Finding the perfect place to work

Submitted by stavroscm on Thu, 01/28/2010 - 00:15.

General Leadership/Management

Everyone dreams of finding a place to work that is fun, challenging and rewarding. In fact there has been considerable scholarly research on what makes up a “Good place to work”. I’ll write about that at length in another entry soon. Today I want to focus on the more practical aspect of this dilemma and ask: What makes up a good team?

Now, you may feel that I’ve lured you here under false pretenses. After all the title of this entry is finding the right place to work not building the right team. However, I want to tell you that you already work at the right place and that the real challenge is transforming your existing team into the right team not finding a new place to work.

Before I continue I also want to stress that team dynamics is the single greatest contributor to bothemployee satisfaction and productivity. This means that fostering positive team development is a priority to both employers and employees alike so don’t be reluctant to discuss it.

In fact, discussing it is the key to developing great teams. For example, last year I worked with a small executive team on the issue of group dynamics. First, they completed a few assessments to measure creative style and work preference. Then I designed and facilitated a brief group session to analyze the results and reflect on past experiences and how team dynamics played a role in the results.

I’m happy to report that my client called me yesterday to exclaim, “That simple exercise changed our company. The results were instantaneous and long lasting.”

read more entries like this at http://www.stavroscm.com/apps/blog/

People think team building is obvious, but it isn't!

Submitted by keith on Fri, 02/05/2010 - 05:05.

I have always found that finding the right place to work depends very heavily on the leaders that are your bosses. I think that a top down approach to creating an environment in which people are: 1) regularly creating goals that are aligned at all levels, 2) doing monthly counseling, 3) getting quarterly rewards, and 4) aren't afraid to fail is the responsibility of a company's top leaders to enforce and promote. The business will thrive if everyone is held responsible for failures with an eye towards learning from their mistakes. Obviously, sometimes people repeatedly cannot or will not perform their expected tasks. Or there will be mistakes that are simply created by neglect or bad judgement. These are circumstances where individuals will have to be fired. I am not suggesting that any culture preclude hirings and firings. That is a natural ebb and flow of all businesses. However, bringing in a clear system or checks and balances in an environment where everyone is expected to perform and contribute to the company's bottom line is a positive environment. And people who are productive EXPECT to be held to a high standard (not an impossible one) and they will respond well as in the example Stavros has offered. This is a great post Stavros - Thank You!