Team Building Getaways: How to Avoid Wasting Time and Money

Team building getaways: you need only google the term to see how ubiquitous they are.  They’ve gotten more and more popular over recent years, getting wilder and crazier and often, less worthy of the time and money spent on them. That’s because instead of focusing on how the ‘team building’ getaway is going to actually build relationships and encourage people to work together, many companies focus on outdoing each other with exotic locales and highly competitive activities.

Here’s the thing: you really don’t have to travel to China, force your employees to walk over hot coals (no, we’re not making that up) or engage in demeaning contests that involve things like eating baby food and swatting contest losers on the buttocks with the competition’s signage (yes, that really happened). These things will not build camaraderie, increase sales or motivate employees.  They’ll alternately cost you an arm and a leg that you’ll never see again, anger and alienate your staff or possibly get you sued.

Poorly planned team building getaways can be a disaster.  If the activities aren’t well thought out, they can turn into competitive madness that pits employees against each other instead of helping them figure out how to work together.  And competitiveness isn’t the point here.  Get your team all fired up to work against each other and you’ll likely end up bringing out their worst.  There’s also the ROI: you’ve got to factor in the cost of the getaway including the activities, transportation, food, accommodation and man-hours spent away from the office.  It may be more expensive than you think, so determine a budget ahead of time and go from there.

A few quick tips for planning a successful team-building getaway:

Go to a professional. Research corporate getaways and talk to someone who can help you find something that works for your budget and needs.  It doesn’t have to be expensive, nor does it have to take up an entire weekend or take place far from home.  Just getting out of the office into a neutral environment can help forge connections between co-workers, which is a good thing for daily operations at your company.

Lose the competitive edge. The idea is to plan activities that have a common goal for all participants, so they’re forced to work together to achieve success. This helps people learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses, and see how they can depend upon each other.

Keep it structured.  If you don’t have events planned throughout the getaway, odds are you’ll end up with an unfocused group of employees spending too much time at the bar.  At the same time, you’ll want to mix in some fun with the team-building activities, like a sports game.

Image via Sports Corp Elite

Micromanagers, Whiners and Know-it-Alls: How to Foster Harmony when Personalities Clash

When building your team, it’s only natural that you’ll have contrasting personalities in the group.  In fact, that’s a good thing – everyone brings a fresh perspective, with individual ideas, opinions, takes and reactions.  That’s all fine and good – but what about those times when you seem to have a ragtag group of employees who are great workers, but whose personalities are a little… difficult? Here are some common office personalities, how to get along with them and how to help them work together.

The Micromanager – This guy can make your job easier, but he’ll also alienate the employees he oversees with his inflexible, dictatorial management style.  He doesn’t just ensure that the job gets done, he breathes down his subordinates’ necks while they work and point out their every mistake.  He savors power like a fine wine – think Dwight from The Office.

The best thing to do with a micromanager is be honest and straight with him about how you’d like him to change.  Ask for more latitude, and stress the need for employees to feel trusted to get things done on their own.  Thank him for his dedication and praise him for his strengths to ensure that he doesn’t feel slighted – which he could then take out on your team by micromanaging even more.  Keep an eye on him and run interference if he gets too pushy.  The other members of your team will instantly feel less stressed and more confident, benefiting the entire company.

The Whiner – When you’ve got a whiner on your hands, every request will be met with a complaint.  No matter what the situation is, she’ll find something she’s not happy about.  Give her too much work, she’ll complain.  Lighten her load, she’ll still complain.  She might drone on endlessly to colleagues seated near her, or offer up reasons why she can’t complete a task during every meeting.

There’s no cure for this affliction, we’re afraid. To put it bluntly, the best way to deal with it is to ignore it – at least when you’re personally dealing with it.  If you address unfounded complaints, you’ll feed the monster.  You can deal with the complaints without agreeing with them; empathize with her feelings but tell her that you’re very confident in her abilities and that you know she’ll get the job done brilliantly.  If your office whiner is bothering her co-workers, tactfully ask her to keep the chatter to a minimum so everyone can work peacefully.

The Pessimist – Nearly every office has its Eeyore.  Similar to the whiner, the pessimist will have a negative comment about nearly everything.  He doesn’t like your idea, but doesn’t have a better one to offer.  He’s convinced that your company’s latest big project will be a failure, and his negative energy is dragging everyone else down.

Very few people are such staunch pessimists that they fail to see promise in anything at all, but they do exist.  If you’ve got one that can’t seem to get excited about anything, call him out on it.  Tell him that you appreciate that he’s trying to ensure that you’re being realistic, but that a healthy positive attitude – or at least, keeping his mouth shut instead of voicing doubts – is what your company really needs. Do damage control – try to keep up company morale and if you catch wind of a pessimistic statement, negate it.  And, most importantly, don’t let the pessimist’s attitude get you down.

