Could team make or break you?

Till what point do you agree with me? Do you believe in team work or do you believe that one person can do it all?

I am one of those who believe in team work. Team work is dynamic, uniqueness in its structure and it integrates different ideas and perspectives which gives better result than work of individual.

Through the years I have worked in different teams, (co)work teams, council teams, and study teams. I could claim it, that result of team depends on individuals that are combined in the team together, but unfortunately most of the times is not so.

For me, the success of project or team work depends on main factor and that is (internal) communication. I have seen whole projects been destroyed and not realized because of bad communication or let’s put it in other words, lack of communication.

Lately I am engaged in student job (in restaurant) which enabled me (and I am grateful) to survive during this study year. One may think, that is just one meaningless student job, but it is not. There is much to learn (of course if you are willing to learn it) especially about team work among other. There is one thing clear though; you cannot work in restaurant if you are not team player. 

In my current working place I am daily facing several obstacles in communication.

First is multicultural environment, co-workers from different countries and cultural background gives different view or opinion on same thing. Within communication, one needs to be careful not to insult, disrespect team member, because this would lead to tension between individuals and in which most of cases would end with quarrel and the result would be bad spirit and performance in the whole team. For that reason the conversation or raising questions about taboo topic is not advisable.

The second obstacle in communication is different way of communication and ability to communicate.  Way of communication depends on personality type, cultural background and ability to understand and express yourself in foreign language. Most of the times for miscommunication in the team are limits of expressing yourself. That could be because of lack of knowledge of the working language, type of your personality (if you are introvert, you will not confront your team members or your supervisor) and also cultural background. For examples Belgians will not confront you directly with problem, while Spanish and Slavic people would.

While I was living in Spain and since I am living in Belgium I came across variety of nations and for that reasons also different way of communication. I notice that with Spanish (and that could be true for Italians, Portuguese) are really easy to make first contact, they have smaller personal space, for that reason they are constant in human contact. They are generous with compliments and they show fast what they do not agree with. Unfortunately they are people of large promises and sometimes their promise do not realize (in other words, they promise too much). What I adore with Spanish is they put and pour their heart in things they like to do. The work becomes their passion.

On the other hand I faced quite a shock when I came to Belgium. The people were totally different with those in Spain. While I had difficulties to adapt to their habits in beginning, they grew under my skin now. To tell you honestly I really love the way the “Belgians”, well actually Flemish are. When I am speaking in terms of Belgians, I mean actually Flemish. For all those you who do not know the detail of Belgium history, I need to say that is really complex. In short the Belgium is divided in three communities, Flanders (where they speak Dutch), Wallonia (where they speak French) and German part. I will write about Flemish, because I know that part of the Belgium the most.

First and most important to know is that the Flemish are extreamly diplomatic. They are so diplomatic, that word in dictionary could be changed from diplomatic to Flemish. They do not have habit to express their opinion out loud or give fake compliments. If they do not like or not agree with something they will pull out their diplomat card. The other important characteristic is their politeness. They always play fair game, but if you cheat the game, you are out. Belgians are also patient and they give you enough chances to learn. Last and not least Flemsish are (really) hard working. 

I am coming from Slavic origin. We have also “special” characteristic. First is that we are direct, if we need to say something we say it at spot. We could say in this aspect we are totally opposite than Belgians. We do not wrap things in diplomatic cellophane. Good thing is that we resolve things easily and problems are solved fast. Second thing is that we are hard working and we take work as mission, focus only on work.

 The third obstacle in communication is the noise in the working place that prevent receiving information. I observe that “newbie” have especially hard time. First they are not aware about jargon on working place, so they do not know to what words need to be alert; second they do not know how to communicate with other team mates; third they yet develop how to behave in crucial moments (which is normally rush hour) (that they only gain with more experiences).

Noise and lack of concentration can prevent us to receive crucial information, which could lead to miscommunication and problems in the team.

Beside the communication problems, they are some other disadvantages of team work. One is that distance to everything that comes from outside of the team (newbie, management), until is accepted by senior/leader of the team.

Second disadvantage are so called freeloaders. They are people who profit from the team. They put less hard energy and hard work in to project or mission, than other team members. Tracking freeloaders is especially hard in large teams. Freeloaders are fast recognizable in small teams. If they are many freeloaders in one small team the project or team work is condemn to failure. In case they are one or two individual freeloader in team of eight or six, the situation can be fixed. The freeloader can be either confronted with leader of the team. Confrontation must be started with leader and not individual member, because otherwise the fractions between team members will erupt. In case that the confrontation with the leader doesn’t work, next step is the confrontation with the whole team. Once freeloader is exposed s/he could change the game and put more effort (but in reality of the cases s/he doesn’t).

