Team collaboration

13 Ways to Work Effectively Across Teams

02 Jul, 2024
Collaboration

While it makes introverts and everyone who hated group projects in school cringe at the thought, collaboration in the workplace is essential. Still, working effectively across teams can sometimes be a challenge. Different teams may have varying priorities, communication styles, and work methods, all of which can impact how smoothly they work together. However, with the right strategies in place, teams can overcome these obstacles and work together harmoniously towards a common goal. In this article, we will explore the importance of working effectively across teams and share our top 13 tips for achieving success in cross-team collaboration. Why Cross-Team Collaboration is Important No team operates in isolation. In fact, many businesses are supported by distributed teams spread across different states or even around the world. According to a study conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity and Rob Cross, the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Business at Babson College, high-performance organizations are up to 5.5x more likely than lower-performers to incentivize individual, team, and leader effectiveness in collaboration. The study of more than 1,100 companies—two-thirds of which include collaboration as a stated organizational value—found that the difference between productive and unproductive collaboration can be summed up in one word: purpose. It’s the purposeful pursuit of collaboration that is the primary reason high-performance organizations, such as Patagonia, one of four companies highlighted in the study, can leverage collaboration to achieve desired business outcomes. Effective collaboration results from an effective company culture that is supported by management and embraces the entire organization. Simply think about the best team of which you’ve ever been a part. What made that team work? Was it the project? The people? The interpersonal dynamics? Did you enjoy being part of it? Did it bring out the best in you? Now think about the worst team you’ve ever been on. What made those experiences different? Collaborative teams equal enhanced productivity and results. When teams work, they work in the best of ways. But teamwork takes effort, and the reality is that teams can fall apart, break down and experience disruption for myriad reasons. In this post, we’ve combined the best ways to work within and across teams and put them all in one place so let's get to it. Be Strategic About Meetings to Improve Collaboration at WorkPrepare formal meeting agendas & keep communication styles in mind. If you’re leading a meeting or part of the team that called the meeting, keep in mind that some attendees might have a more reflective communication style, so if you want your meeting to be valuable and productive, proactively reach out to those team members ahead of the meeting to share specific topics in which you'd like them to contribute. Defining a clear agenda for each meeting and considering the role of each person who is attending will help everyone involved understand how they can participate and what individual expectations entail. Not sure how to determine communication style? No worries, there are tools for that.Observe and Model Best Practices for Building an Environment to Support Collaboration 2. Collaborate on the issue of collaboration. If the company culture dictates strong teams, take a look at the organization and see who else is doing it well. Talk to other managers about team dynamics, how they get people to collaborate and the behaviors they encourage. And make sure that you return the favor, sharing your own best practices and lessons learned. Don’t forget to look outside your company as well, talking with colleagues and mentors. You’d be surprised at how similar situations seem to come up across industries. 3. Create accountability around team performance, not just individual performance. This helps draw out the lone ranger team member and forces the team to work collaboratively toward common goals. If one person isn’t participating as a team member, the others won’t carry that person and a shift will start to take place. If there is one particular cynic, take that person aside and discover why there is conflict, too much independent work, or general derailing of teamwork. Depending on personality, you can either be very direct here or ask a series of “why” questions to get to the bottom of the situation. 4. Prioritize the employee experience. Seeing things from employees’ perspectives can help you learn a lot about work culture and some of the communication challenges that your company may be facing. Dedicating some time to explore employee experience and finding ways to improve both digital and physical work environments can go a long way towards making employees feel more satisfied and comfortable at work. 5. Create tech-driven collaboration spaces. Internet speeds and improvements in technology have made audio and video conferencing remarkably convenient these days. To foster more meaningful communication among employees, consider adding personalized communication insights to your meeting tools so everyone knows how best to communicate with one another. Making meetings more valuable for everyone involved goes a long way toward developing a strong collaborative work culture. 6. Promote learning and development.** **Many employees desire career advancement for the chance to apply their skills to new projects and learning opportunities, all of which contributes to effective and collaborative relationship building within the company. In fact, companies that encourage mindful risk-taking and learning from mistakes often realize greater innovation and workplace effectiveness. According to the July 2021 Monster Job Index:80% of professionals don’t think their current employer provides growth opportunities. 54% of employees fear they don’t have the skills they need to thrive in a workforce that emphasizes collaboration using technology. 49% of employees expect their employer to support career growth.How Leaders Can Improve Collaboration at Work 7. Set clear goals. Employees are more likely to collaborate with each other when they clearly understand their individual roles and the team goals that everyone is working toward. Well-defined goals give the entire team a sense of shared purpose and can help foster innovation and problem-solving. One clear sign of an effective team is one that can self-assess and identify issues that lead to meaningful improvements over time. 8. Provide team incentives. “The lack of incentives and rewards is the most common and powerful barrier to effective collaboration. Yet, most talent management systems are designed to reward individual achievement, not team accomplishments,” says Kevin Martin, Chief Research Officer, i4cp. “Finding ways to recognize and reward individuals, leaders, and teams who engage in productive collaborative behaviors can pay off in a big way.” 9. Communicate expectations for collaboration. It’s easy to be a cheerleader for collaboration, but without clear direction, it can be challenging for employees to understand what to do. From the start, set your expectation for collaboration as a minimum standard. Even better, it should be part of your onboarding process so that potential recruits know you prioritize teamwork. Employees' job descriptions should include details about their own individual roles, as well as roles they're expected to carry out collaboratively. By differentiating these, you're setting clear boundaries between what they should be taking personal responsibility for, and what they need to work on collectively. 10. Celebrate wins often. Especially when dealing with long-term or complex projects, it’s not always easy for employees to appreciate the achievements they are making along the way. Teams can benefit from taking time to celebrate wins and milestones together in a formal or informal setting. These celebrations can be small, as any chance to recognize and appreciate effective team collaboration is valuable. Focus on Communication to Improve Collaboration at Work 11. Encourage active listening. Part of the challenge in facilitating effective workplace communication is balancing discussions among different team members. This can be particularly difficult when dealing with different cultures, personalities, and challenging topics. Helping employees, and especially managers, develop their active listening skills can help everyone feel heard and more involved. 12. Don’t neglect asynchronous communication. Asynchronous communication involves information that is shared at different times. One example would be a post made on a company message board that others can respond to at any time. Many collaboration platforms include features that enable this form of communication. Asynchronous communication can be particularly effective for remote teams and those working across multiple time zones. 13. Adopt hybrid communication models. One of the best ways to foster communication and enhance collaboration is to give employees a number of tools to communicate with each other. Utilizing several tools such as email, chat or messaging, video, and a company intranet will allow employees to communicate information in a way that is effective for them. And if you have plug-in tools that provide specific tips or suggestions for collaborating with particular teammates, even better! This makes it easier for everyone to share insights at any time and contribute to an individual, team, or corporate discussion. In the end, whether your working within or across teams, following these tips will help you implement the right processes and technologies to enhance collaboration and incentivize effective collaboration among individuals, teams, and leaders. By establishing clear communication channels, fostering a culture of trust and mutual respect, and defining clear roles and responsibilities, organizations can leverage the unique strengths of each team, enhance collaboration, and achieve better results.

