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The image that your team conveys, whether knowingly or subconsciously, can have an impact on its effectiveness. If you’re dealing with problems and issues relating to values, customer care, quality and effectiveness, it could well be that image is at the heart of it. The tips here will help you to gain commitment from team members and build a positive team image that will lead to optimum performance.
When to Use This Guide
If you recognize one or more of the following observations, then this guidance may give you some fresh ideas on how to ensure the image your team portrays is a positive one:
- You may have received negative feedback or criticism from internal and/or external stakeholders about your team's attitude or performance.
- Your team appears to be disorganized: team members often work late or through their lunch hour, they often appear harassed or deadlines are frequently missed.
- The working environment is also disorganized and untidy: desks are covered in paperwork, in-trays are overflowing, there are piles of paperwork unfiled, notice boards are not updated, the space appears cramped.
- Your team members' appearance does not reflect organizational standards.
- Team members do not respond to enquiries or requests within appropriate timescales or with appropriate responses.
- Team members do not view complaints positively, nor deal with them professionally.
- Team members do not actively seek new ways of satisfying customers, adding value or exceeding expectations.
- The standard and accuracy of written communication coming from your team is low. There may be examples of spelling, punctuation, grammatical and factual errors and/or the quality of presentation is poor.
Suggestions
The following suggestions will help you to not only create a positive image for the team, but also to improve efficiency and effectiveness.
1. Give Clear Direction
Ensure that your team understands, commits to and demonstrates the values, behaviors and standards necessary to ensure the achievement of the key team and/or organizational objectives. For example:
- Revisit your business plan, in particular organizational and team objectives. Is there clear direction at this level? Revise this if necessary and communicate this to your team.
- Clarify the image, stakeholder care standards and values that support the achievement of the key team and/or organizational outcomes, for example by developing a customer care charter.
- Ensure that you give detailed praise where it is due, and offer prompt constructive criticism to individuals when standards are not maintained.
- Revisit your team members’ individual performance agreements. Ensure that personal objectives or success criteria reflect organizational/team standards.
- Ensure that your own behavior reinforces the desired image and standards you expect of your team.
2. Win Your Team's Commitment
- Involve your team in the setting of standards. Run a session encouraging the team to reflect on the image they currently project, the image their stakeholders are looking for, and the image they want to project (in other words, the standards and values they want to uphold). Encourage them to identify an action plan to put this into practice.
- Encourage team members to take ownership of and responsibility for the values and standards that they have defined.
3. Ensure Effective and Efficient Working Practices
- Empower your team. Give them the necessary support and training to deal with and respond to customer complaints and other issues that they could deal with quickly and effectively themselves. Delegate decision-making to the most appropriate levels throughout your team.
- Review the working environment. You could hold a team session to identify ways of working more effectively and efficiently. You could also review the physical layout of your department, equipment etc.
- Review team and individual workloads, ensuring that team members focus on the key team and/or organizational outcomes and deadlines, and that work is prioritized in line with this. Aim to ensure that adequate time is allowed for achieving the key team outputs.
- Review the workflow, systems and procedures to eliminate duplication, reduce handovers and optimize responsibility.
4. Build Quality Into the Culture
- Encourage the team to set standards. These could relate to response times, written communication, dealing with complaints, major processes, etc. Give direction when necessary.
- Assign quality improvement projects to various team members or project groups. For instance, create editing guidance, templates or macros for writing or designing key materials such as stakeholder correspondence. This will ensure consistent quality and will improve efficiency.
- Boost confidence and pride in the team by celebrating achievements and recognizing good performance regularly, such as sharing positive feedback with the team, or praising a team member for dealing with an issue effectively. Highlight the difference that a commitment to excellent customer service can make.
- Reinforce the importance of good service by encouraging the team to put themselves in their stakeholders’ shoes. What kind of service would they expect to receive from the team if they were a customer? Encourage them to review the quality of the customer service they provide from this external perspective.
5. Exploit Opportunities to Raise the Team’s Profile
- Help to increase your team’s exposure within the organization by encouraging them to seize opportunities to take on responsibilities in other areas of the organization , for example working on cross-team projects, helping out with high-profile internal communications campaigns, or running an employee team day. Give all team members the opportunity to take on such responsibilities.
- Publicize your team’s key achievements by, for example, writing an article for the employee newsletter or bulletin board, or sending round regular email updates on progress towards objectives.