The freeloaders, lack of communication and crash of personality are the reasons the team could break. To prevent breaking of the team the communication and fact reactions are crucial. The leader of the team must be alert enough to detect issues that could be rise to problems.

Not only on leader of the team is responsible for team success, every team member matter.  For that reason each team member needs to be alert to rising issues, communication in the team and encourage mutual work.

So if I summarize in short the beginning question: Yes, the team could break or make you, but you too could break or make the team.

Each individual is also responsible for their action. Is crucial that every team member ask themselves “how do I affect the team and how can I improve the team”? Only than the true slogan from the musketeers can be realized:  "One for all, all for one" (in original un pour tous, tous pour un).

Where persistence stops and stubbornness begins?

It was hot and steamy day, quite unusual circumstances for Belgium. I was looking for every excuse not to go jogging. (Don’t get me wrong, I love jogging, but sometimes is hard to get moving). It was already four in the afternoon I and I haven’t gone jogging jet. I was cleaning apartment and searching every excuse not to go: “oh, is too warm, oh I need to clean the place, etc.”

Finally around five I have put my jogging outfit on and left the apartment. My goal was clear 1.30h, and 7 times uphill. When I started I felt like sweaty inflated balloon with heavy anchor on my back. Not promising start I would say.

Hill appeared in my horizon and it was time to “dig in”. My first uphill was so-called average. While I was on top of the hill I got shivers: “I am able to run, while others cannot, due to their sickness or other restrains”. I decided I am not going to run for me, but for them. That boosted my motivation; now at sudden seemed that I am doing something worth it, something for them. My legs didn’t feel tired anymore and I had goal. My seventh lap was easy and went home energized.

One thing came to my mind while I was jogging. Where is the line between persistence and stubbornness?

As usual I run to my resort of definitions in dictionaries. There I found explanation that, Persistence is defined as continues steadfastly or firmly in some state, purpose, course of action, or the like, especially in spite of opposition, remonstrance, etc. and while… stubbornness is unreasonably, often perversely unyielding; bullheaded, but characterized by perseverance; persistence.

So for days I have tried to find explanation between them. How do you define when you are been persistent and when you are just stubborn bull. And why is stubbornness defined as negative.

I was thinking about mad scientists like Tesla who failed several times to discover one light bulb. Or other passionate people, declared by the ordinary people that there crazy people. (Einstein, Jobs, Curie, and many many more)

After intense search for days, I couldn’t find the fine line where the persistence ends and stubbornness begins. For me both of them had positive notation.

My point of view is simple, that you need to be persistent and constant your actions to get results (either is work, jogging, or whatever you are fighting for) and sometimes you need to be a bit stubborn.

At that moment I thought to myself: What does never get any result of progress?

That is being not persistence, fleeting, temporary….

And there lied my answer. The only limit between persistence and stubbornness is giving up. 

Management …is hope

Is hard to explain why exactly I connect management with hope. Whole thinking process what management means to me, was triggered by interview question. The other day I was asked on job interview why did I choose master or management. To tell honestly I was not really prepared for that question. How do I tell them in short that management is my passion and my drive... when the word management is so wide and whole story lies behind it?

Well, if we go to origin of the word management. Is to manage and according to dictionary is “To direct or control the use of; handle or to succeed in accomplishing or achieving, especially with difficulty; contrive or arrange”. Technically is to have things under control. It is still little connection to hope.

In sociology management means intend to influence people and their behaviour and also coordinate them. Then you have of course there different type of managements such as in general there are six of them

-          Human resource management, Operations management or production management, Strategic management, Marketing management, Financial management, Information technology management...

This only causes more confusion, when you want to explain the word management.

Mainly management is executed though functions of planning, organizing, staffing, leading/directing, controlling/monitoring and motivation.

But if you ask the common crowds, they will associate word manager negative and mostly the instant connection will be made to power, money and greed. This is totally opposite from my point of view. Being in powered is nice and is priceless to lead your team towards victory, but more embarrassing if you lead the team to failure. 

So, how do I associate management with hope? Well listen to this story:

Once upon times in faraway land lived a girl that really loved entrepreneurship and management processes. One day she had an opportunity to happily enrol in University for master of management. Of course at the time she was full of hopes and expectations.