20 Expert Tips to Improve Collaboration at Work

30 May, 2023
Collaboration

The modern workforce has adapted to several changes that have impacted the way we perform work. Obviously the COVID-19 pandemic is front and center, which resulted in many companies moving to completely remote or hybrid workplaces. These changes have also presented an excellent opportunity to find ways to improve collaboration at work. Many businesses are supported by distributed teams spread across different states or even around the world. According to a study conducted by the Institute for Corporate Productivity and Rob Cross, the Edward A. Madden Professor of Global Business at Babson College, high-performance organizations are up to 5.5x more likely than lower-performers to incentivize individual, team, and leader effectiveness in collaboration. The study of more than 1,100 companies—two-thirds of which include collaboration as a stated organizational value—found that the difference between productive and unproductive collaboration can be summed up in one word: purpose. It’s the purposeful pursuit of collaboration that is the primary reason high-performance organizations, such as Patagonia, one of four companies highlighted in the study, can leverage collaboration to achieve desired business outcomes. Effective collaboration results from an effective company culture that is supported by management and embraces the entire organization. Simply think about the best team of which you’ve ever been a part. What made that team work? Was it the project? The people? The interpersonal dynamics? Did you enjoy being part of it? Did it bring out the best in you? Now think about the worst team you’ve ever been on. What made those experiences different? Collaborative teams equal enhanced productivity and results. When teams work, they work in the best of ways. But teamwork takes effort, and the reality is that teams can fall apart, break down and experience disruption for myriad reasons. In this post, we’ve combed article after article in order to compile 20 of the most common and most effective tips to help you improve collaboration at work. Be Strategic About Meetings to Improve Collaboration at WorkPrepare formal meeting agendas & keep communication styles in mind. If you’re leading a meeting or part of the team that called the meeting, keep in mind that some attendees might have a more reflective communication style, so if you want your meeting to be valuable and productive, proactively reach out to those team members ahead of the meeting to share specific topics in which you'd like them to contribute. Defining a clear agenda for each meeting and considering the role of each person who is attending will help everyone involved understand how they can participate and what individual expectations entail. Not sure how to determine communication style? No worries, there are tools for that. Always use ice-breaker questions. Never just jump into meeting business. It comes across as too cold and transactional, which makes it more difficult to develop report, connection, and trust as a meeting team. Instead of starting with the formal agenda topics, try these ice-breaker options from Atlassian, designed to build authentic connection. One of the best ways to improve collaboration and work and instill a stronger sense of teamwork is to give employees plenty of opportunities to learn more about each other. Don’t forget about the kickoff meeting. Whenever a new team is established to work on a shared goal, it’s a good idea to hold a formal kick-off event. This not only gives team members a chance to ask questions and learn about the project, but also helps create a shared sense of ownership. While these meetings don’t need to be complicated or even lengthy, depending on the complexity of the project, it’s always a good idea to solicit feedback about the agenda from team members. At minimum, reviewing the scope of the project, the shared objective, and key roles and needs of the project should be enough.Observe and Model Best Practices for Building an Environment to Support CollaborationCollaborate on the issue of collaboration. If the company culture dictates strong teams, take a look at the organization and see who else is doing it well. Talk to other managers about team dynamics, how they get people to collaborate and the behaviors they encourage. And make sure that you return the favor, sharing your own best practices and lessons learned. Don’t forget to look outside your company as well, talking with colleagues and mentors. You’d be surprised at how similar situations seem to come up across industries. Create accountability around team performance, not just individual performance. This helps draw out the lone ranger team member and forces the team to work collaboratively toward common goals. If one person isn’t participating as a team member, the others won’t carry that person and a shift will start to take place. If there is one particular cynic, take that person aside and discover why there is conflict, too much independent work, or general derailing of teamwork. Depending on personality, you can either be very direct here or ask a series of “why” questions to get to the bottom of the situation. Prioritize the employee experience. Seeing things from employees’ perspectives can help you learn a lot about work culture and some of the communication challenges that your company may be facing. Dedicating some time to explore employee experience and finding ways to improve both digital and physical work environments can go a long way towards making employees feel more satisfied and comfortable at work. Get digital. Especially for remote or hybrid teams, it can be difficult for employees to follow and understand what their coworkers are doing. This makes it difficult for workers to forge bonds and improve the way they communicate with each other. Using a shared digital platform that fosters teamwork can help improve visibility, create connection, foster belonging, and support more effective communication. Create tech-driven collaboration spaces. Internet speeds and improvements in technology have made audio and video conferencing remarkably convenient these days. To foster more meaningful communication among employees, consider adding personalized communication insights to your meeting tools so everyone knows how best to communicate with one another. Making meetings more valuable for everyone involved goes a long way toward developing a strong collaborative work culture. Promote learning and development. Many employees desire career advancement for the chance to apply their skills to new projects and learning opportunities, all of which contributes to effective and collaborative relationship building within the company. In fact, companies that encourage mindful risk-taking and learning from mistakes often realize greater innovation and workplace effectiveness. According to the July 2021 Monster Job Index:80% of professionals don’t think their current employer provides growth opportunities. 