If you are a winery or hospitality leader, this is likely an intense time of year for you as you staff up and train your team for the new season (with fingers crossed that health regulations will allow for wider visitation). You’ve selected your new staff and now, like an expert maestro, you need to turn your individual virtuosos into an harmonic orchestra!
It’s a question of chemistry and there are phases your team will go through as they get to know each other and eventually bond, moving from being a group of individuals to developing into a cohesive, productive and interdependent team.
Bruce Tuckman’s Model of Team Development (1965) gives us a road map of what you can expect as you guide your team on their journey to become a true team:
Remember that changes (a team member leaving, new members joining, or significant events) can cause your team to revert to a previous phase – and that’s completely normal!
Here are three leadership tips to help your team along their journey:
- Spend some time talking about personality styles and communication styles – this is SO IMPORTANT! You can even use a personality assessment tool to uncover in detail the communication and behaviour styles that are natural to each individual. This will help quickly build trust and acceptance of those natural behaviour traits so they’re not misinterpreted, leading to dysfunctional conflict.
- Schedule formal and informal time for the team to become acquainted and share their experiences, goals and work styles and preferences. This will allow all team members (and you too as the leader) to gain insights into what motivational drivers inspire your team and what matters most to them. Who is motivated by control/power? Identify your alpha players early, they’ll likely be quick to take initiative. Who is just happy to be a part of the team and is there for the social interaction? Who are your reliable detail-oriented team members? As a leader you need to know what matters to your followers, otherwise it’ll be very difficult to motivate them and assign them the tasks they’ll naturally be great at.
- Create shared team goals with shared team rewards. You may even want to involve your team in establishing their team’s performance targets! Having individual bonuses or incentives can be a motivator but if you want to incentivize performance AND build team cohesion, not to mention a collaborative, supportive and even FUN organizational culture, then team targets are the way to go.
What phase is your team in today? If you’re a new leader or if you have questions about how to support and motivate them as they move through the stages of team development please contact us today for a free consultation.
Go Team!