“Now I will finally have a chance to “change the world”, she said.

Little did she know, that is not going to be easy. She thought that passion was enough. She was expecting knowledge that she was searching for years, instead she received handful of calculations and challenges.

First she started to doubt herself. Maybe she is not cut for it. Maybe she should stick to what she does best (languages). She had incredible ability to learn the languages excellent and fast.

“Maybe management is not what I should focus in? Maybe I should refocus in languages?” she doubt herself.

Only the languages did not have the same charm for her. She learned the languages on the way it mean of communicate with people and not because she find passion in.

But the girl was no quitter and stayed determined that she is going to finish what she started. She grabs bull by the horns and adapts the way of learning. She realized that learning the languages she finds easier because she find connections and that how she remembers. Most off all she needs to hear and see it. Once she discovered that fact was no limits (only the time). She passed the exams and lived happily after.

I could associate this story with mine....

For that reasons I connect management with hope. Good management gives you tools and skills to improve situation. The chance to improve situation gives me hope. Hope that you make a difference, that you improve situation.  

Are you a SINNER in the terms of management? No.2

I’m still excited about the book of Klaus Schuster. This is one book that absolutely everybody has to have it. And don’t get me wrong, I’m not advertising it. Not at all, but I find very useful, because I can apply it to everyday life, and I’m will all good intentions recommending the book to you. It’s perfect combination of knowledge that I was long searching for. Now that I read it I feel like I got the cake that I was long craving for. 

Well I don’t like to talk around the bushes; I like to go straight to the point. This way I can save some time and you gain the valuable information (and you don’t lose interest).

In this article I will summarize following subjects: 

1.       Act faster that you can think (are you a Road runner?)  

2.       For God's name, don’t sign anything

1. Act faster that you can think. Are you a Road runner?

Are you an action (wo)man? Are you like me? Always on the run, always changing – saving the “world”, reading about new ways?

I love the adrenalin of action. And for all of you action “lovers” you know what kind of adrenalin I’m writing about. If you would like to know if you are action type than ask yourself following questions:

·Do you call or send messages to your co-workers in the heartbeat of the new ideas?
· Do you call from your vacation to be updated?
· Did you manage not to look your mobile for an hour
· Did you just “run over” your co-worker?
· Do people still follow you or did you leave them far behind (alias in the dessert)?

**I know the mobile question got you. It got me too.

 

Well, what is wrong being the person of action you would say?

Action moves the world and in management you need the people of action. Yes that’s true, but sometimes we can do with reckless act more damage that chorister. 

Let me demonstrate a story that surely you can relate: “Boss Kevin was on the conference of management, he was really excited of brand new ideas that he heard during this conference. All excited he sends message to his co-worker: “We are going to renovate selling process in our company. We are going to focus on the main business and all the cost will disappear and we will grow profit. Please prepare plan and start planning this process.”

His co-worker was totally confused about boss message. The company was of one of leading on the market and they just implemented new strategy last year and they were monitoring the success and figures were impressive, so he had no idea why the boss wants to implement new strategy already. 

He found himself in torn. He knew it was a bad idea to recklessly implement new strategy; the new strategy would only confuse the workers. But he couldn’t just ignore the message.  So, he spends 2 nights working and preparing new strategy. Around the same time Kevin comes back from the conference. They had a meeting and before co-worker could even start with presentations, Kevin stops him and says: “Well the idea of implementing new strategy was one of the hundreds that appeared to me on this conference. We are doing pretty good with existing strategy and why to change it? Plus, I got ideas for at least 10 years. And how were you doing during my absence?”

 

Co-worker was “pissed”, he felt like somebody pour cold water on his head. He lost at least 2 days of work and not to mention sleep. He was disappointed and mislead because his boss didn’t had button “pause and think”.

 

People of the actions are placed in position of attack. They maybe shooting goals in front, but they are losing the game behind. 

Why are “action (wo)man” so afraid to stop?

 They are normally 2 reasons. 

First is fear and second is success. They are afraid of “being stuck” somewhere. They feel the need to change, move, promote for all cost and with all power. They think only with action can the change something.  Due to overflow of information they are causing they “run themselves over”.  That means people don’t take their ideas seriously, because they know they will forget their brand new ideas, before they even step out the office. 

True that world belongs to brave and not the smartest: “Only who dare will conquest the world!”