54% of employees fear they don’t have the skills they need to thrive in a workforce that emphasizes collaboration using technology. 49% of employees expect their employer to support career growth.Check in consistently. Have a formal check-in periodically, once a month or at minimum once per quarter, to make sure relationships are developing and collaboration is growing. Especially important if you’re repairing a team, check in to make sure things are on track and to gain a better understanding of what’s working, what isn’t, and what needs to be adjusted. If you start the teamwork ball rolling but then neglect the process, any progress you’ve made will quickly evaporate.How Leaders Can Improve Collaboration at WorkSet clear goals. Employees are more likely to collaborate with each other when they clearly understand their individual roles and the team goals that everyone is working toward. Well-defined goals give the entire team a sense of shared purpose and can help foster innovation and problem-solving. One clear sign of an effective team is one that can self-assess and identify issues that lead to meaningful improvements over time. Provide team incentives. “The lack of incentives and rewards is the most common and powerful barrier to effective collaboration. Yet, most talent management systems are designed to reward individual achievement, not team accomplishments,” says Kevin Martin, Chief Research Officer, i4cp. “Finding ways to recognize and reward individuals, leaders, and teams who engage in productive collaborative behaviors can pay off in a big way.” Communicate expectations for collaboration. It’s easy to be a cheerleader for collaboration, but without clear direction, it can be challenging for employees to understand what to do. From the start, set your expectation for collaboration as a minimum standard. Even better, it should be part of your onboarding process so that potential recruits know you prioritize teamwork. Employees' job descriptions should include details about their own individual roles, as well as roles they're expected to carry out collaboratively. By differentiating these, you're setting clear boundaries between what they should be taking personal responsibility for, and what they need to work on collectively. Define the company culture. If a company culture is well-designed and supported, it should truly represent the behaviors and actions of employees throughout the organization. Create a slide deck and supporting materials that define the mission, vision, and core values of the company. These points should act as a guiding resource for employees and can be especially powerful when managing communications and challenges. Celebrate wins often. Especially when dealing with long-term or complex projects, it’s not always easy for employees to appreciate the achievements they are making along the way. Teams can benefit from taking time to celebrate wins and milestones together in a formal or informal setting. These celebrations can be small, as any chance to recognize and appreciate effective team collaboration is valuable.Focus on Communication to Improve Collaboration at WorkEncourage active listening. Part of the challenge in facilitating effective workplace communication is balancing discussions among different team members. This can be particularly difficult when dealing with different cultures, personalities, and challenging topics. Helping employees, and especially managers, develop their active listening skills can help everyone feel heard and more involved. Communication format matters. When the need to communicate some information arises, think carefully about the format you use to share it. Some communications may work best as text messages, while others are more suitable for an email or phone call. Particularly important or sensitive information may also require a meeting to allow for questions and discussion to clear up any confusion and ensure everyone is on the same page. Don’t neglect asynchronous communication. Asynchronous communication involves information that is shared at different times. One example would be a post made on a company message board that others can respond to at any time. Many collaboration platforms include features that enable this form of communication. Asynchronous communication can be particularly effective for remote teams and those working across multiple time zones. Adopt hybrid communication models. One of the best ways to foster communication and enhance collaboration is to give employees a number of tools to communicate with each other. Utilizing several tools such as email, chat or messaging, video, and a company intranet will allow employees to communicate information in a way that is effective for them. And if you have plug-in tools that provide specific tips or suggestions for collaborating with particular teammates, even better! This makes it easier for everyone to share insights at any time and contribute to an individual, team, or corporate discussion. Organize next steps and feedback. When employees collaborate to develop a new strategy or review an important document, they can share ideas in a number of different ways. After the work of brainstorming and sharing is done – i.e. the meeting – set clear expectations for processing the notes and feedback to avoid creating a backlog of partially developed ideas that go nowhere. Asynchronous collaboration tools are an essential asset but need to be well-managed to get the most value out of the communications, and importantly, move the project along.On a final note, don’t underestimate the benefits of informal collaboration. You can certainly accomplish a lot in meetings and formally organized work activities, but most of the real work gets done between employees themselves. Whatever you can do to Make it easy for your team members to get together or communicate more effectively not only helps improve collaboration, but also will allow many of them to forge long-term or even lifelong relationships. If teams are important for your organization, you need to do what you can to facilitate their effectiveness. Make sure open communication exists. Create opportunities for all voices to be heard. Connect with the shared values that unite the team. Effective collaboration is one of the biggest drivers of success in modern organizations. Following these expert tips will help you implement the right processes and technologies to enhance collaboration and incentivize effective collaboration among individuals, teams, and leaders.

