin of Dos Gringos gives us a great working example in TIGERS Among Us of a company practice that laser focuses his entire company on a weekly basis. Using some of the ideas presented here, Levin's team is consistently on target working toward the most profitable weekly goal. In this way, Dos Gringos achieves maximum flexibility to meet market demand with unparalleled company-wide support.

These efforts will help focus your team in accomplishing shared objectives. The result is increased productivity that saves your organization money that can be funneled back into the system to improve and increase resources. Now is the time to boost productivity. And, there is no better time than when your competition is simply trying to stay afloat.

Team Activity

Letter Add It
Source: The Empty Bag by Dick Hammond and Chris Cavert
Time: 10-15 minutes
Group size: 12-25
Resources: Chairs for people to sit on.
Purpose: Focusing attention on effective communication and norms.

Randomly set up the chairs and avoid making a circle. Having people sitting with their backs to one another is fine.

The objective is for the team to call out the alphabet (A, B, C, for English) in sequence without any two players calling the same letter at the same time. This is a random activity where no planning is allowed, Just go for it. The only other rule is that players cannot make eye contact with each other during the process. To get the game started call out the letter A nice and loud. At this point the challenge is on. Any time two or more players call out the same letter or players are making eye contact with each other call out the letter A again for the team to start over. See if the team can beat it’s best highest letter. Group energy will lower after 15 minutes so 10-12 minutes is optimum for this communication exercise.

Contact TIGERS Success Series today about scheduling a TIGERS facilitation or training at your organization. Schedule an appointment with Dianne Crampton.