Team Behaviors

                

Dear Doctor,   
Do you ever wonder if an employees' particular behavior is truly helpful?  Using the list below you can set expectations for your team and then your job of holding them accountable becomes much easier.  Go over the list with your team and give them examples to consider for each area you feel is most important.  Stay tuned for future blogs regarding employee confidentiality and an example of a "full value" contract.
Sincerely, David Milligan

  TEAM BEHAVIORS

Help the Team                                                           Hinder the Team

Be on time                                                                   Lack of accountability

Participate / volunteer                                                 Resist new ideas

Engage in open, honest communication                     Uncooperative. Refuse to communicate

Build on others’ ideas                                                 “Yes, but . . .” talk

Be optimistic / positive about the team                       Being negative and critical

Criticize ideas, not team members                              Attack personality, personally           

Provide leadership when needed                                Selectively interpret ideas, events, and actions

Follow-up when promised                                          Do other distracting work / activities

Pay attention                                                               Keep up side conversations / don’t listen

Take problems seriously                                             Avoid decision making

Be courteous, honest and trusting                              Engage in name calling, being rude, refusing to trust team members.

Use “we” expressions and thoughts                           Use “you” statements

Support each other                                                     Create sub-groups

Show commitment for making it work                      Express resignation or futility

Display a sense of humor                                           Act bored, refuse to pay attention

Communication Received

When receiving communication from other team members, always assume the positive.

It is easy to get busy and jump to conclusions about a message we receive, especially if it is via email. However, when you assume individuals are communicating with the office and with your best interests at heart, you decrease the chance of a negative situation arising. For example, a co-worker informs you that you forgot to clean an instrument or you scheduled a patient on top of another. It may be easy to become defensive in an attempt to explain yourself. However, the other way to think about things is that your colleague wants you to be the best you can be and therefore, does not want you to continue to make errors.  

I work as a mentor for special education teachers. A few days ago the team decided that a different student needed the support of an IA. I was not going to see this individual in person for a few days. So, I informed the instructional assistant of the change via email. I later received a phone call about how upset this individual had become due to this change.

She did not assume the positive in my email. She believed that we were going to detach her from her relationship with her student. However, in fact we were trying to provide support to another student that needed it while her student does not need support at that time. Miscommunications can easily happen when you are threatened and do not trust the individuals you work with. And when they think you are trying to hurt them instead of help them.

Take the time to explain and build relationships. I have often found that when someone assumes the negative it usually stems from a place of jealousy, anger or a mistrust in the relationship. Take the time to develop a more positive relationship with your co-workers in order to better communicate in the work place.  

Great teams take effort. Take time to work on your practice regularly to build quality communication and strengthen your results. For more information and to read other articles, please visit us at www.saltdpm.com.