5 Ways to Create a Feedback-Friendly Team Environment & Why It Matters

18 May, 2023
Collaboration

Whether good or bad, feedback is one of the best ways for us to know if we’re doing something right or wrong. And while it's a must for a healthy culture, still not every business has guidelines about when or how feedback is provided. A strong feedback culture welcomes feedback and uses it to foster the growth of individuals, teams, and the organization. In a feedback-friendly culture, employee voices are valued. And to become more effective and fulfilled at work, people need a keen understanding of their impact on others and the extent to which they’re achieving their goals. That’s called feedback, and direct feedback is the most efficient way for them to gather this information and learn from it. Typically, this information -- what we like to call intel on our efforts -- comes in three forms: Appreciation...recognition for great work. Appreciation connects and motivates people, and it’s vital since intrinsic motivation is one of the critical factors for higher performance. Coaching for Continuous Improvement...helping someone expand their knowledge, skills and capabilities. Coaching is also an opportunity to address concerns, feelings, or ideas, which helps balance and strengthen relationships. Evaluation...more formally assessing someone against a set of standards, aligning expectations and informing decision-making. Why a Feedback Culture is Important Even people who aren’t interested in or skilled at giving or receiving feedback will participate in the process and improve when they’re working in a feedback-rich environment. On the flip side, even the most ardent and capable of feedback champions will give up if the organizational or team culture doesn’t support their efforts. So in addition to helping your more reserved team members improve, feedback carries with it a slew of benefits. Here are just three of the most important. Feedback Saves Time, Money & Resources It’s estimated that a company of 10,000 employees spends a staggering $35 million a year to conduct performance appraisals. Yet 9 in 10 managers are dissatisfied with how their companies conduct annual performance reviews, and nearly 90 percent HR leaders say the process doesn’t yield accurate information. Moreover, the average manager spends about 210 hours a year on activities related to reviews. That’s more than 26 work days. However, when you supplement performance reviews with ongoing, real-time feedback, you can help ease the pressure and expense of the annual review. When you think about performance reviews, it’s really just an aggregation of all the feedback data an employee should have received throughout the year. Better Performance in a Feedback Culture Now, imagine the loss in productivity throughout that year when that employee doesn't receive ongoing intel on his/her efforts throughout the year. When you save it for an annual performance review, you're missing out on opportunities where your employee could have been improving. When employees enjoy their work, understand their goals, and know the values and competencies of the job, performance increases. The link between effective feedback and productivity has been well established. One study found that 69 percent of employees would work harder if they felt their efforts were better recognized. Continuous feedback helps align goals, clarifies expectations, and motivates employees. It also creates a positive workplace, one dedicated to encouraging people to be better will improve the level of performance and employee engagement. Strengthened Interpersonal Relationships Engaging in open feedback and dialogue with colleagues, recognizing efforts after a job well done, and helping employees meet their goals will help create meaningful workplace relationships. Fostering these types of relationships among employees is a driver both for improved collaboration within and across teams as well as for retention. Once a foundation of feedback has been set, sustaining it will become easier with each feedback conversation. Here's how the experts say to do it. How to Build a Continuous Feedback Culture To foster an environment of both personal and professional growth, people need to feel safe about giving and receiving feedback. A feedback culture is a fluid, two-way exchange between employees as well as employees and management. The end goal is a safe space where employees feel comfortable voicing their concerns, suggestions, and advancement plans while employers are equally able to express constructive feedback.A healthy feedback culture is one where feedback is the norm rather than a signal that something is wrong. That means when improvements are needed, asking for change won’t come off as awkward or out of the blue for either staff or employers. Instead, you’ll be able to enhance business processes while empowering employees to excel in their roles. Here are some ways you can start embedding a continuous feedback culture into your workplace.Set and reinforce expectations during onboarding, performance reviews, manager 1:1s, town halls, and department meetings for giving, receiving, and using constructive feedback. Train people to focus on the quality of the feedback. It’s worth noting that there is a difference between good and bad feedback. Encouraging people to say "good job" isn't going to improve employee performance or build an effective feedback culture. Building a culture of feedback starts with providing meaningful feedback - that is, feedback that is behavior based (not trait-based), forward looking (instead of backward), objective, continuous, in real-time and direct. Create multiple channels for giving and receiving feedback...like newsletters, email inboxes, surveys, town halls, office hours and more. Some folks like to write it out, while others prefer vocalizing -- be inclusive of how you solicit and provide feedback. Couple feedback with recognition so that employees associate feedback with a positive form of reinforcement. It will help reinforce the kind of behaviors that are helping move the organization. Make it routine. When feedback happens routinely, it becomes expected. Hold employees accountable by incorporating feedback giving and receiving KPIs. Ensure that managers are having regular feedback conversations and check-ins with their direct reports. Moreover, encourage employees to ask and share feedback.As a rule of thumb, more frequent, directionally correct but incomplete feedback outperforms more detailed and accurate but less frequent feedback. This means that consistency and iteration are what makes feedback good. When asking or giving feedback, many refer to the 30/60/90 Feedback Framework. It states that one should receive feedback when a task is 30% complete, again at 60% complete, and finally at 90% complete. Transforming your culture into one built on continuous feedback can propel your teams to approach tasks from a different perspective and find new solutions to your company’s biggest challenges. And the first step in your culture transformation is a team culture mapping, where we’ll help you unlock the behaviors, motivators, and work energizers of your team so you can empower better performance.

