People will likely be the most unpredictable factor in your business. You can pick all the right people, provide a great atmosphere and still have struggles among people in the workplace. It can be frustrating when you know you have carefully picked a team with complimentary skills that should fit well together, but there is still friction.
Fortunately, or unfortunately, this is normal in a business or firm. There are a lot of personalities and wherever there are humans, conflict can be hiding anywhere — even with the best leadership model. This is why from time to time you need to shake things up to build better bonds and get the team on a common focus. Not to mention, when people feel more connected to their co-workers, they can enjoy their work more which improves quality of what they are producing.
Investing in a coaching program for your team provides endless benefits to your business or firm — right down to the bottom line. If you see any of these struggles in your business or firm, a coaching program for your team can change your business atmosphere around.
Common Struggles & Symptoms
There’s confusion about what their specific goals are and how to get there.
If your team isn’t focused on the same business goals, it can cause conflict. Symptoms of this are when employees complain that some aren’t contributing to the goals, people have common disagreements about priorities, and it seems that each person is on their own separate mission. Synergy cannot happen among islands working alone.
Solution: Clearly lay out the company or firm’s current goals in order to get everyone on the same page. Job descriptions and a clear understanding of their responsibilities towards those goals should also be lined out so everyone knows exactly how they impact the goal.
Not all employees understand company culture or mission.
This is a common problem that happens when there isn’t a defined mission that is presented to employees. By defining core values, a business is able to provide clarity on the overall attitude, priorities and focus of the company so that everyone knows how they can act and communicate to be in line with the values and mission. A coaching program can support the changes that some team members may need to adjust and compliment the workplace you want to build.
Solution: Ensure every employee understands the company’s culture and mission. These are often laid out in the employee handbook so it is effectively covered in onboarding new employees as well.
We don’t keep employees very long.
There are few things more frustrating than the amount of time that is wasted going through the hiring process and then the training process, just to have to have an employee leave shortly after. The time and investment of new employees can be extensive, especially when you add up all the hours that people spent with them and filing paperwork. It’s essential to get to the bottom of why employees don’t stay so you can get the best value and productivity out of your investment.
Solution: Survey your employees and listen open-mindedly to their complaints. It might be your way or the highway, but that won’t keep people motivated to do their best for you or even stay at your firm. Listen to feedback, make suggestions and changes that align with your vision and their wants when possible. If you treat your people great, they will stay.
Employees don’t communicate well with each other (or not at all).
A leader can find this most frustrating of all because they have business goals, and now their resources and time are bogged down with what feels like high school drama. Maybe one person won’t talk to another person, or when they do, the tension is felt by everyone. Poor communication create tension which is the deathbed of innovation, creativity and motivation. Investing in communication skills training or individual coaching to support growth in individuals will benefit not just the company, but the employees in their personal growth too.
Solution: Communication can be a challenging problem, especially if it is the leadership involved. You can hire a coach for support and to learn tools to mediate and resolve conflicts when they arise and to coach the entire team or just an individual on communication and conflict resolution skills.
Team-building exercises haven’t worked.
Team-building is only one piece of team growth. Team-building provides chances for people to connect in new ways – but often we don’t use company focused exercises so that the information actually applies to the exact struggles you are having in the company. For most people, having fun times with their coworkers is easy, but learning to work and produce together is a different challenge. The connection has to happen in the everyday situations which is what coaching offers. The value of coaching can far out-weigh the cost of sending the entire company for a week-long vacation (not that it’s a bad idea if you have the budget for it).
Solution: Coaching is team building combined with learning so your team is connecting while they are getting on the same track. They will get new skills and your coach will be able to point out specific struggles in order to make a few small changes that make a giant impact to your firm’s bottom line.
Our employees aren’t growing.
Sometimes, you can have a well-oiled machine and then growth becomes stagnant. You may find employees are no longer motivated to be innovative or get better at what they are doing. While growth is not everyone’s strong suit, people must be motivated and inspired to grow. By getting new attention on your processes, purpose and profit, a coaching program can help support the group and specific individuals. It may be the thing your employees are waiting for to get rejuvenated.
Solution: Re-energize your team with some new skills. When we repeat the same work each day, we can get stagnant or lazy. Often businesses just need new, innovative ways to work or tools to shake up their work routine and provide greater impact. Have Georganne speak at your company to bring them together for shared learning.
We need more sales.
This is the most common problem businesses have when they hire a coach. After observing the office culture and atmosphere, the most common solution is to remind everyone in the company that they are in sales.
Solution: While many people don’t want to be a salesperson, everyone in your company is indeed a salesperson in some way – even if it is just setting the atmosphere for the titled salespeople to do their jobs with resources they need. By hiring a coach, you’ll turn everyone in your company into business development, not just the sales team.
So how do you get them back on track?
Many people try to do it from the inside, but if there are ill feelings or poor communication, it’s helpful to have outside support. Not only will someone from outside the company be able to stay unbiased, they will also be able to see the challenges from an outside, observer space to truly identify areas to improve to change your workplace atmosphere and get everyone on the same focus.
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