Discovering Hidden Gems of Talent on Your Teams

As leaders, most of us probably think we know our teams and their capabilities pretty well.  We interview with the intent of matching skills and competencies to job descriptions, and we manage performance based on employees meeting the requirements of their jobs as described. 

And yet, 62% of employees feel that their skills are often underutilized, according to a survey by Lee Hecht Harrison, a career transition and talent development consulting firm.

Employees who do not have the opportunity to fully use their abilities tend to be bored and/or unhappy, less productive, and more likely to look for employment elsewhere. This, in turn, impacts the organization because disengaged employees are not achieving their full potential. Leaders often contribute to this by failing to recognize, explore and/or leverage strengths that employees have beyond what their current role requires.

So how do leaders discover and unlock the untapped potential on their teams?

In my work using the Lumina Spark assessment with teams, we’ve been able to demonstrate tremendous benefits when it comes to finding the “hidden gems” of talent on teams. Lumina Spark looks at three personas: 1) the Underlying, which is how a person behaves most naturally; 2) the Everyday, which is how a person shows up at work based on their role and what’s expected of them; and 3) the Overextended, which is how someone behaves under stress.

Recognizing the Underlying persona and identifying the qualities associated with that persona can reveal some undiscovered talent that may have been dormant because it wasn’t required in the current work environment. For example, a person may show a high degree of “imaginative” in their underlying persona but show much less of that quality in their Everyday persona because in their current role they work more with facts and data. Now, let’s say the team has stalled in coming up with a new approach to a particular process or task. Leveraging that team member’s untapped imaginative quality provides an opportunity to get the team unstuck.   Not only will it help the team, it will help the individual become more engaged and motivated by having the opportunity to use a strength that has been idle.

Take a look at your current team initiatives. What are your goals, challenges, and needs?  Are there hidden gems within your team that could raise your effectiveness in meeting these goals? In addressing some of your challenges? As an answer to your needs?

Would you recognize the strengths someone on your team might bring to the table if, in fact, those strengths seem opposite to their currently recognized strengths and job role definition?  Are you aware of how to find the power of passion for your individual team members?  If you can tap into this, you don’t ever need to worry about employee engagement.

You can learn the answers to these and more questions and begin to propel your team forward with Lumina Spark.  Contact me at info-us@luminalearning.com or 888.827.8855 to learn more.

Improving Team Performance Through Effective Dialogues

In today’s workplace teams come in a variety of flavors: department teams, project teams, virtual teams, global teams, cross-functional teams, permanent teams, temporary teams, task force teams, self-directed teams and combinations thereof.  Each of these has its own inherent challenges.  Common among them, however, is the need for effective dialogues. Here’s how to achieve them.

Establish communication standards.  Whether it’s about sharing ideas or resolving conflict, it’s essential to develop and implement guidelines that encourage and support open communication. That includes communication media. Email may be acceptable for information exchange, but issues should be discussed in person or, if that’s not practical, by phone. Guidelines should cover:

·         Using a common language (especially important for global teams)

·         Identifying trigger words and phrases to avoid

·         Emphasizing effective listening strategies

·         Promoting an understanding and appreciation of varying communication styles

·         Scheduling regular meetings

Identify and address barriers to open communication. Barriers to communication generally fall into three categories: physical, emotional and environmental.  Support effective dialogues by removing any physical distractions (these could range from a noisy conference room to a bad telephone connection). Work to understand and appreciate the diverse styles of your team and create opportunities for the team to develop a mutual understanding of each other. As they learn to consider each other’s style and frame of reference, they’ll learn to minimize the emotional reactions that get in the way of effective dialogues.

Create guidelines for managing conflict. A certain amount disagreement on a team is natural and necessary for innovation and optimal performance. The key is how you channel and manage it.  Give your team tools for dealing productively with conflict by working together to create conflict management guidelines. Emphasize respect and active listening. Include feedback best practices. Encourage a dialogue that begins with points of agreement and develops from there. Ensure that the focus is on the issue at hand rather than personalities. State the team goals and expectations clearly and concisely and remind the team of their mutual commitment to those goals.