Angry & Overloaded? Read This Before Your Next Email

23 Jun, 2023
Collaboration

Overwhelmed with Internal work emails? Yes! Too aggressive, too many, not enough, no response, or maybe just too many of the dreaded reply-all — you name it, as senders and receivers of emails, we have made ourselves miserable. People get dozens, even hundreds, of emails a day, and it’s easy to miss a thread—or just plain ignore them — not that you would! And we’ve all been there before…the premature Send of a strongly worded email that might just not go over so well. Generally, experts agree that about 130 business emails are sent and received each day per person. And with more people suddenly finding themselves working from home or in distributed teams, not only have digital communication tools been pushed to the forefront as a primary means of communication, but it’s become all too easy to hide behind our keyboards. Where you might usually speak to someone in person to organize a meeting or find a quick answer, remote working means making do with digital substitutes -- email being the number one fallback. As more and more folks enter the job market -- and new kind of workforce -- email continues to get complicated. According to Gretchen McCulloch, internet linguist and author of Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language, “I think it's a misconception that everyone in the modern workplace knows how to email, especially younger people.” She points out that people who got online after the rise of social media may never have emailed socially, instead becoming accustomed to the norms of other digital messaging formats, such as chat or social media posts. “People who have been online for 10 or even 15 years haven't been exposed to routine professional emails — routine emails for trying to accomplish tasks between people in a professional context." Further, in a recent study on the effects of email, a team led by researchers from the University of California-Irvine, hooked up forty office workers to wireless heart-rate monitors for twelve days. They recorded the subjects’ heart-rate variability, a common technique for measuring mental stress. They also monitored the employees’ computer use, which allowed them to correlate email checks with stress levels. What they found: The longer one spends on email in a given hour the higher is one’s stress for that hour. In another study, researchers placed thermal cameras below each subject’s computer monitor, allowing them to measure the tell-tale “heat blooms” on a person’s face that indicate psychological distress. They discovered that batching inbox checks—a commonly suggested “solution” to improving one’s experience with email—is not necessarily a panacea. For those people who scored highly in the trait of neuroticism, batching emails made them more stressed, perhaps because of worry about all of the urgent messages they were ignoring. The researchers also found that people answered emails more quickly when under stress but with less care—a text-analysis program called Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count revealed that these anxious emails were more likely to contain words that expressed anger. So when the number of emails sent and received in a day continues to rise -- only to be further complicated by varying email user levels -- your job as a sender (and receiver) becomes more challenging. The truth is that some emails are more effective—and likely to get a response—than others. Your email will be noticed and get the attention it deserves when it is written appropriately and geared to your audience. No matter what field, industry, or user level, a better email experience is imperative -- both from productivity and mental health standpoints -- and knowing how to write effective emails that achieve your goals is more vital than ever. When you’re writing an email, you want to do everything in your power to ensure the recipient sees, opens, reads, and feels compelled to act on it the way you’re hoping. Here are the email basics, some refreshers for those more seasoned senders, and a couple superstar tips for everyone! The Anatomy for an Email No matter what your email is about, they can all be broken down into the same basic components. Depending on the situation, you might not need to use all of these elements, but consider each one carefully based on your goals. Subject Line NEVER send an email without a subject line! If you do, there's a high likelihood it will remain unopened, whether the reader skips over it or it lands in their junk folder. Ideally, you write the whole email, then you write the subject line by looking at the email and saying ‘what is the three to seven-word summary of this entire email?’ This means the recipient can easily see what the email is about, whether any action is required, and how urgent it is that they respond. Protip! McCulloch emphasizes the need to think of the other person when you’re choosing your subject line. For external emails, including their company name may be helpful for you as a unique identifier, but the name of your company will likely do more to distinguish it from other emails in their inbox. “A lot of people use search these days rather than folders to find old emails, and for search, you want to have your keywords, especially in the subject line,” she says. When in doubt or strapped for time, just be sure to clearly state what your message is about and set the right expectations. Stay away from subject lines that just say “Hello” or “Please read” unless you know the person well. The only time you don’t need to write a subject line is if you’re responding to or forwarding someone else’s message: In this case, you can just leave the existing subject line—unless you want to highlight a specific deadline or action item. Greeting You probably wouldn’t walk up to someone at work and just start talking about the report that’s due without saying “Hi” or even their name. Right? And in the new age of remote work where it’s likely you might never meet colleagues face-to-face, you probably shouldn’t do it over email either, and you definitely shouldn’t do it if you’ve never communicated with the person before. Start your message with an appropriate salutation (most commonly “Hi,” “Hello,” or “Dear”) and the recipient’s name. In most workplace communications, a first name only is just fine, unless the person works for a more formal company where using their full name might be more appropriate. Including a first or full name (if formality is warranted) is always better than accidentally mis-gendering somebody with a “Ms.” or “Mr.” For formal communications, particularly with people who have earned doctorates, it’s always