From the President

by Johnna Struck

Changing Places Moving and Storage

Capitol Connection

by State Representative Eileen Kowall

Improving Business Performance

by Ron DeLorme, Manage Max Performance Management Inc.

What banks look for and need for a business loan A presentation at Oakland University by Don Bolton and Rebecca McGovern, Clarkston State Bank.

Business Alert

Hands on Help that Works

by Stacy Himmelspach, InSight Advisory

Guest Columns

Candice Reyes at PRO HR Consulting (248) 563-0338 or creyes@prohrconsulting.com

www.prohrconsulting.com

Teams and the Workplace: Roles and Responsibilities

Last month, we explored how to distinguish between personal and team goals. This month, we will continue our discussion of teams in the workplace, by taking a look at roles and responsibilities. How many times have you worked somewhere and the roles and responsibilities were unclear? This could cause confusion, stress, and even conflict in the workplace. Many times managers feel they have adequately provided job responsibilities for individuals, but, in fact there is still some clarity that may be needed. It is important to note that roles and responsibilities and the job description could be different. A job description is often written at a higher level; whereas roles and responsibilities are more specific.

When there are teams in the workplace, there may need to be clarity around who is ultimately responsible for tasks.  If teams have not discussed their roles and responsibilities with one another, there may be some overlap on the job. This could cause extra work, redundancy, and frustration to the employees. For the company it may cost time and money.

There are different ways to clarify roles and responsibilities within teams. One way, is to have a team meeting where each team member brings their major responsibilities with them. Each person should share their responsibilities with the team. Other team members could ask questions of the person sharing, if needed. This will be repeated until each team member has shared their roles and responsibilities. If there is any confusion or overlap, the manager or facilitator for the team should help the group discuss this. Ultimately, the goal is to open up a forum for sharing information and giving team members an opportunity to discuss how they are contributing on the job.

Another way is to have the team meet and complete a RASIC chart. This stands for:

R=Responsible. A= Approve. S=Support. I=Inform. C=Consult

RASIC’s are often used to help with redundancy and to clarify what role each team member plays within the team. This process is best done with a facilitator to lead the discussion as all of the responsibilities for the team are listed on one sheet of paper and then a check is put across the appropriate column for RASIC. At the end of this type of exercise there should be a 1-2 page list of team responsibilities.

There are many options with helping teams understand their roles and responsibilities, and this is often the most important aspect of a team. Taking the time to understand these areas will often help with wasted time, stress, and conflict.  

If you would like further information on how to help your team understand their roles and responsibilities, contact Candice Reyes at PRO HR Consulting (248) 563-0338 or creyes@prohrconsulting.com

www.prohrconsulting.com

Candice Reyes at PRO HR Consulting (248) 563-0338 or creyes@prohrconsulting.com

www.prohrconsulting.com

Teams and the Workplace: Personal vs. Team Goals

Last month I discussed some tips on helping teams in the beginning. These tips will help your team members understand a little about one another. The next area you should start to think about is the team goals. Have you given the team goals they can work to achieve this year? When making team goals it is important that you make them SMART. Are the goals specific? Are they measurable? Are they agreed upon (by the team and manager)? Do you have results identified? Is there clear timing established for the goals? By putting all of these elements into place the teams will understand what is expected of them. Team goals help to increase motivation, measure performance, increase commitment to the team and help with planning for objectives.

One aspect of goals that arise in teams is whether teams are performing to accomplish team goals or personal goals at work.  If individuals work to achieve their personal goal instead of the team goal it could cause conflict in the workplace. Some reasons for personal vs. team goals are:

• There may be confusion about the roles and responsibilities of the team members
• There may be a lack of trust among the team members
• There may be a lack of communication among the team
• Individuals may have their own agendas (i.e. individuals may be looking for a promotion, raise, move to another department, etc…)

Communication with your teams is the key to success. Help your teams take the time to build relationships with one another which helps to build trust. Identify clear roles and responsibilities (which we will cover next month). Create rewards for the team as a whole instead of just individual rewards. Allow time for the learning curve within the team as they need to understand how to work one another.

This is the beginning of understanding the personal vs. team goals in the workplace.

If you would like further information on creating goals for your teams please contact Candice Reyes at PRO HR Consulting (248) 563-0338 or creyes@prohrconsulting.com.

www.prohrconsulting.com

Candice Reyes at PRO HR Consulting (248) 563-0338 or creyes@prohrconsulting.com

www.prohrconsulting.com

Teams and the Workplace

The beginning of the year is a good time to look at the teams within your workplace. Are they performing at their highest level? Are there communication issues? Do they understand their goals? Do they understand one another? Teams can be comprised of varying amounts of people. Each workplace is different however; there are team fundamentals that can be helpful with any team. There are six areas within teams I would like to share with you. They are:

• Team formation: What you can do to help the team in the beginning?
• Goals: Personal vs. Team
• Roles and responsibilities: Are there clear roles and responsibilities established for the team?
• Communication: How is information shared with team members?
• Conflict management: How do you handle conflict on your team?
• Diversity: Cultural and personality differences and their impact on the team

There are other areas that will help teams but those listed above are often the ones that are the most difficult. Let’s look at a couple of ideas to help at the very beginning with your teams.

