Discover How You Can Learn The Significance Of Focus For Your Team

There are many great lessons that one can learn from the importance of focus. One can learn that focus is important in many different aspects in life such as building a business, playing team and individual sports and building a strong relationship with others.

"No life ever grows great until it is focused, dedicated and disciplined." - Source Unknown

First great lesson about focus can be found when one is faced with big challenges in life. When face with big challenges in life, it can either motivate or break down individuals or team. The lesson here is when facing with major challenges, one can learn greatly by focusing on developing solutions for the challenges. Brainstorming and developing solutions can enable individuals or team to deter any distractions that might prevent them from overcoming the challenges.

Second great lesson here is it can enable individuals or team to identify the problems involved in the challenges clearly. Maintaining focus here can enable the individuals or team to list details of possible causes for the problems faced. Through such activities, it can enable team to work well together. Working well together can encourage great development of cohesion and support among each team member.

Third significant lesson in focus especially when working in a team is it enables the team to leverage on each other strength well. Through such measures, it can enable individual to develop and improve on each other strength well. For example, in business team, the business development team can develop on methods of branding the company to the next higher level while the finance team can focus on better management of money for the company. Such niche area of focus can enable the team to leverage on each other strength well and such efforts can ultimately provide great improvement and success for the team.

Fourth great lesson is it can also provide great test for the individuals and team when face with adversity and challenges. The lesson here is when face with adversity, it is important to focus on remaining together as team. There are many methods and strategies that team can use to overcome the challenges and adversity. Such methods can include welcoming constructive feedback among the team, monitoring on the development for the team effort and celebrating success together as a team. Such methods can enable better team work effort and satisfaction in the team. Overall, one can realize that focus can provide significant and positive results for individuals and team growth.

Learn About Work At Home Ideas and Opportunities at Work at Home Ideas and Opportunities!

Rauf writes articles on home business and personal development for success.

Article Source: Free Ezine Articles for your Blogs. Get your Free Articles today!

Growing Your Marketing Business As A Team Leader

In many reputable businesses, the triumph of the people working under a business owner reflects how successful that owner is. Many great leaders will tell you that by surrounding themselves with good people have enabled them to achieve their current level of success. This is especially true in multilevel marketing where the success of the team leader is directly the result of the efforts of their team.

Take sports, for example. The coach doesn't get onto the field and help the team win games. They rarely get a chance to show how well they can perform. One thing the coach does do is make sure the team knows the essentials of the game, along with the small fine tuning details that may need to be done in order to help each player reach their peak performance capability.

As a team leader in multilevel marketing, your role is very similar to that of a coach. While rarely you would ever tell a team member that they're not performing up to expectations and tell them to quit, if their performance is not earning them any money they will leave on their own. Your job as the team's coach is to make sure each player of the team has the opportunity to be successful, provide them the guidance they need to do the job that is expected of them and reinforce their own dedication to generating their own success.

Not everyone who initially wants to be on your team will have the commitment or the self drive to be successful. Not everyone is cut out to be self-employed and while multilevel marketing essentially has you working for a master company, independent distributors are their own boss and responsible for their own success. However, since the team leader also gets a portion of each team member's success through sales commissions, it comes to show that, as a team leader, you make sure those who do have what it takes, can be successful.

One thing many leaders take a little too far is the fact that they need to walk everybody down the right patch. Holding their hand, 'babying' them if you will, and watch every step they take. This is not necessary. Know that these members of your team are here because they want to be their own boss. They are adults, and just like you had to, they will make their own mistakes and learn from them to become better.

Hosting motivating sales meetings is one way to make sure all your team members understand the process. Every so often it takes an individual effort to help your team reach their full potential. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses and as a team leader, being able to identify them in each of your team's members will help you work with them on their weaknesses while exploiting their strengths to make them even stronger.

One strategy that can be successful, as well as turn around and bite you in the 'you know what', is telling your team members how much money you'll make. Some leaders see this as an incentive by letting the team members know what their potential earnings are. Provided they continue to work harder and smarter, they could be making that much money or more. Others may take offense in believing you are getting rich off their efforts while they continue to struggle. You have to know your team members and their motivation to decide if this maneuver will work for you.

Tara Brown is the owner of ExecutiveHomeBody.com and writes on a variety of subjects related to leadership and coaching home businesses. To learn more about starting your own business, visit http://www.ExecutiveHomeBody.com

Article Source: Free Ezine Articles for your Blogs. Get your Free Articles today!

Creating the Conditions for Effective Teamwork

Teams are a collection of individuals with complimentary skills who are seeking to achieve a specific result or results. It might be to reduce wastage, improve throughput, increase sales or better determine project costs to name just a few. Effective teamwork relies in the conditions being created that facilitate effective teamwork. So what areas require attention?