a nice touch to include Dr. Body This is where you actually write the information that you want to send the person you’re emailing. Every email has a body, whether it’s a single word (“Thanks!”) or paragraphs (and paragraphs, and more paragraphs)—but please don’t make it too long! For professional emails, make sure that you keep your language appropriate for the situation and clearly state why you’re sending the message and what (if any) action you’re hoping the recipient will take after reading. Don’t be afraid to use formatting for emphasis — colors, underline, or bolding — to call out particularly points, actions, or important dates. As we all know, CAPS are NEVER good. Now if you really want to get a response from your recipient, tailor the email! Make sure you deliver information in a way that speaks to them, in ways they learn or take in info best. How? Well, you need to know their EQ — and with a simple email plug-in, it’s right at your email-writing fingertips. See more in our tips section! Closing & Signature Your email closing is the (usually single) line before your name and/or signature. Skipping this can come off as rude or abrupt, so be sure to include one unless you’re emailing with someone you know well or you’re several emails into a thread. The most common professional email closings are “Best” and “Thanks.” Boomerang has done some work on closings that get the most replies here. But you can definitely change it up based on your preferences and the circumstances. Also, if you know your recipient well and she/he knows you well, a comedic closing -- especially for those long-winded but ever necessary novel-length emails -- is always entertaining. My go-to for my most verbose messages is always a classic: “Anyway.” When it comes to the signature, you typically end with your name as sign-off followed by your block of contact information. As recent trends suggest, always feel free to include your pronouns as part of your email signature. This helps create a culture where people can bring their full selves to work and gives people transparency into how you should be addressed. Email Tips & Reminders Here are a few tips and recommendations to make sure your emails are effective. If you want tips and trick for internal work emails -- those 1:1 colleague communications or emails to managers, bosses, departments, or company-wide -- get our quick tips in this 5-minute video on writing better emails today! Keep It Concise If sifting through your inbox in the early morning or late evening -- in between all the other work! -- you’re probably more likely to respond in the moment to something that’s a few short paragraphs at most as opposed to something that’s much longer. Keep your emails short and to the point as much as possible with a clear ask. Add a Personal Touch & Get Emotional Because you want to be concise, and written messages can sometimes lack tone, email can feel abrupt, but this is easily fixable. Being professional doesn’t mean you need to be robotic. So before you jump into the meat of your message, provide a quick pleasantry or find a common interest on which to comment...think sports, arts, family, hobbies, etc. You should also take it a step farther and flex your emotional intelligence muscle. Before you click send, take one last precautionary step to make sure your email lands just right! One of the most important, yet overlooked, tools in the email writing toolkit is EQ, and as we move into more long-term remote and hybrid work models, it’s going to be imperative to infuse emotional intelligence into your communications to optimize likelihood of response and action. With a simple plug-in, you (and the rest of your colleagues) will have the kind of communication-rich information needed to not only write better emails but also collaborate more meaningfully with one another. Imagine being able to click on a recipient's address and see real-time tips and recommendations for communicating, motivating, and influencing them. Imagine seeing this same information in aggregate for a group meeting. Imagine knowing who best to tap on for specific asks, for helping lead certain initiatives, and who might benefit from a heads up on certain items — all of which takes into account your recipients’ behaviors, motivators, and work energizers in an easy-to-understand way. Some have called it “a transformational tool for remote work that allows for informed collaboration and communication.” Some might even say it’s the best-kept future of work secret that will help you communicate and collaborate better, understand individual and collective communication insights, and figure out how to re-energize the collaborative juices for teams who may have never met in person — and for purposes of this article, get your emails opened and acted upon! State Your Intent In all email messages, explicitly say why you’re emailing in the first couple lines. Don’t make the reader guess at your point. At the end of your email, you might also include a call to action such as “Can you get me feedback on this deck by X day?” or even a clear statement that ‘no action is needed, just keeping you in the loop’ is helpful. Be sure the recipient comes away with the right information. Duh, Proofread! If you’re sending multiple emails a day, it can be easy to overlook this step (guilty as charged!), but you should be re-reading all (okay, maybe just the most important!) emails for spelling and grammar. This probably isn’t necessary for notes to colleagues you email multiple items a day, but for particularly important or delicate emails, it might help you catch that embarrassing typo or mistake before you hit send. Also to note, technically correct grammar and punctuation may be essential for someone working in publishing, for example, whereas people in another industry may take a less formal, more chatty approach. Regardless, correct grammar never fails. Make Sure Email Is the Right Avenue Just as important as knowing how to email, is knowing when not to do it at all. Sometimes a phone or video call is better if the topic is complex or sensitive. While a well-written and concise email is effective and allows the reader to respond in their own time, a phone call can sometimes take the place of multiple emails while getting much more accomplished and building a stronger relationship. An immediate answer might also be necessary given the situation and, because email volumes are skyrocketing, consider a direct chat. And as a final tip, emailers should always bear in mind that their messages may well end up in front of a much larger audience than they anticipated, whether through legal discovery, a leak, hack, or the dreaded un-anticipated forward.