People are put into teams for various reasons and it’s important to understand a little about one another to accomplish the tasks ahead of them. Each person is bringing their own uniqueness to the team. If the team members aren’t given the opportunity to learn about one another this could cause problems. It is important that introductions take place and if possible you could have the team members share something about themselves with one another. The simple exercise of learning something about your team member will help to create a level of comfort among the members of the team.

Another task to do with your teams in the beginning is to establish team norms. These are guidelines for the members to follow with one another. These norms should describe what is acceptable for the team. This may be around meetings, communication, respect, etc. Depending on your business you may have team norms already established when a new team member arrives at work. It would be helpful to review these norms with the new team members and seek their input. By establishing team norms this allows team members to have some ownership in how they behave with one another. 

There are various ways to do introduction exercises and establish team norms. What is listed above is the minimum that should be done for the employees to start to feel comfortable with the team environment.

It is the beginning of the year and a great time to start out right with your teams. Even if you have never done this in the past you can start a best practice for this year. Make 2010 a year of successful teams in your workplace.

If you would like further information on team beginnings and how to make them more successful, contact Candice Reyes at PRO HR Consulting (248) 563-0338 or creyes@prohrconsulting.com

www.prohrconsulting.com

Candice Reyes at PRO HR Consulting (248) 563-0338 or creyes@prohrconsulting.com

www.prohrconsulting.com

“Leadership Training and Development: Should you Eliminate it During Economic Downtimes?”

It’s time for that dreaded budget planning meeting again. We all know how that goes it is time to “pinch pennies”, “tighten the boot straps”, eliminate, eliminate, eliminate. We know that there are certain areas of the business that cannot be eliminated. After all, we cannot eliminate payroll, our employees need to get paid. We do not want to eliminate key business functions, so what is the answer? I know what you are all thinking and I am sure you have been there. Here it is; the conversation we have all heard, “we have to eliminate training after all it doesn’t affect our bottom line”. Well, that is a typical response, but I would challenge you to ask yourself if it really does have an impact on the bottom line?

I would ask you to think about the leaders in your organization (or in past organizations) while you read the remainder of this article. Consider the leader that doesn’t know how to motivate his employees? Are those employees working at their full potential? Are they producing at the very highest for the company? I would suggest they are not. Those employees that are not motivated often are there at work to get through their time. They may not be putting in extra discretionary effort which would often impact the bottom line.

What about the leader who doesn’t know how to effectively delegate to the employees? Does the manager do most of the work himself and then complain that the employees are not doing their job? What happens as a result is that most employees become frustrated along with the leader and the work performance suffers. This has an effect on the bottom line.

Now let’s think about those leaders who do not know how to measure performance? Are the employees working on the right things? Do they know what they are? This too can lead to poor numbers within the business. If employees are not given clear measureable objectives then how do they know exactly what they are supposed to do? Many leaders wait until the end of the year to tell them what they haven’t done right but failed to give them clear measureable (SMART: Specific, Measureable, Achievable, Results-based, Timing) indicators of how they should perform all year long. This too leads to waste on the job by having employees spending time wondering what they are supposed to do instead of knowing exactly what is expected of them and working to achieve it.

What about the leaders that do not understand there are different personality preferences on the team. Do they take the time to get to understand the people on their team? By learning about the individuals and how each has their personality, strengths and weaknesses they could leverage this understanding within the team. Leaders need to know their employees and by doing so they will find ways to have their team work together and develop an understanding of one another. This will ultimately help the business.

There are many other areas that we could ask ourselves when thinking about leaders in our current or past organizations. Now thinking about these leaders and if they had done some of the above well, how do you think it would have impacted your daily work? How much wasted time would have been eliminated? If you were motivated early to work for that leader would you have given them more during your work hours? If your leader understood you as a person what would that have done for you during your work day? Would you give more effort for the leader that took the time to understand you? What about the time you spent wondering what to do at work because you didn’t have clear objectives (SMART)?

All of the questions listed above and many more lead us to the following question: Can you afford to eliminate training and development for the leaders in your organization even during economic downtimes? I recently asked the question about leadership training during economic downtimes on the Linked In website. Below are a few of the responses I received:

”There is a great lack of leadership skills in the corporate world, and they need to invest in it in both good times and bad”

“In addition to building internal capacity and sending the message that leadership is important, it can be helpful for keeping up morale”

“Invest in your people, and they will invest in you. Not just your leaders but everyone in your company can benefit from training”

“The benefits of investing time and energy to educate your employees, is an investment in the future”

"People don't leave companies, they leave managers"

“Good management and leadership skills are essential success factors for any company that is interested in becoming an employer of choice”

“In today’s economic times, effective leadership, now more than ever, is critical. My belief is that anyone can lead in good times; it’s in the challenging times that good leaders truly stand out”

“Companies that continue to invest in leadership development will be well positioned for success and growth when the economy turns. They will be able to respond faster and capitalize on the changes in the market”

Reading the comments above helped to reassure me that leadership development and training is still important. I feel it impacts more than we can see on a daily basis at work. I would encourage you to take the time to look at the leaders in your company and ask yourself is this the time for me to eliminate training and development?

If you would like information pertaining to training with leaders in your organization, please contact Candice Reyes at creyes@prohrconsulting.com or (248) 563-0338.