The Team Building Skill Will Lead You To The Summit Of Success

A lot of importance is given to corporate team building training. Organisations might miss out on various other skills, but they never forget to conduct a team building training session at least once a year for their teams.

So, is the team building skill really that important? And how much does it really contribute to our overall growth and career?

In my experience, the team building skill can take you places. I am not kidding when I say you can easily find a leader but finding a good team player is difficult! Everyone wants to be a great leader but there are hardly any people who say they want to be great followers. And we know leaders are nothing if they don’t have loyal followers.

Being a great team player is nothing less than being a great leader. And frankly, there are very few people who can work effectively in teams and perform their best. By their best, I mean, giving their 100% and supporting other team members to give their 100% too. And that’s what makes up an ideal team.

Corporate team building trainings helps in various areas. Not just professionally but personally too. In fact, I would say a team building training is a complete ‘development package’ for every participant.  And not just helps you excel in your workplace but in your personal life and generally in society too.

The cherry on the cake is that corporate team building training are the most fun training of them all. And provides a great combination, one of learning and lots of fun. So, while they give you a chance to learn more about where you are as a team and where you can reach and how, they also provide a chance to bond with one another. A bong that gives the team a solid foundation and makes the team stick together through thick and thin!

So, what’s your take on this? What has your experience been of corporate team building training?

INTERDEPENDENCY OF TEAM BUILDING & LEADERSHIP SKILLS

We, at The Yellow Spot have delivered a large number of team building trainings and events in the past 11 years. It’s our favourite offering and we are so good at it now, that we can conduct a team building training without any preparation at all!

Surprised? I was just kidding. Well, not the part where I said it is our favourite offering and we are good at it. I was kidding when I said we can do it without any preparation. In fact, we don’t do any corporate training programme without proper planning and preparation well in advance. But yes, we thoroughly enjoy doing team building trainings. Why? Let me tell you.

We love it because team building training is one such training programme where we can touch base upon many skills at a time. Team building activities can bring out multiple learnings like;

1. Collaborating with our internal and external stakeholders
2. Communicating effectively within the team
3. Identifying team members’ skills and making use of them
4. Managing resources and time effectively
5. Planning and prioritisation of tasks
6. Being open to each other’s suggestions and feedback
7. Keeping the end goal in mind at all points of time
8. Increasing team bonding and trust
9. Building a positive culture, etc.

One of most important learning from team building training is the importance of having a leader and leadership skills.

I am sure some of you will say a leader needs to have separate leadership skills trainings where they learn leadership concepts. But trust me, team building trainings are great occasions to bring out the importance of leadership skills and what they entail. And why is that? Because a leader is nothing without his or her team. And there is no better ground to learn than with your team. After all, a leader is only a leader when he has followers! And so, learning about leadership is best done in the presence of one’s followers.

Always remember, a team will be well bonded if they have a good leader who binds them well and provides direction. Similarly, a leader can only be successful if he has a team who believes in him and draws inspiration from him. Now that’s called true interdependency!

Importance of coaching skills training

Coaching skills training

Coaching skills training is very important for every Manager. And I got proof of that once again while conducting a Managerial Skills session.

The role of a Manager encompasses looking after his team along with getting the work done. Unfortunately, many Managers tend to focus on the latter while completely forgetting the former. They are so busy with deadlines and piles of projects that they forget that in order to get the best out of their team, they need to spend time developing them. They also need to understand that delegation is not just about dumping work on your team members. Its about supporting the team complete the tasks so that they learn through them and are able to go to the next level. And this is exactly where coaching skills training comes into the picture.

So why does a Manager need to have good coaching skills? Simply to support their team members. And why coaching skills specifically and why not training skills? Because some team members need support when it comes to their attitude and its coaching that will be able to fix that.

We all know how difficult it is to change our behaviour. So, you can well imagine how tough it would be to alter our attitude! And the depth of the intervention and attention required for the same can only be met through a suitable coaching intervention.

Coaching Skills training is therefore extremely important for every Manager.  He must have the right skills to be able to coach his team members. And what may be the right coaching skills you may ask? Well he needs to be able to listen well without interrupting, ask suitable questions and be comfortable being silent wherever required. He should be able to provide a safe space for the team member to open up and share his thoughts and emotions on the issue at hand.

The Manager also needs to be a facilitator and allow the team member to find his own solution rather than providing him with ready-made solutions. This not only increases their buy-in towards finding a solution, but also the commitment with which they take appropriate steps towards the solution. This in turn helps the team member think on his own feet, thereby making him independent and self-sufficient for the future.

