In today’s competitive business landscape, managers are not born with the skills to make resilient teams. It takes a strategic approach to think ahead of time and teach teams about a winning mindset. There are bound to be hurdles and hardships for the teams but the trick is to adopt a framework to move forward in the right direction.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, when millions of workforces around the world started to work remotely, companies had to move operations to the digital space. In the virtual landscape, companies faced unexpected issues and understood the importance of preparation.
Of course, there were companies with effective leadership and a uniform framework to build a team on digital platforms. The focus of many companies was to convey a sense of optimism, motivation, and to help the workforce adapt to new situations. With the roll out of the vaccination, it looks like the world is headed back to normalcy.
In 2021, business leaders have a unique opportunity to build and grow a resilient team that focuses on specific actions. Now, let’s take a look at essential factors that lead to a resilient team.
Eliminate Resiliency Barriers
When it comes to organization development, you can use the GRPI framework to build overall team effectiveness. In fact, many business leaders use GRPI principles to improve the poor performance of their teams, cut out stress, and resolve interpersonal conflicts. GRPI refers to multiple dimensions of your team. You can arrange specific priorities of each team member based on his or her performance.
GRPI stands for:
Goals
This involves alignment and commitment of your teams to their individual goals.
Roles
This involves clear authority over tasks, duties, and responsibilities with a supportive execution strategy.
Processes
This includes established processes to coordinate, communicate, and make robust decisions.
Interpersonal
This requires establishing trust, getting feedback, opening a line of communication, and offering support to foster a healthy workplace environment.
Focus on a Resilient Role Model
If you’re a business leader or manager, your first course of action should be to opt for a resilient role model. An ideal resilience role model would allow your team to be broadminded and embrace positive behavior in order to experience new scenarios. If you want to have a resilient role model, then you have to be honest with your team
Ensure Psychological Safety
One of the hallmark aspects of a resilient team is a powerful social bond. It is the feature that defines the strength, technical capabilities, and talent of your team. After a broad experimental study, Google confirmed that team members that stood out the most in a team had a psychological safety net.
So, make sure your team is psychologically safe by focusing on nonverbal cues and other emotions. For instance, if someone is feeling down, it is imperative to show support and express concern. Also, make sure each person that speaks, offers a shared perspective and value throughout conversations.
Offer a Support System
Another crucial aspect to build a resilient team is to create and offer a support system. With a dedicated support system, your staff can take more interest in the workplace environment and focus on opportunities rather than failures. This support system will also improve the relationship of managers with employees. On top of all, the support team also boosts the morale of your team.
The same morale helps employees feel motivated and valued throughout the workday and leads to improved productivity. If your business revolves mostly around the digital workplace, then ensure strong communication to make informed decisions for the company. A reliable and effective support system will also help you tackle complex challenges and situations more easily.
Create an Optimistic Workplace Environment
It may sound straightforward, but it takes a lot of effort to maintain an optimistic workplace environment. First and foremost, find out about the challenges your team has faced previously and then roll out healthy workplace initiatives that would make employees see work in a new positive light.
At the same time, be mindful of individual situations rather than enforce team-based efforts. Ultimately, this approach will tie together in building a resilient workforce. If you want to make more optimism, give a degree of ownership or managerial control to the employees.
Forge Trust
A vulnerable leader gets constant glares in every industry. You have to be open-minded to accept the challenges and truth to understand the experience of your employees. Leaders often have to put themselves in uncomfortable situations to spot unique opportunities. No matter how many challenges you may be facing, make sure to build genuine and strong relationships with your team members for an extended period. It is the most effective way to build trust and ensure resilience.
Ensure Adaptability
In the distant future, the pandemic would just come across as a tumultuous phase for organizations. However, it is a perfect opportunity for business leaders and managers to find specific elements that lead to a resilient team. For starters, help your team members to master problem-solving skills.
Pay close attention to “how team members approach puzzles and work out solutions. Also, learn to appreciate the determination and commitment of your employees to invest in more strategic efforts. Despite high demands, workplace changes, business setbacks, and mountainous challenges don’t forget to invest in social engineering. Think of it as a network that celebrates wins, creates a social hub for staff, cultivates team-building exercises, and emphasizes more team collaboration.
Throughout the pandemic, companies have been preparing for the unexpected. It is the main reason most companies now want to build and retain resilient teams that can succeed despite the odds. Apart from digital settings, the most successful managers and leaders continue to focus on resilience to push innovative and productive boundaries. Remember that it takes a collective effort from managers and business leaders to build a resilient team. Ultimately, a resilient team makes it possible for organizations to handle adversities and thrive for years to come.
REFERENCES: