I enjoyed this article by Paul Rutter from RISMedia today entitled, "The 5 C's of Team Success.". The article adresses teamwork from the perspective of a company and how the management team can build a winning team using the 5 C's. Of course, these principles apply to building success with your team - your own brokerage within a brokerage.
- Build COMMUNITY - This starts with the leadership team always. A new member to the team/company must feel welcomed and feel a part of the group immediately. Do you have a system of welcoming and acknowledging a new team member? Some ideas: a welcome card mailed to their home: get their bio and background and publish it in your next meeting agenda: introduce them at a sales meeting. Assign a transition buddy to help with questions and orientation to the office. Conduct a formal branch/team orientation.
- Encourage COOPERATION - Do you have common goals for the team/office and is everyone aware of them? Do you encourage participation in meetings? How about asking a team member to run the next team meeting or conduct a training class? Do you have a feedback mechanism in place - suggestion box, advisory board, forum?
- Support COORDINATION - Ensure everyone is clear about expectations, job performance and specific roles and responsibilities. What are your methods of communication? Team/sales meetings, email, website/blog/intranet, written documents?
- Promote COMMUNICATION - Clear, open, two-way communication is vital to any realtionship and organization.
- Offer continuous COACHING - Everyone benefits from ongoing coaching and training. It's more than accountability - it's a way to relate to your team members and show how much you care about and support their individual success.
