Welcome to the first edition of Building Better Teams, our hub for content and resources to help your team work together better and like the people they work with. In this email, you’ll hopefully find many things that are beneficial to you and your team. Perhaps you will even find things that you will pass on to others you know because you think it will benefit them!
This email is designed to be the first step in an open dialogue. If you have questions about anything here or if there’s something you hope to see in the next edition, please don’t hesitate to respond directly to this email and let me know.
Thanks for reading, and enjoy!
Ryan Mayfield, Your Teamwork Coach
Client story: Communication issues in Chicago
I recently made several trips to Chicago. And while I love a good Chicago Dog and will even indulge the occasional Italian soup bread-bowl (AKA Chicago deep-dish pizza), the actual reason I was there was to go through a series of workshops called Transforming Team Communication. A company there had reached out to me a couple of months earlier and shared with me some of the issues they were facing. At their core, many of the issues were related to struggles on the team with communication and relationships. I really enjoyed getting to know the team and leading them through the powerful content of the TTC workshops.
I could really brag on them, honestly. They engaged with hard topics and put in the work to make their team better. Below is just a snapshot of what they were able to accomplish over the few workshops we did together. My hope is that these huge steps they took will continue to pay dividends for them over the long haul.
As you can see, they grew…big-time! Their communication score went up 18.2%, while their relationships score went up 18.3%. Overall, they saw a 15.6% increase in their team performance, just from the workshops!
You might be wondering, “How do you track those metrics?” Thanks for asking. That’s a perfect transition to the next topic: The Team Performance Assessment.
Assessing Your Team’s Performance
There is a lot of great leadership content out there. But one of the problems you find is that the vast majority of it is not relevant to the situation you are going through at this moment. That is one of the reasons I love the Team Performance Assessment. Through this anonymous survey, we measure 5 key metrics that add up to an overall Team Performance Score: Communication, Relationships, Alignment, Execution, and Capacity.
I use this assessment with all of my clients for a couple of reasons:
It allows me to tailor my content to their specific needs. If they have an Alignment issue, then that’s the type of content I bring.
It allows me to track progress over time. With my ongoing clients, I assign the assessment quarterly so that we can make sure what we are doing is actually working, and make adjustments as needed.
But here’s some really good news for you: I have a version of the assessment that I will give your team for free. Seriously, use the link below to set up a 30-minute call with me and I’ll get you all set up. No charge. No future obligation. If you want to know what is really going on inside your team, this is your chance.
Rapid Fire
Tired of reading?
Okay, here are some super fast recommendations, no commentary.
Knock out drama and gossip on your team with…
Tool of the Month: Go To The Source
One of my favorite tools to teach teams is the Go To The Source tool. You’ll probably figure it out quickly, but the main idea is to train people to “go to the source” of their issue, rather than going to other people about it (drama and gossip). The principle is pretty simple, but I find that the thing that determines whether or not it will actually work for your team is group buy-in. The team has to make a communal agreement to become a firewall and not allow each other to create drama and gossip. Rather, we encourage each other to go to the source first and only elevate issues when absolutely necessary. Feel free to reach out if you want more info on this tool.
Parting Thoughts:
I’d love to hear your feedback on this first edition of Building Better Teams. Too long? Too short? Which resource was your favorite? Anything you want further clarification on in the future? I’m all ears over here, so please don’t hesitate to share your thoughts. You can reply directly to this email or reach me at ryan@yourteamworkcoach.com
Thanks for reading!
Ryan Mayfield
Your Teamwork Coach
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Are you ready to take your teamwork and leadership to the next level? The best teams are using the Team Performance Cycle. It’s a regular cadence of assessments, training, and coaching to help your team reach peak performance. Find out more here.