Investing in Your Team is Critical to Success!

What does communication, or lack thereof, cost your company each year? How many people on your team, at the moment you are reading this book, are doing a task that in some way will have to be reworked or redone? Funny, we always seem to have time to do things "right" the second time around. Companies should certainly attempt to control business costs during tough economic times. It makes sense to adjust expenses with income - remember that time and effort are also expenses. Yet, most companies will do NOTHING (or commit no effort or expense) to improve communication on the team. We tend to simply assume (we know what that does) that communication is effective on our team. Or worse, we know there are communication problems but deliberately choose to do nothing and continue to expend the same resources. Think of it this way, was there a major issue in your organization last year that was not in some way rooted in poor communication or a lack of communication?

Also, as stress impacts our business, conflict tends to become more prevalent. Many individuals simply do not know how handle difficult people or conflicts. We tend be much better at talking "about" people rather than "to" people. Finally, accountability and trust are often optional when teams are dysfunctional. Remember, trust is like a very fragile egg that must be protected from damage at any cost. Unfortunately, most organizations provide neither the activities nor the leadership examples to strengthen the trust on the team.

Survival Clues
How expensive are teamwork issues? The following are five clues of a costly teamwork disease:

1) Communication exists in silos. People build coalitions that prevent honest and meaningful communication.
2) Conflict is common. A lack of goal alignment creates effort that works against each team member rather than with each team member.
3) Stress levels are very high. People walk around on edge with a hair-trigger temper. The higher you are in organization, the bigger your weapon.
4) Trust is absent. People do not work to build and maintain trust mainly because they do not know how.
5) Accountability exists only in the latest book to cross the manager’s desk. We talk a good talk but we simply do not know the difference between accountability and blame.

Sound familiar? If three or more of these are present with your team, you are spending a fortune and may not realize the amount of wasted work force that is performed constantly on your team.

Many business leaders only manage half the equation when economic times get challenging. Cutting costs only impacts part of the business model and success can remain extremely elusive. Most companies will make tough cuts with no attention or investment in the productivity of the team. Informed leaders understand that layoffs and cost cutting measures can have a significant negative impact on the remaining team.

World-class companies manage the "productivity" side of the equation with as much effort and zeal as they do the "cost cutting" side. People may even go through a period of mourning when colleagues are lost. Think of it this way, the remaining team is often in shock that they survived and will consume significant productive energy worrying about who is next. Also, teams consume great amounts of energy dealing with the guilt of survival. Some experts even describe it as a form of post-traumatic stress disorder for the survivors of company layoffs.

Additionally, many companies amplify the negative results by over-stressing a willing workforce with too much work and too many responsibilities to be successful. They are willing to endure being spread "too thin" because they are thankful still to be on the team. The result is a compounding of the negative results with even more costs to the organization. For example, cutting your safety or quality effort may yield a short-term savings, but consider the likely outcomes. A $200,000 workers compensation case requires $2,000,000 in sales at 10 percent profit to recover the costs. In tough times (as profit margins retreat), the same case will require $4,000,000 in sales at 5 percent profit.

So what is the answer? Tough times require additional accountability from leadership to maintain communication and build trust and morale with the team. Remember, morale equals productivity and poor morale reduces the productive output of the team. Consequently, improving the leadership accountability on your team strengthens your team for survival as well as recovery with the economy.

This article is taken from my latest book available at www.leadershipamongidiots.com. call (903) 295-7400.

Leadership Among Idiots
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