Teamwork: Your Team’s Skills and Expertise
Do you have a clear understanding of your team’s skills and expertise? And what are you doing to develop them for breadth, depth, and balance?
Watching this video is worth 2 Management Courses CPD Points*.
(See below for more details)
This video is part of course module number 4.3.2
Program 4: Managing & Leading Groups
Course 3: Teams
Section 2: Teamwork and Team Working
Other videos in this section include:
– Essentials of Working as a Team https://youtu.be/AZHBmSvcMuk
– Providing for Your Team https://youtu.be/-4ZGJTc1izY
– Protecting Your Team https://youtu.be/d2l0MAmgZnI
– Facilitating Effective Team Working https://youtu.be/u0_saYNmHmg
– Your Team’s Skills and Expertise https://youtu.be/8thhYXa4ZqI
– Elements of Effective Team Meetings https://youtu.be/QOKkXUza3uw
– Leading Effective Team Reviews https://youtu.be/vjqrYafrttU
– Team Celebrations https://youtu.be/sSF6PMrsMJE
– Problem Solving with Your Team https://youtu.be/sEcQ2FoXzao
– Your Team Working Problems Solved https://youtu.be/tIwRNM-jGKA
LESSON NOTES
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For effective teamwork, your team needs a balance of skills and expertise across the team.
If you can recruit into your team, think about the range and balance of the team’s skills and expertise, and select team members accordingly.
As team members join, find out as much as you can about their skills and expertise, and their:
• Experiences and achievements
• External interests and talents
• Preferred ways of working
• Development and career aspirations
• Concerns and fears
“The fox knows many things, but the hedgehog knows one big thing.”
– ‘I shaped people’ – specialists with deep, niche skills
– Generalists – capable of many things – but no depth. ‘Horizontal People’
Best of both worlds
For the best teamwork, it’s ideal if each team member has breadth and depth: ‘T-shaped people’.
Start by cross-training on adjacent skillsets. Encourage reading, training, seminars in related general skills.
T-shaped Teams
Adds depth across broader range – and even greater breadth. Makes teams more self-sufficient and better able to act autonomously within the overall goal, objectives and plan. Your team’s skills have breadth AND depth.
Larger, self-organizing teams can lead to less siloing.
They are also more resilient:
• Less key person risk – non-experts have enough base knowledge to help out at pressure points
• Less reliance on a single person who knows about everything – if most people do
RECOMMENDED EXERCISE
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1. If you have not already done so, start a comprehensive survey of your team’s skills and expertise. (4 MC CPD Points)
2. In parallel, carefully consider the range of skills and expertise you need – and in which areas you need strength in depth. Build an ‘ideal skills profile’ for your team. (2 MC CPD Points)
3. Review the findings of your survey against your ideal team skills profile. What are your findings? (4 MC CPD Points)
4. Put together a plan – with urgent priorities if needed – to address the balance and depth of your team’s skills and expertise. (4 MC CPD Points)
DOWNLOADS
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Free Resources
– CPD Tools – https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Paid resources
– Management Courses Onboarding Kit – https://gum.co/MC-ObK ($3)
RECOMMENDED READING
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– The Five Dysfunctions of a Team https://geni.us/wbIE
– The Wisdom of Teams https://geni.us/7i1AL
– The Belbin Guide to Succeeding at Work https://geni.us/Kzc4GV4
– Dream Teams: Working Together Without Falling Apart https://geni.us/oAgEOdA
– Pulling Together: 10 Rules for High-Performance Teamwork https://geni.us/zUVV3G
– HBR’s 10 Must Reads on Teams https://geni.us/0DLsNe4
Managers Need a basic set of kit to do your job well. Here are my top recommendations: https://kit.co/MikeClayton/manager-s-work-kit (the links are affiliated)
Management Courses Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Points
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You can record your Management Courses CPD points on our free, downloadable CPD record log.
Download it at: https://gum.co/MC-CPD
Each video has two levels of MC CPD points. For this video:
– If you simply watched the video, record 2 MC CPD points
– If you also carried out all of the recommended exercises, score a total of 16 MC CPD points
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Note:
Links to our book recommendations are affiliated through Amazon
#Teamwork #ManagementCourses #TeamSkills
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