Strategies And Tools For Improving Employee Performance

30 May, 2023
Collaboration

Each employee within a company has the power to boost a company's success. For better or worse, the inverse is also true: Each employee has the power to drag down productivity and the organization's bottom line. Business leaders have become increasingly focused on finding strategies to improve the performance of employees to better serve and delight customers. At some point, each business leader needs to devise a high-functioning HR performance improvement plan that gets results. If you're struggling to develop an action plan for non-performing employees, it's probably time to take a deeper look at the issue to discover the right performance improvement plan (PIP) for your organization. Keep reading to learn how a PIP can help streamline your employee performance improvement process. What Is an Employee Performance Improvement Plan? A PIP can become a powerful tool to help struggling employees succeed or let ambivalent employees go for immediate issues and any thereafter. You might think of it as an on-the-spot, essential performance evaluation. When you and your managers become painfully aware of a recurring or worsening employee performance issue, you must resolve the issue quickly and effectively. More employers today are relying on performance improvement plans, which are formal template documents that feature details regarding the specifics of your employee's performance issues. Further, it gives you the opportunity to create a clear list of goals that the poorly performing employee needs to succeed and a timeline to allow him or her to reach those goals. A performance improvement plan isn't always (nor should it be) a negative experience for an employee. Many employers also use it to help driven employees determine and plan professional goals and create measurable steps to achieve those goals. How to Determine If Employees Should Face a Performance Improvement Plan Here are key steps to take to determine whether a PIP is warranted for your troublesome employee:Analyze the various possible factors regarding if the employee is not doing his or her job or meeting your organization's standards. Remove external factors, such as an unclear job description or requirements, miscommunicated professional standards, or issues and incompatibilities with management and co-workers.Once you go through these steps to conduct evaluations, you should move forward with a performance improvement process. What Are the Benefits Your Organization Might Experience With a Performance Improvement Plan? Employee turnover is expensive. You probably want to avoid termination and searching for a new employee. A performance improvement plan can help you correct a poor attitude, behavior or performance. Your employee might be experiencing personal turmoil. A PIP can help this individual see that his or her performance and productivity are failing. Your employee gets the chance to course-correct, and you keep a quality employee on board and avoid needing to invest in a recruiting mission. What Are the Components and Requirements That Comprise a Performance Improvement Plan? Performance improvement plans include numerous steps that your employee needs to follow to improve his or her work performance. That said, it helps for you to understand and follow some integral steps:Meet with and discuss the performance issue with the employee, letting him or her know you want him or her to succeed. Create achievable goals, such as hitting a certain sales figure or contributing input during team meetings, according to a set timeline. Maintain communications with the employee during the PIP process, providing accolades for improvement and questioning any lack thereof. Ask if the individual needs additional training or other assistance to facilitate his or her success. Evaluate the outcome when the deadline arrives. Make this meeting a discussion regarding how the employee feels about the process and outcome. Prepare to continue the improvement process. If you feel the employee is unlikely to succeed, you might consider an alternative solution, such as a transfer, demotion or termination.What Steps Do You Need to Take to Create the Improvement Plan? When determining that an employee is continually experiencing issues meeting deadlines, cooperating with team members, or providing customer satisfaction, it's time to create a performance improvement plan. Here are some actions to take at that point:Review the employee's job description and expected performance. Analyze the times when the employee has fallen short and any notable circumstances surrounding the issue. Consider what might help the employee succeed, thereby creating a path to improved positivity and productivity.When Is the Improvement Plan Needed? You can usually detect when someone is struggling to fit in with the corporate culture. You might also have a gut feeling when someone has checked out and doesn't care about his or her position anymore. Nevertheless, you can't let detection and gut feelings rule your strategic decision-making. Here are some instances when you should implement a performance improvement plan:Your company has taken on the PIP process as a means of dealing with performance issues. Your organization has no detailed prescription in your employee handbook for managing performance issues. You believe your employee is worth the effort that goes into a PIP due to a history of strong performance and a positive attitude. Your employee is experiencing personal challenges, and you want to offer him or her an opportunity to improve.Humantelligence Provides a Highly Effective Three-Step Process Humantelligence will help you improve employee performance without the stress and disruption that sometimes accompanies such a task. We offer a three-step performance improvement plan process that allows you to achieve a high-performing culture where everyone gets the opportunity and encouragement to shine. Our platform is here to help you measure and manage existing employees' performance levels. With our help, you can also hire employees whose attitudes align with your company culture. Our employee performance improvement plan consists of the following:Step One: Our quick and comprehensive culture self-assessment tool was designed to uncover your employees' and prospective employees' work motivators, behaviors, ideal work styles and life priorities. Step Two: Manage and optimize your workplace culture using data meant to culturally align your employees at the team, group, functional, organizational and departmental levels. Your accumulated data can help you understand why teams do or do not perform, and help you find ways to spur them to course-correct. Step Three: Hire effectively by using our talent fit tool and team analytics to find and hire prospects faster, speeding the process by 80%. Our talent management and development tool offers strategies and analytics to help you make the right decisions at every point in the employee improvement process.Ready to turbo-boost employee performance to improve everyone's attitude, confidence, conduct and achievements? Contact Humantelligence today.