 The successful people are those who begin to act while others are still thinking about it. But we all found ourselves to fume over the companies who producing the product that they don’t work. On the other hand if you are over analyzing you are losing time and can be that others will overtake you. 

For success you need to have balance: 

-          That you say “let me think about it”

-          Ask yourself: “do I want to go in action, NOW?” Do I know what will follow with this act?

-          Who can I consult about my ideas? 

This I can do right now, but is it necessary?

Fast can be too fast sometimes. And therefore less is more.

2. For God sake name, don’t sign anything

While in previous paragraph I was explaining that fast can be too fast other extreme can cause the same damage. Over analyzing decision and postponing can be equally harmful as being “fast and furious”. 

Long time ago I read one phrase that I can still remember: “if you are postponing decision is like you decided not to act on it”.

Normally in management decisions are connected with risk. That means if you decide on something it has domino effect, especially when things go bad.  Managers are afraid of taking the decision (especially with big decisions) so they over analyze it. It’s no different in everyday life.

With what decision do you normally start the day? With the easiest or the difficult one? See I got you there. 

Of course for decision making you need to analyze, this gives you security and self-assurance.

Analyze is good. But feedback is better.

Normally managers don’t like to ask for advice, because they are too afraid to receive bad feedback or they think they are self-sufficient.

With decision you need to consult who know you the best, normally is your partner, friend. But be careful whose judgment can you trust.

Author says it the best: “For making good decision you need to have sparring partner.”

He also makes good example what is sparring partner and surely you can relate.  

There was one judge and he was married to highly intelligent woman. She was judge too. He appreciate her ability to judge and honestly. With hard decisions he always consulted with her. This is important that you have trustworthy person who says to you: “Honey, now you are overanalyzing.”  or “Could you stop thinking about it, you have decision on your palm of your hands”.  This always helps with decision making.

 But in the end you need to take decision on your own.  You can analyze with the team, but be careful not to be dragged to “never ending meetings”.  

Author perfectly describes this torture. He was leader of one highly important project. They hired respected scientists to make better decision. They were experts on their field, but they couldn’t make any decision. They could have meeting after meeting and but they couldn’t make decision if the best decision is A,B, C or scenario D. So after a while author took the lead and decide on possibility C and others didn’t argument.

Why? Because they were glad that somebody dare to take the decision.

Decision making is lonely planet. Only good manager can handle it.

And it’s your decision in the end. You need to feel relieved that you made decision. Postponing won’t help. You can also overanalyze it till end of the days, but when you have answers to these questions you need to stop: 

-          Did I collect all information to make decision? If not what is missing?

-          Do endanger myself that I made decision based on the instinct?

-           From the 90% of information, do I try to collect additional 10% that won’t make significant change?

-          Do I have risk report? How big is the possibility that risk will appear?

-          How does worst case scenario look like? Do I have spear plan?

-          Did I calculate everything?

-          What is the alternative decision? 

After answering these questions you need to reach decision. Although sometimes we are facing dilemma. That numbers and all reports are saying “YES”, but our instinct is saying “NO”.

 

We need to listen to our instinct although we can face contradiction of our co-workers. But it’s better to be faithful to our instinct, than be trembling half year of fear of failure. 

With reasonable explanation you can explain to your co-workers to run the numbers again and why you don’t don’t trust the decision. You shouldn’t say “YES” to everything.

 

With decision that you take, you take responsibility and you need to stand behind it. This is not easy and takes courage. 

But the world belongs to brave people - Brave heart.

** I had more for this article, but in the end it was too long so I needed to edit it and I decided it will be another article about Managers SINS no.3. Hope you are exited.

11. Manager SINS than needs to be avoid (how leaders lead themselves, partner and career crazy)

Lately I was browsing for good books of management on the internet. Of all pile of management books is sometimes hard to come across on good one. Normally books about management are really boring, full of statistic and not practical enough (or not at all). 

Well all good that the use different models and strategies, but during the reading I repeatedly ask myself “how do I implement that in practice”? How do I find that useful?

This book is different. I was written by Klaus Shuster original version is in German (11 Managementsünden, die Sie vermeiden sollten Wie Führungskräfte sich um Karriere, Verstand, Ehepartner und Spaß bringen.). 

Unfortunately his book is not in English yet, so I decide to write summary in English. it’s just necessary that more people know how to handle leading. 