Being able to coach his team himself also increases ownership and accountability of the Manager. Team Bonding improves with team members and the Manager works towards creating a strong cohesive team. It also increases the respect that team members have towards their Manager. It makes them more open and able to share not only professional issues but also their personal issues.  And you know who is the happiest person of all? The human resources manager. He can now focus on his work as all the Managers are capable of handling their own teams and do not need the HR to intervene every now and then.

In short, it’s a win-win for everyone. The Manager, his team, other teams that interact with this team, vendors, customers and the organisation on the whole. And how did we do this? By simply giving coaching skills training to our Managers. A magic wand that can really create wonders!

Hmm… So, have you taken your coaching skills training?

Top 3 Benefits of leadership skills training

I was conducting a leadership skill training last week for a client. It was for a bunch of young leaders who were comparatively new to the role. And therefore, we had to go to the basics. After all, there’s really no sense in going to something very advanced when the basics are where you really need to work on!

I must say, the participants were also very open to learning. They were open to learning more on how they could practically ‘practice’ the basics rather than jumping towards ‘knowing’ the more complex. And so I thought I’d share with you some of the benefits they got from this leadership skills training. It may be of help to you too and give you insights into what you can do to be a better leader.

1. Self-Awareness: Most of us our so lost in our thoughts that we are unaware of all that is happening within us. Therefore, having a finger on our thoughts, emotions, feelings and reactions is of utmost important. Not only does it help us in staying in the present moment, it also helps us in becoming emotionally more intelligent. We can manage our emotions as well as the reactions that we tend to succumb to so often! And although most leadership skills trainings do not focus on this aspect, if you ask me, its absolutely essential.

2. Interpersonal Communication: A leader needs to be a good communicator; whether it be with his subordinates, peers or even with the top management. He must be able to say what he wants clearly and receive appropriate responses from those he communicates with. However, many leaders fall back on communication, especially due to their personality styles. Learning how to overcome such barriers for smoothening communication is therefore essential. It adds great value to the leader as well as the leadership skills training, he is attending!

3. Managing Tasks: Most of the times, leaders get overwhelmed by the number of tasks they need to complete. It’s difficult as they have to manage not only their own tasks but those of the teams they look after too. Therefore, delegation is a skill that forms an integral part of a leadership skills training. Leaders need to understand the best way to delegate to their subordinates, taking individual skill sets and their commitment into consideration. This can make completion of tasks a lot easier for them and their subordinates and also help them get more done in their day.

These were just some of skills that we sharpened during this leadership skills training. I would love to hear your experiences on the same. Do let us know what valuable skills you picked up from a leadership skills session you may have attended…

What are some of the stress management techniques?

A few days back, we received an enquiry from a client regarding a stress management training that they wanted to conduct for their employees. Unfortunately, on probing a bit, we realised it was what we call a ‘tick-mark training.’ In other words, a training that was to fill in a training calendar and not one that was really for employees to get rid of their stress!

It’s sad, isn’t it? But the truth is that we come across such requests quite often. But having such a situation for a stress management training really hurts. Especially in an age where stress is predominant and ever on the rise. In fact, with lives in the fast lane, there’s really no time to even get bogged down by stress and its effects!

With organisations growing and changing rapidly, stress is increasing day by day. And with everyone trying so hard to climb the corporate ladder as soon as possible, stress is a predictable outcome. However, it’s time that organisations woke up to this truth. It’s time they realised what the competition is doing to their employees and how it’s going to affect their mental and physical health in the long run. And how what started off as fatigue and burnout can turn into increased conflicts, poorer interpersonal relationships, decreasing team morale, lower productivity and eventually attrition.

Many companies complain that they can’t afford to send their employees for full-fledged stress management trainings as they would lose out on productive time. That’s where they need to think again! In fact, it’s always better to conduct capsule size stress management training workshops on a more regular basis. It helps employees stay in touch with the techniques and also gives them a chance to clear their doubts by asking the facilitator questions as and when they arise.

And if even that’s not possible, then let me help you with a few quick techniques that your employees can practise during working hours.

One of the most popular techniques for calming down is deep breathing. It helps reduce our mental chatter and connects us to the present moment. This enables us to manage our emotions and quickly get back to being calm and composed.

Another very effective technique is meditation. It is one of the best stress management techniques out there, but also one that is rather misunderstood! And that’s the reason why many people, although they have heard of its many benefits, tend to stay away from it. And that’s also an area where we can help you in one of our stress management trainings. We can show you different ways to meditate and feel relaxed and calm. In fact, mindfulness is our speciality. And apart from meditation for it, we also use a number of more fun ways that can be easily incorporated in our daily lives. And you know the best part about it? You don’t have to stop your thoughts to practice it!

There are many more corporate training techniques for managing stress effectively. These were just a few. To learn more, you can always attend a stress management training. There we can share more and practise more too.

Stress is a real issue and one that we all need to wake up to. And it’s about time that stress management trainings go beyond just being a tick on our training calendars. Let’s do it because we genuinely care about our people and are willing to take steps to look after them.

How performance coaching helps in various sectors

I was a guinea pig for testing a game which was based on performance coaching a few days back. It was an extremely interesting game and quite different from any other I had ever played before. While it was a typical board game where you have to roll a dice and move forward based on the number you roll, it also had a very unique theme. Every time you moved forward on the board, depending upon the spot you landed on, you had to pick a certain card. And these cards were all based on the skills required to be successful at performance coaching.

While I had a great time playing the game it also made me think. It made me realise how performance coaching was needed by practically every individual at some time or the other in his or her life. It was what could help tackle obstacle and barriers that hinder our progress and accelerate us to the next level. So here I am listing down how it can help professionals from different sectors and roles:

1.      Sales – Performance Coaching can do wonders to an individual’s sales performance. Sales professionals require dedicated efforts in first finding good quality leads and then trying to close on what they have to offer. Sometimes they can tend to lose track of the direction in which they are going and may go astray. They may even land up making efforts in the wrong direction by tapping the wrong customers or offering the wrong solutions. That’s when their performance goes for a toss and they may require the help of an external person who can show them the mirror and help them get back on track. Sales also being a function which needs to face the maximum amount of rejection can take a toll on some salesperson’s confidence levels. And that’s where performance coaching can also help them.

2.      Customer Service – Handling irate customers can be really difficult. The first and foremost thing that you have to watch out for is your own emotions. An irate customer can really press your buttons and we all know how we land up reacting to that! Performance coaching can help in improving the emotional intelligence of an individual. It can help get the person in touch with their own emotions and show them ways of managing them better. This helps the individual in having good control over himself which in turn makes it easy for them to handle even the toughest customer!

3.      Managers – A Manager’s job is to handle not just his own tasks but also those of his team members. And believe me, having to do all of that can be quite intimidating especially if you are new to the field! Coaching your team members becomes an important part of your responsibility and when you are inexperienced in the domain, that’s when you really realise that you need Performance Coaching yourself! By going through the process yourself and by understanding how to manage your own developmental areas, it becomes easier to guide others. Besides, the impact and influence of a strong and sorted manager is very different and one that every team member would be willing to follow.

So those were some benefits of Corporate training in some of the roles that immediately came to my mind.

Have you ever been through Performance Coaching yourself? We would love to hear how it helped you. So do write in and share your story with us…

TEAM BUILDING TRAINING FOR EXCELLENT BUSINESS GROWTH

There’s no doubt that trainings help in developing people which eventually helps in business growth. But what do you think of team building trainings? Do they help in business growth?

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m asking you this question. When I already said that trainings contribute to business growth, team building trainings should do the same, right? Then why do you think I’m still asking you if team building trainings serve that purpose too?

That’s because, many a time team building training is considered as an outing or a form of recreation for employees taken offsite. In fact, we get a lot of such enquiries where organisations want to conduct team building trainings as a part of their team outings for fun. They actually insist on keeping the debriefs minimal. And hence sometimes team building trainings are not taken very seriously and may be considered as simply a way to have fun.

I, on the other hand, personally feel that team building trainings are the most important one’s for business growth. This is the time when the whole team is together and away from work. They can therefore focus on bonding with each other and build those bonds that will help them back at work.

Yes, fun definitely is a big motive of team building trainings. Fun is what keeps the atmosphere light and creates a space where people enjoy mingling and getting to know each other better. And when they know each other better and bond better, a very different level of trust is created. This results in working together more efficiently, and eventually more productivity and business growth.

How? Because when you trust your team members, you are more open to each other in your ways and thought processes. This reduces conflict big time and you actually enjoy working together. And that’s when you become more productive and an overall happier team.

Team building training provides a platform where teams and team members can get aware of how they operate in and as a team. They can then work on becoming a better team to achieve better results.

