Importance of Personal Development & Growth as a TEAM!

Personal development is one of the most important things needed in life for on going growth as a human being and it isn't any different when it comes to being a successful team.

I will be explaining some of the reasons why continued personal development is invaluably important and beneficial towards the overall chemistry, collaboration and performance of the team. I will also be sharing specifically what forms of personal development activities team can implement in order to ensure the team performs and succeeds to it's full potential.

The reason why it's important to have an ongoing commitment and passion towards personal development is because it truly is a remarkable experience that allows you to learn, grow and improve as a person on a daily basis. It completely shifts the way you think, the way you perceive yourself, the way you act, the way you perform, and the way you live all because of a completely renewed level of awareness and belief you create upon yourself. Our mind is a muscle and just like body in order to maintain a healthy mindset, we need to make it a priority to condition it and stretch beyond our comfort zone if we ever want to achieve bigger and live life to our true full potential. Here's an example; just like our bodies become overweight if we don't exercise, we will also overload our mind with a lot of unnecessary and harmful distractions and information that presents itself to us in different forms on daily basis. However once we discipline ourselves to make it a habit to condition and exercise our mind on a daily basis by putting positive & valuable information into our mind on a daily basis it will completely change our physiology and emotional state of mind which allows us to perform at a much more higher level then an average person or in this case an average team.

Some of the most effective forms of day to day activities that can increase your level of personal development which in my opinion will allow you and your team to grow are as follows:

1. Morning prayer, Positive Affirmations and/or Meditation!

2. Positive Audio, Video, and/or Book on your way to work!

3. Creating a Positive & Productive Workplace Environment!

4. Surrounding yourself with positive team members & people in general!

5. Creating and/or attending empowering seminars with top keynote speakers geared towards helping improve overall morale, performance, focus, energy, skills & motivation!

Be an ASSET to your team not a Liability!

We often meet a lot of great meet people who have a positive attitude and some who may not be as positive but are harder working. They key I want to make here is that when it comes to being a successful team, your personality alone is not quite good enough, you must learn to adapt the right productive principles along with with your personality if you want to be an effective leader in your team.

We all have unique talents and abilities, some we're born with and others skills we have to master over the course of our life. The key thing is identify your strengths and your weaknesses so that you have a better understanding of how you can be of value to your team and you can also be clear as to what it is you need to change or improve so that you can be as asset to your team instead of a liability!

This is the main point that I was trying to quickly get across when I state being an asset to your team instead of a liability.

Identifying ineffective team members

In our day to day work place we come across many different type of people, all with different attributes and ambitions. Some are excellent to have in our team, and many may not be excellent but are willing to learn and change. It is important to identify the ineffective team members sooner rather then later in order to maintain the chemistry and formality between your team.

In saying that I thought it would be useful to create a list below regarding 7 characteristics of ineffective team members.

1. Ineffective team members don't pull their weight
They simply don't contribute enough and don't live up to commitments. As a result of this they increase the workload for other team members.

2. They are unwilling to share
While there quick to learn from others and find out what's going on, they often persist to share their knowledge and experience with others. They think of learning and sharing as a one way traffic.

3. Not worthy of trust
They don't tend to keep a secret and if you happen to share confidence with them, they misuse that information. They often like to talk of the problems affecting others, while keeping theirs to themselves.

4. Pursue personal goals
While there's nothing wrong with pursuing personal goals because all of us do that, however this shouldn't be at the cost of team goals. Ineffective team members don't tend to be on the same page as the team and like to choose their own priorities and areas of interest instead which do not fit in well with the team's agenda and overall priorities.

5. Blaming & Excuses
Ineffective team members usually like to make excuses for not performing to their full potential and blaming others is usually a common behavior.

6. Pessimistic & Negative
They usually like to express their gloomy and negative energy amongst others. Usually resistant against any move or idea by the team because they are close minded and make assumptions prior to understanding what's involved.

7. Lack of Sensitivity
Feelings and needs of other team members do not concern them. Yet, they expect their colleagues to be very careful about trampling upon their own feelings. As a result, ineffective team members have no sense of timing, bring up issues at the wrong times and exaggerate perceived insults when none are meant.




Question:

What do you think is one of the worst characteristics that a team member can have?

Being an effective team

In order to be a successful team when it comes to a business workplace environment, it is important that a team has some or all of the qualities as I have mentioned below!

1. Clear Purpose
All members understand and are clear about the vision, mission, goals and objectives of the team.

2. Open Communication
Effective teams always pride themselves on open and participatory communication. People are free in expressing their feelings as well as their ideas.

3.  Informal, Comfortable & Relaxed Atmosphere
There are no obvious tensions, because interesting, fun and productive workplace environment designed to engage the group and create a positive day to day experience.

4. Effective Problem Solving & Decision Making
Approaches to problem solving and decision making are well established by effective teams.

5. Defined Roles, Responsibilities & Accountability 
Work is fairly distributed and skills are well represented with team members by identifying then utilizing each team members abilities.

6. Each individual carries his or her own weight
Each individual is respectful of the mechanics of the group such arriving on time, coming to meetings prepared, completing agreed upon tasks on time, etc.

7. Strong Relationships
Effective teams work on building and maintaining internal relationships. Team members are supportive, trust one another and have a lot of fun together. Team members also invest in developing relationships and building credibility with important stakeholders in other parts of the organization.

8. Systems & Procedures
Effective teams implement and support procedures to guide and regulate team functioning. 

9. Measurement & Self Assessment
Effective teams have clear shared measures. They schedule time to regularly assess their progress and performance by identifying achievements and key areas for improvement.

10. Shared Leadership
Effective teams share leadership roles depending upon the circumstances, needs of the group, and expertise of members. The formal leader coordinates the integration of effective team functions and then models the appropriate behaviour to help establish positive norms in the team.

Here's an awesome video of how beautiful teamwork can look like if done effectively!! 

It all starts with you.. become the BEST leader possible!

We all know that in order to go from a good team to becoming a great team requires a great amount of leadership amongst each individual. There are a million and one reasons why leadership is a significantly important fact when it comes to forming a successful team. 

To go a bit more in detail as to why this is a key attribute, I believe when it comes to creating the right positive results both in life and business it comes down to your day to day behaviours. Now in order for somebody to develop those productive behaviours overtime it would require a great amount of daily leadership by reading books, watching videos and learning from mentors. By gaining this type of knowledge it would help anybody develop the right positive and winning mindset which would then lead to taking the right actions and result in creating the right outcomes as a result of those leadership qualities gained.


I believe nobody is a born leader but rather an inspired leader, so when it comes to being a successful team it's important that you either be an inspirational figure that leads by example or follow an inspirational leader that lead groups of people towards great accomplishments.

This is why I believe leadership is important, because it can provide a foundation for ideas and excellence showing others that anything is possible!


Questions:

What do you think the most important quality of a leader is?