What You Might Be Getting Wrong with Personality Tests

09 Jul, 2024
Collaboration

In the fast-paced realm of modern work, where remote and hybrid work arrangements are commonplace, the intricacies of collaboration have taken on a whole new meaning. Traditional personality tests, once heralded as the solution to understanding personalities and team dynamics, find themselves woefully inadequate in this landscape. The primary problem is that they lack accessibility because they aren’t seamlessly integrated into teams’ daily workflows. Even when accessible, personality tests demand interpretation and lose the essence of quick, actionable insights. Moreover, they focus merely on behaviors, overlooking the vital motivators, values, and work styles that drive individuals and teams. Yet, a more significant concern looms large — the emergence of AI, blurring the lines between professional evaluation and personal privacy. This article will explore strategies on how to use personality tests in team building through leveraging technology and AI to create and sustain effective team collaboration. A Quick History in Personality Tests in the Workplace The world of pre-hire and employee self-assessments is age old. Based on historically recorded information, the first pre-employment cognitive testing may have been used during the imperial examination in China, dating back to the Han Dynasty (206 BC – 220 AD). Its use was standardized during the Song Dynasty (960 AD – 1279 AD) as a civil service exam for candidates wishing to enter the state bureaucracy. The imperial examination tested candidates’ knowledge on topics such as civil law and fiscal policy, and helped the nation transition from a military ruling class to a scholarly one. Objective personality testing began with Woodworth's Personal Data Sheet in 1917. That test was developed to identify soldiers prone to nervous breakdowns during enemy bombardment as well as shell shock during World War I. Soon after, many competing personality tests were developed for use in American industry. Many of these tests focused on the construct of employee maladjustment and were deemed important in screening out applicants who would create workplace disturbances. As time went on, many types of personality assessment tools were developed. One famous test used in the early 20th century was the MMPI, Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory. Established as a way of determining psychopathology, it was used in some cases as a hiring assessment until the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission stopped its use as a violation of the standards of non-discrimination. Another, established in 1943, was the MBTI or Myers-Briggs Type Inventory, and it has served as a popular assessment for a number of purposes, including executive development. It was inspired by the work of renowned Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung. While useful for staff development, it has demonstrated limitations in the selection of candidates. The use of other assessments and skills tests continues to proliferate the business world. Millions of workers take assessments each year as part of personnel selection, to improve collaboration and teamwork, and to identify next steps in a career path. On its own, personality testing is a $500 million industry, with an annual growth rate estimated at 10 to 15 percent. Employers are continuing to use hiring, leadership, and employee mobility assessments to gather data points that will enable more informed decisions in the area most critical to the company’s success – its people. Making the wrong decision can be very expensive, so HR departments, executives, and team leaders rely on these tests – some with more success than others – even though most of these tools have failed to keep pace with the changing needs of today’s workforce. 3 Limitations of Most of Today’s Personality Tests Thankfully, assessment tools have evolved significantly since their early days. For example, the ability to take an assessment online, from anywhere in the world, has made them much more attractive than they once were, and algorithms can score tests quickly and easily. A wide variety of instruments can be used this way: Cognitive Ability Tests, Integrity Tests, Interviews, Job Knowledge Tests, and Personality Tests. According to G2, there are 189 tools in the market – but that’s just a listing of pre-employment testing software! So while many of these tools are certainly continuing to evolve – albeit slowly – their limitations remain glaring, especially those in the personality assessment category. To get any kind of value from these tools, many require external consultants or facilitators who are certified in particular assessment methodology. This then requires a highly manual implementation process whereby data is collected, aggregated, and analyzed by that consultant – and that takes time. This is why employer assessments have required an intermediary and remained within the domain of costly certified consultants. Personality tests are supposed to help you understand your team, build trust, establish psychological safety, and create an inclusive workplace culture. In remote or hybrid work environments, they fail to carry out that purpose for a few reasons:The test only measures behaviors, not what motivates an individual or team. Most assessments only measure behaviors and are vulnerable to multiple biases, misunderstandings, and interpretations with no chance of clarification. They're not sensitive to the employee's state of mind when the test occurs and may be biased due to the timing of its findings. It fails to take into consideration change and adaptability. As an employee starts a job, they gain experience, try to develop every day, and subsequently adjust to correct previous shortcomings. These tests fail to allow room for that inevitable change and improvement. The results are not worth the expense. Assessments like the Myers-Briggs personality test and the Clifton Strengths test are costly and take a long time to be implemented. Additionally, further interpretation of the results can only be completed by a costly certified consultant or a psychologist.Common Challenges When Adapting to Remote or Hybrid Work Environments To complicate things, hybrid work environments are becoming the norm. This means employees must continue to get used to the mix of in-house and remote work and find ways to make virtual teamwork collaborative and successful. In trying to manage the hybrid workforce, here are some common challenges organizations encounter: Lack of connection: Remote teams mean personal and social connections are lost almost entirely. Members don't know their teammates, as there are no coffee breaks or lunch meetings where employees can sit together and break the ice. Mentorship and bonds between employees are hard to forge, and such a disconnect can make employees unhappy and less committed to the job. Lack of communication: Differences in how information should be relayed between workstations can be a big challenge. An example can be seen when a Gen Zer sends an email. Even if it contains lots of detail and information that a millennial recipient needs, it also has a lot of abbreviations and shorthand because that is how Gen Z likes to write. However, the millennial prefers more conceptual and formal communication and sees this email as unstructured, thereby ignoring it. The receiving person will likely delete the email and classify it as not worth reading, regardless of its vital information. Doing so leads to a loss in productivity and reaction time in completing that task. Lack of collaboration: Distributed team collaboration is a big issue within remote teams, as some employees might get left out of decision-making processes. Collaborating with remote teams takes more time and effort than with those who work together in person. This makes collaboration a big challenge in a hybrid work setting. It’s not all dismal though. Personality assessments can be very helpful in identifying the right kind of person for a role, to complement your existing team, or to help navigate conflict that currently exists on a team; and they can be particularly effective when aligning leadership teams. However, the most effective assessments are the one-stop shops that can serve multiple purposes at once: that is, use the data to hire and build more balanced teams, for leadership and team building, and to identify high potential employees and possible development and promotion paths. How Do Technology & AI Improve the Impact of Psychometrics in the Workplace? Psychometric testing in the workplace through technology and AI acts as the glue that holds together different teams in the organization by helping boost connectivity. The following are just some of the many examples of how psychometric questionnaires paired with AI can enhance distributed team collaboration.Technology and AI connect all employees whether or not you've physically met them. They can track phone calls, virtual meetings, and related data to summarize when and how often people need to meet and connect. This helps to foster and potentially identify cultural aspects of the organization that are associated with productivity and performance. AI helps rewrite emails in various communication styles, all based on how the recipient likes to receive information – which reduces the friction among team members of different generations or backgrounds, thereby improving communication and mutual understanding within your workforce. It is responsible for suggesting and influencing virtual meetings for training, onboarding new members, and building good relationships – all based on actionable psychometric insights. Psychometric testing in the workplace builds an inclusive spirit by showing that differences can do wonders for teams that are willing to be open-minded and enhance efficiency. This diversity of thought leads to innovation and better problem-solving.Using Psychometrics in Your Existing Collaboration Tools In the digital realm, psychometric assessments are not just tools; they're catalysts in transforming remote and hybrid team dynamics. Imagine having essential insights at your fingertips, bridging the gap between colleagues you've met and those you haven't. The possibilities are limited only by your imagination. Utilize them for personalized email communication and AI-driven suggestions, crafting impactful 1-to-1 interactions. Leverage personality insights in meeting invites, empowering you to prepare in advance, supported by AI's tailored prompts. In virtual settings, these psychometric insights about team members can guide training, influence strategies, aid in onboarding new members, and foster cross-functional collaboration in ways unlike ever before There are many assessment tools and plenty of hybrid work technology out there that can help you identify great candidates, opportunities for manager and leadership development, or areas of strength and improvement for teams. However, not every tool can do all of these things in the same amount of time – unless it captures data in three key areas: behaviors, motivators, and work energizers – and then aggregates that data into actionable insights you can use to improve your teams. And we can help.