communicate
more effectively

Challenge

I am a new leader of a manufacturing team. Our team needs to communicate more effectively with each other so that we can achieve the business goals our owners have identified. Currently we don’t work well as a team at all, and this hinders our communication. It is essential for us to improve the way in which we work as a team and the way in which we interact with each other. How can you help us?

Solution

We must start by clearly communicating your objectives for this process with your full team. They need to know the objectives and goals you have for this development process. They need to understand “why are we doing this” and the expectations you have for their performance going forward.

We will have each team member complete the Kolbe A™ index and the Kolbe B™ index. These indexes will help us understand each employee’s striving energy and how he or she feels it is currently being utilized in the workplace. We will meet with each one personally to share the results of these tools so they can come prepared to immediately apply the information when we meet as a team.

After each team member has worked through Kolbe indexes, we will come back together for athe first of two four-hour sessions. We will focus on understanding each other’s strengths, we will learn the environments in which those strengths can thrive and be productive, we will discuss the differences you have with each other which leads to conflict and miscommunication as you interact, and we will learn the communication approaches that each team member needs to succeed.

At our next four hour session, we will focus on building trust with each other. This will accelerate your ability to work together and to perform well as a team.

Our final step will be for you to complete the Kolbe C™ index which describes your expectations for performance for each of your managers. We will compare this with their Kolbe B results to identify if their view of their role and your requirements for their performance are in alignment. When these are out of alignment, expectations are not being met and this causes tension between you and this manager. We will be able to identify these differences and provide you prescriptions and recommendations so the desired results can be achieved.