So I’m sure you now know why I feel team building trainings should be given highest priority! They do after all serve multiple purposes like effective communication skills, learning, awareness, development, growth, business results, efficient teams, well bonded and motivated teams, better workplace environment and most importantly, fun! Team building training is truly a buffet!

BENEFITS OF EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION SKILLS IN WORKPLACE

Communication skills training is a common training program that anyone can go through irrespective of their level, age, experience, department, etc. This is one skill that needs continual enhancement, though sometimes some people do get offended when asked to attend a communication skills training! They feel, being in the position that they are, they are by default exceptional at their communication skills. There are good at it, no doubt. But remember there’s no limit to learning. And certainly, no harm in enhancing a skill further.

It’s very important to have good communication and good team bonding in a workplace.  It makes things easier and a lot smoother. In fact, an organisation that encourages open communication has less unnecessary conflicts. People are ready to listen to each other’s opinions and a lot of sharing happens. They also give each other constructive feedback and are open to receiving it too. This helps in improving them, others and the organisation on the whole.

Talking about open communication, organisations where people can openly share ideas and thoughts have very high levels of creativity too. This in turn improves employee engagement and retention levels. When people have the liberty to share their ideas, they feel heard. This gives them a creative boost which helps them come up with more such ideas. And that’s when you have an organisation full of people who are running high on creativity, productivity and will stick around for a long time!

Another benefit of good communication skills is teams performing better. When communication is good, team members come together to create strong cohesive units. This is not just helpful within the team, but also greatly improves cross functional collaboration. Being able to communicate effectively opens more channels to ask for help and provide help more often.

Effective communication skills also help in being able to speak assertively to our seniors, colleagues and subordinates. This is challenging for some people. But can be helped by communication skills training.

In short, communication skills enable you for better asking, speaking, listening and understanding. And believe you and me, its these basics that matter a great deal while trying to get any job done! And how do you enhance these? By attending a good communication skills training. It will help you work on these aspects. And if you are already good at them, it will help you in brushing them up further.

So if you are ever given a chance to attend a communication skills training, go for it. Irrespective of what your communication level is, go for it. It will only make you better. And people rarely get a chance to better themselves.

3 major differences in the impact of Slang Communication & Business Communication

I’m sure you all know what slang communication is, right? I may still have had to explain it a few years back. But with the advent of so many means of communication, I’m sure everyone understands it even if they are unfamiliar with the term. And believe me, it’s one reason why organisations are having to conduct more and more communication skills trainings for their employees!

In case you are unfamiliar with the term, let me give you an example to make it clear. For example, consider the term ‘FOMO.’ Have any of you heard it before? I happened to hear it for the first time in a session that I was conducting a few months back. And only I know how I was looked at with wide eyes when I said I had never heard of it! I was very sternly told by my participants that it meant ‘Fear of Missing Out!’ It seems that’s what the youngsters use nowadays to explain their incessant need of following the pack, or else they feel left out!

So, what do you think could be the differences in the impact that slang communication has versus business communication back at the workplace? And with the advent of Facebook, WhatsApp, etc. why are more companies opting for communication skills trainings?

As you may have concluded from my example, slang communication is the communication used typically by a group of people. In my case, the entire younger generation, as I was told! So, what do you think are some of the dangers of using slangs over business communication?

·         Not understanding it – And that’s exactly what happened with me! I could not understand what the term meant until the group using is took the effort to explain it to me. And this is something that commonly happens especially when we travel. Local people use local terms that are beyond our understanding. And this causes huge gaps in understanding. Gaps that large, that even communication skills trainings can’t repair! And some terms can even cause misunderstandings. For example, the term ‘trainers.’ To a person from the learning and development sphere, it means someone who gives training to others. On the other hand, for some youngsters, it means sports shoes!

·         Wasting Time – Yup, this one’s pretty understandable too. If you use such terms that others don’t understand or may be confused with the meaning of, you’re going to waste your as well as their time in re-explaining what you mean. Now don’t you think its better to use a commonly used term in the first place!

·         Groupism – Now this is one I realised when I was in the training room that day. Not knowing the term, when everybody else was aware of it, actually made me feel like an outsider to the group. In fact, my self esteem took a hit and I for a minute actually felt like I must be really dumb to not know the word!

The solution to all these issues…Simply sticking to business communication at the workplace. I know we tend to use slangs all the time at home and especially with our friends. But let’s make an effort to be more aware of the words we use to ensure that it makes communication easy for us and the people around us.