The Martyr – This office personality is easy to spot.  She’s the first one in the door every morning, and the last one out in the evening.  She’ll take on a heavy workload with a ragged sigh and a gloomy look in her eye, but she’ll never say that she can’t do it. She’ll make comments about not having a life outside work, and she’s always convinced that she’s working harder than everyone else.  She’ll never say that, though – martyrs are typically passive-aggressive.

Call her bluff.  Ask her to detail her tasks, and tell her that you’ll be taking a look at every employee’s workload to ensure that it’s balanced. And, be open to the fact that she might possibly get work dumped on her by a lazy colleague.  Some people are just too nice and timid to say no.  Either way, get to the bottom of it and do what you can to make sure she feels like she’s appreciated and that you’re actively working to ensure fairness.

The Know-it-All – This person thinks his way is the only way to do things, and offers his opinion as fact.  He can be condescending, and interrupts other people while they’re speaking to ‘correct’ them. He starts a lot of sentences with, “Well, actually…” and often claims to be privy to top secret info but won’t reveal his sources.  He may also be resistant to updating the skills and knowledge needed to help your business grow, feeling that he’s already an expert.

This guy can tend to stifle diverse voices, and that can definitely be bad for your business.  Thank him for his contributions, but stress the importance of allowing everyone in the office to offer their opinions and ideas. When the know-it-all answers your question at a meeting in a way that implies that no other ideas are needed, say something like “Thanks for your take on this,” and ask the rest of the group what they think.

When The Smartest Guy In The Room Is A Jackass: How To Lead Clever People

Exceptionally clever and well-educated employees possess ideas, knowledge, and skills what allow them to produce results far disproportionate the resources and responsibility made available to them. Every organization has at least one of these institutional headaches, and every one of them is too important to let go and to maddening to tolerate daily. While this puts a great deal of stress on you as a leader, when properly engaged, they can become powerful assets.
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Non-Productive Meetings and Endless Emails: How to Avoid Them (Like The Plague)

It’s happened to nearly all of us: you get called to an important meeting, everyone sits down and schmoozes a bit, there’s some unfocused discussion and by the time the meeting is over, you realize that not much was accomplished. Idle banter that goes on too long, lack of an agenda and unequal floor time between attendees can turn what should have been a productive meeting into a major time-waster.

The first step toward a productive meeting is having an agenda. Outline what you want to accomplish during the meeting, and e-mail it to all attendees a day or two ahead of time. That will give everyone time to think about how they can contribute to the topic at hand, and will give the group a sense of purpose. The agenda should list the topics you want to cover, in the order you want to discuss them. Re-state the agenda before the meeting starts as a refresher for the inevitable few who only glanced at the email.

Don’t schedule meetings right before or after lunch, or at the very end of the day. Mid-morning and mid-afternoon are best, since everyone’s energized and less likely to be distracted. You don’t want all of your employees daydreaming about sandwiches, falling over with post-lunch fatigue or watching the clock, itching to leave for the day. Definitely avoid holding meetings during a meal – it’s far too distracting.

Have an assistant take notes throughout the meeting. Not only will this provide a record of what was discussed and what ideas were brought to light, it will also help maintain an air of professionalism that will help discourage idle banter and side conversations.

The meeting must have a clear leader who guides the group through each topic, and encourages participation. Encourage everyone to participate equally – don’t let that one guy who just likes the sound of his own voice (or is trying to make himself look good) do all of the talking. Make it a point to ask the quieter attendees what they think, and prod them for their own solutions.

Give each attendee an adequate amount of time to talk, and limit interruptions. If you’re respectful of their opinions, they’ll be more likely to provide valuable feedback. You want everyone to feel safe expressing their ideas in front of the group.

Stick to the allotted time for the meeting. Ten minutes before the scheduled end, the meeting leader should mention that you’re almost out of time and begin assigning tasks based on the discussion. Setting goals will help ensure that the meeting will actually help you get something done.

Time after time, after meetings have ended, the boss (or meeting organizer) gets bombarded with emails from employees about things that were discussed during the meeting. A good way to avoid this is to have a quick follow-up Q&A session later in the day or the following day after everyone has had a chance to absorb the info and come up with questions. Getting everyone together for this also ensures you’re not hit with multiple emails asking the same question.

Announce the Q&A session at the end of the initial meeting, so everyone knows they’ll get a chance to have their questions answered and there’s no need to email. Keep the Q&A session short and sweet, so it’s not redundant.