Evaluate and improve. Like any relationship, team relationships need to be nurtured. Make time for a periodic “check in” through an open dialogue specifically around how team communication is going. Encourage those who are typically less vocal to weigh in. Identify areas – from team feedback and your observations – where improvements could be made. Then make them.

Lead on,

Rebecca

Recognizing the Strengths of Extraverts

Do a search on “introverts” or “introversion” and you will find a bevy of recent articles extolling the qualities and strengths of introverts. And rightly so.  Since western society tends to place more value on extraverted qualities than on introverted qualities, it’s high time that the latter got their due.   

But let’s not forget that high-performing teams need a mix of both introverted qualities AND extraverted qualities as well as complementary skills, talents and experience. 

To that end, here are some of the strengths of people who have a higher tendency toward extraversion.

Extraverts:

Readily adapt to new situations. Individuals with more extraverted tendencies are not put off by change, in fact, they embrace it. Their natural optimism helps them focus on the “silver lining” in the new situation or environment and, in their enthusiasm, they often bring others along with them.

Are quick thinkers. Those with more extraverted tendencies are about ACTION, and they don’t need much advance thinking to spring into action when a situation calls for it. If a meeting leader doesn’t show up, those with more extraverted tendencies are going to get things rolling. If a quick decision is needed and most, but not all, of the facts are in, the Extravert will feel comfortable making it without waiting for lengthy deliberation.

Face conflict head on. Rather than shy away from conflict, individuals who are higher in extraversion will deal with it directly. Again, their focus is on action, and the sooner the conflict is dealt with and resolved, the sooner they can move on toward the goal. To Extraverts, conflict is not necessarily a bad thing. It may, in fact, ultimately provide a better result than if opposing views had been left dormant.

Are excellent networkers. Individuals who lean more toward extraversion are at ease with new people, in groups and in crowds. They are energized by social interaction and will often approach newcomers at an event or on a team to welcome them and make them feel comfortable.  This social energy draws others to them, and enables them to easily develop broad networks of contacts and friends.

Motivate. Their visible enthusiasm and positive outlook also help Extraverts persuade other people, in roles as leaders, coaches and motivators.

On any given team or in any organization there are times when quick ACTION is called for and times when stepping back and THINKING before acting is more appropriate. Having individuals on your team that demonstrate a mix of these abilities is key to achieving success.

Lead on,

Rebecca

Improving Team Performance Through Improved Communication

We all know that effective communication improves relationships among individuals, teams and organizations. But we generally attribute that to a common interpretation of the content of the discussion through feedback, clarification and other communication best practices.

A 2012 study by MIT’s Human Dynamics Laboratory, however, found that the “key to high performance lay not in the content of a team’s discussions, but in the manner in which it [the team] was communicating.” They discovered that patterns of communication – how and when teams communicate – are the most important predictor of a team’s success.

So how do you improve the way your team communicates?

Every team comprises individuals with diverse personality traits that influence how they communicate with each other and as a group. When individuals become aware of their own communication style and learn how that style may impact or be interpreted by others – intra-team communication improves. Team members learn to use alternative ways to get their message across so that it will be better received by others, which ultimately improves team relationships and improves team performance.

Here’s an example of how improving the way team members communicated resulted in higher performance.

A team of deeply experienced professionals at a large airline company needed to improve their ability to influence other key departments and general managers across the airline. Although the team was often required to create virtual teams to work on specific business issues, they didn’t always have official control over those resources. Their ability to influence in a virtual world was essential.

During a 6-month program which included workshops, coaching sessions and an online component, the team worked to better understand themselves and others through use of the Lumina Spark portrait. The team learned techniques that enabled them to quickly create an open team environment where authentic and honest communication was the norm.  They each became aware of any blind spots they had that could undermine the team’s ability to function as a high performing team.  Through Lumina’s simple color framework, team members were able to quickly “speed read” others and adapt their communication accordingly, resulting in greater influence and higher performance. The Lumina “language of color” has now become a key resource for establishing virtual teams and an essential part of the organizational culture.

If you’d like to learn more about how Lumina can help your organization, please contact me for your local Lumina Learning Affiliate.  You can reach me at RebeccaBales@luminalearning.com.

Lead on,

Rebecca