And if you’re having difficulty with that, you can attend a communication skills training. It will help you get aware of what you speak and replace those words with more commonly understandable terms. We are so used to using some slang terms that we don’t realise we are using them. And getting aware of it, is the first step to changing the habit.

Why business needs team building training?

We got a very interesting enquiry from a client last week. What started off as a request for an interpersonal skills session, soon evolved into a team building training requirement. And from understanding the requirement, you will be able to clearly understand why businesses need team building training.

So, the client gave me a call last week. She said she needed a one-day training on interpersonal skills for a particular team in her organisation. As usual, I then got down to asking her a string of questions. What were the challenges the team was facing, how was it impacting them, etc.

I must say she gave me a very detailed answer which helped me understand the problem very quickly. She said that there were a lot of conflicts happening within the team. Individuals were having arguments and it was spreading a lot of negativity throughout the organisation. People were reacting to one another and tempers were running wild. Work was getting hampered and the overall morale of the employees was going down. She felt that the employees lacked interpersonal skills training and did not know how they should behave with one another.

Our conversation gave me the feel that what we were looking for was a training on conflict management. If we could teach the team how to behave with one another and also give them awareness on how they may come across to each other, they would be willing to alter their ways and come together as a team.

I then asked the client to fill up our training need identification form too. You see, it gives clients a chance to think deeply about what their needs are, as we tend to forget things while on a call. And that’s precisely what it did.

The client also came up with the various components of team building training like communication and collaboration, leadership, taking initiative, etc. that the team required. And that’s when we were actually able to put a finger on what we needed to deliver. A team building training that experientially made the participants understand the importance of each of these team building components along with a one-day training on conflict management. This would help the team in taking their first step to resolving their differences and work together more efficiently. It would also help them get a hold on their emotions and how they display them. Yes, the duration of the session had increased by a day, but it was now exactly what was needed by the group and provided a more holistic approach to the issue.

We also decided to package the session as a team building training rather than an interpersonal skills training. Why? Because the acceptability of a team building training will normally be higher than that of an interpersonal skills training in such a scenario. And ensuring that our participants look forward to a training session is an important part of our job. And teaching them what they need and in the best and most harmonious manner, our forte!

FEATURES OF ORGANISATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Organisational Development has been around since quite some time now. Some 70 odd years to be more precise. But it’s still to pick up pace. At least in India. Somehow Indian companies are just not ready for it. Rather, I should say that they are not yet open to it. They feel it takes too much effort and time. And you know how we all are. Always looking for a quick fix!

Let’s face it, the market place is growing at a supersonic rate. Newer technologies are constantly outrunning the older ones and customer expectations are ever on the rise. Which means that all the organisations are perpetually on their toes, always aiming to get better so that they can give better.

So when organisations say that organisational development is not for them, I find it difficult to believe. After all, organisations are run by humans and humans are pretty complex beings. So we can start with team building training. Understanding them to help them be more productive can get really difficult at times. And that’s where organisational development fits in.

Let’s have a look at some of the features of Organisational Development and what their consultants do to give us a better understanding of the same:

• Behavioural Expertise – Organisational Development consultants are behavioural experts. They understand the human species very well and how their minds works and what they want. This makes it easy for organisations to create policies and structures which employees will relate to well, in turn increasing their productivity, commitment towards work And also improve performance of employees.             

• Change Agents – Change is something that can get difficult to manage, especially when its met with resistance. Organisational Development Consultants understand this very well and hence create interventions which help include the parties who are going to undergo the change in the change process. This improves the acceptance of the change and the process becomes smooth and a lot easier to manage

• Independency – How often have you been to a specialist and realised that you tend to get hooked to them because they know their stuff well and its not something you can do? Happens all the time, doesn’t it. But is it that desirable? Doesn’t it create dependencies? Organisational Development consultants and organisational culture workshops, believe that it does. They therefore ensure that they equip their clients to handle and solve their own problems before completing the intervention and exiting the organisation

• More than just a Doctor – Just like a Doctor, Organisational Development consultants help you diagnose problems. However, I must stress on the word help. They ‘help’ the organisation in figuring out what’s wrong, then together work to correct it and then re-evaluate the results and see what further actions need to be taken. They can well do it for you, but believe in empowering their clients and make them ready to face what the future holds for them.

If you feel you need to create some kind of change in your organisation or have some issue but are unsure how to go about solving them, Organisational Development is the way. It will help you move forward smoothly with long term effects that are sure to benefit you, your customers and your employees.