His book is divided in different chapters with amusing titles like: 

•  Don’t tell anybody, 
• Do it yourself
• Work shouldn’t be pleasure,
• Talk Chinese,

These are just a few of them. The most think that admire the most is that I can actually laugh and learn at the same time. He mentioned when he wanted to publish the book the publisher look at him seriously and said:” You can’t write a manager book based on your cases! That’s not professional!” But I am very grateful that he believed in his book and himself and published the book.

I will summarize just a few his stories that I find interesting and I will publish it more on my blog (of course if you find it interesting too, please let me know). 

1.       Talk Chinese: Of course he doesn’t actually talk about that you need to learn Chinese, but he talks that some managers just talk Chinese with employees. So do you understand your boss? Is he/she alien? Does he/she talk Chinese?

 No? So why can’t we understand them?

Because managers think that you understand them because you speak the same language. With misunderstanding we don’t have it only with our boss; we have it with our spouse, coworkers. 

So why do we talk Chinese? 

Because, we don’t check our expectations towards our listener.

Managers normally give instructions without checking with employee if he understands it. Although he sees perfectly clear, that’s his vision and expectations, so he needs to translate it to listener.

Who wants to be understood, he/she checks if expectations are on the same level.

But above all it needs to know what you want. 

2.      Do it yourself: I can relate to this subject too many times and sometimes we just don’t realize how much damage we actually do with it. Writer wrote clear case how “do it yourself” can do harm. 

He was solving the problem of one director, than just couldn’t see what is wrong with the company. He was working 60h a week sometimes more, but the company just couldn’t reach the wanted result. They set the meeting and during the meeting they were interrupted several times. First accountant barge in and said that she has some problems with numbers. Than the director was looking the numbers for some minutes and try to solve the problem. Later his assistant came in that his appointment is 15 min too early and he doesn’t know what to do. At the end of the meeting boss was frustrated and tired.

 He looked desperately to the writer and said: “ I have no idea, where is the problem!?”, but the writer instantly recognize “do it yourself” behavior. By the time he explain director, that his role is lead his company and not to lose time with small operative tasks. He needs to trust his workers that they will be capable to do the job they were hired for.

Lesson of this is that you need to prioritize your tasks.

Further we need to understand what are our missions and our purpose.

3.    Don’t tell anybody: this goes to implementing strategy of the company. The writer was dealing with company that fails to implement their strategy. They thought they had great strategy how to develop the company, but the results were just not there. They ask him why? Is it wrong strategy? What happened? Why workers don’t understand the meaning?

Well I have worked for several years now, I to tell you honestly sometimes I was little lost. I had no clue what is mission our company, what kind of strategy do we have I just knew what was my job.

This happened because lack of (effective) communication (again pointing to “talk in Chinese” point”).

This was also the case of this company. They close themselves in the office and developed new strategy. Sadly they failed to mention or to ask the workers and invite them to participate and be part of strategy. For same reason strategy in that company failed.

Not everybody wants to make the rules and have responsibly, but everybody wants to be heard and meaningful.

4.    Work shouldn’t be pleasure: probably you have seen many times that your boss (or yourself) is all serious an in horribly in bad moon. Work shouldn’t be pleasure. Author gives good example how managers are in bad mood and with this also affecting their employees. Seeking his (authors) advice came managers who tought that with higher step and promotion will came joy. Only they have discovered that with every step are working more and more misery.

Author reveals that: “that you need to have courage for your hobbies or the way of work; this is what brings joy in work!”

He gives several stories, how not listening to yourself and can fade your joy away. I like his example one businessman of security system. His business was based on quality system and before September 2001, he was living life with hardly any competition.  After 2001 it came to market several companies with lower prices and customers went to them. Businessman didn’t want to lower the prices, because he was firm that he is offering best security and safety. He said: “if we can afford our equipment, than all the thieves will easily break in our system«. The prices and the quality stay the same (although the customers, family and partners beg him to lower the price). After a while the costumers realize that they have system that you can easily brake in, so they slowly came back and pay overpriced price for their mistake.

The businessman kept his strategy.

 He was true to himself and didn’t bow.

William Shakespeare resumes it the best: “This above all: to thine own self to be true.”

Today I will conclude with this fine thought and till next time when I will write something new of his book. I certainly hope that he will publish in English that you will have glance of his humor his true talent of storytelling.  

P.s. If you have any suggestion on the subjects don’t hesitate to contact me. Of course I am also anticipating your feedback.