Clear purpose

The first condition for effective teamwork is to get the purpose clear. If you don't know what the purpose of the teams work is, how will you know if it is achieved? A good question to ask is what do we want this team to achieve? The greater the clarity you get on this the easier it will be for the team to focus on the right thing. Another way of getting to your purpose is to consider what will be different when the team has completed its work.

Right people

No team will ever be effective unless it has the right people with the right skills on it. Team selection is challenging but important. As well as people having knowledge of their own area, they need to have the right attributes to build trust, rapport and relationships with others.

Dependency

For a team to exist and achieve there needs to be dependency. By dependency, I mean that the performance of one part of the organisation needs to be dependent on one or more other areas to achieve results. For example, an organisation might decide that it wants to cut energy costs by 5% and set up a team to achieve it. The Finance Director might well be the person reporting back but will be dependent on areas like purchasing, estates management and a management accountant to achieve that outcome.

Team accountability

For effective teamwork, team members need to be committed to delivering on their piece of the jigsaw. In addition, there needs to be accountability to the team and the team results. This is radically different to the norm which places huge emphasis on individual accountability and takes time to develop.

Diversity

One of the real advantages of teams is that there is access to a greater range of skills, experience, knowledge and personal attributes than there would be in one individual. This diversity is what in many ways makes teamwork so powerful. Exploiting the benefits of this diversity does not happen overnight. It takes teams time to build up that trust and it is important to allow the time for that to be created rather than trying to force the pace.

In building a physical object, strong foundations need to be created if it is to be a success. Teams are no different. Their success depends on creating the conditions for effective teamwork.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with professionals and progressive public and private sector organisations who want to develop their management and leadership capability in order to achieve more success. With 25 years business experience in a range of sectors, he understands first hand the real challenges of managing and leading in the demanding business world.

You can learn more about Duncan, Goals and Achievements services and products and sign up for his free e-course and monthly newsletter at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/

Article Source: Free Ezine Articles for your Blogs. Get your Free Articles today!

Team Building Lesson - The View Cast Supports Whoopi Goldberg

If you want to see a specific example of a high performing team in action, be sure to watch the recent video clip of The View in which the cast collectively demonstrates their support for fellow team member, Whoopi Goldberg, after she was not included in a montage of host clips at this year's Oscars, especially since Whoopi was the first African American woman to host.

What is a High Performing Team?

A high performing team gets extraordinary results because they have created a solid foundation for productive communication, innovative solutions, and great performance. In other words, they have equipped themselves with right team culture.

What business lesson can we learn from The View clip?

Let's look at how they responded when the Oscar oversight was mentioned:

1. Each member showed her support for Whoopi's accomplishments.

2. Their concern and empathy for the omission was voiced.

3. The View team verbally rallied around Whoopi.

4. Whoopi showed her deep gratitude for their support by kissing each cast member on the cheek.

Of course, you don't have to start kissing your team members at work, but you should take a cue from the girls at The View in regard to the powerful support system demonstrated in the clip with Whoopi.

And if you happen to be a team leader, supporting your team is vital to their success, and yours. Otherwise, you may miss out on the many benefits that teams are so well known for, such as high performance and innovation.

Supervisory and co-worker support is so powerful that it can actually act as a shock absorber to the amount of work stress you feel on the job. Do you think if Whoopi happened to be feeling left out or stressed, that her team member's support made a difference? You bet it did.

What does this mean for teams?

It means that leaders and their organizations have the power to design teams that can get great results, be highly dedicated, and experience less stress on the job.

Six Team Design Elements For Success:

1. A Supportive Environment

Support from your peers or supervisor can buffer work stress. Examples include statements of understanding, flexible assistance with work schedules, and public recognition.

2. Empowerment

Balance decision-making leverage and a sense of control with job responsibilities. No one wants to be held accountable for a situation beyond his or her control.

3. Mutual Trust

Increase trust by building a culture of partnership and shared value. Building a typical us versus them culture is counterproductive and wastes time and money, yet lots of leaders unintentionally fall into this approach when they fail to think about team design in line with their core purpose.

4. Team Members with Specific Expertise

Each team member should understand what the other has to offer in regard to knowledge, skills, and abilities and how it connects to his or her own expertise and shared business objectives.

5. A Unified Team Vision

Have the team create their vision in order to build momentum and trust.

6. Open Communication Channels

Knowledge and information should be shared on all levels.

The elements above can add up to the right team culture. Building and designing a team culture should be aligned with the results you're after. The payoff is a high performing team with infinite possibilities. Thank you ladies at The View for demonstrating a great of example of co-worker support in action.

Diana Keith, owner of M-Level Systems Consulting and business psychologist, works with leaders and their teams to increase innovation, morale, and productivity. Get your Free Strategy Guide For Success http://www.mlevelsystems.com at her website.

Article Source: Free Ezine Articles for your Blogs. Get your Free Articles today!