Too many strategies for building a great team require books, consultants, or conferences. Instead of all the time, talk, and travel required by these traditional (and expensive) avenues, consider a new approach—just do something.
The following list of 15 relatively simple ideas requires little effort to initiate and even less effort to explain. Give them a fair shot, though, and your team will grow stronger within a year—maybe faster.
- Create and follow a team meeting agenda to keep your time productive, moving, and shorter than last year’s meetings.
- Call special meetings for longer discussions about specific topics, rather than hijacking the fast-paced short team meetings.
- Periodically forget the scheduled meeting and go to lunch together. Or breakfast.
- Clarify and write out a list of accountabilities for each person; distribute to the team and throughout the organization. Keep them to five or fewer per person.
- Discover the key language of appreciation for each team member (see Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace by Chapman & White). Agree as a team to personally express appreciation for one another, and periodically discuss progress.
- Celebrate often and in a timely manner. You can tell what’s important to a team or organization by what they celebrate.
- To fully embrace #6, make everyone’s birthday a big celebration.
- Assign one person the accountability (see #4) for scheduling celebrations.
- Schedule team retreats that include unusually high amounts of get-to-know-you-better times. Plan no formal agendas over meals. And don’t, for even a moment, feel guilty about not “accomplishing enough.”
- Send notes to team members’ spouses to brag about their loved one’s accomplishments.
- Ask team members to attend and present at board, elder, or leadership team meetings.
- Ensure each team member identifies and pursues at least one personal growth area that is not a skill.
- Establish an aggressive budget for personal and professional growth materials and experiences.
- Insist that everyone on the team (including you) take all vacation days to which they’re entitled.
- Share your own growth plan; develop one worthy of sharing if you haven’t already. Be smart and don’t include an item called “try new ideas to strengthen the team.”
David Staal, senior editor for Building Church Leaders and a mentor to a second grader, serves as the president of Kids Hope USA, a national non-profit organization that partners local churches with elementary schools to provide mentors for at-risk students. He also chairs the advisory board for a nearby college and served ten years in leadership for a local church. David is the author of Lessons Kids Need to Learn (Zondervan, 2012) and Words Kids Need to Hear (Zondervan, 2008). He lives in Grand Haven, MI, with his wife Becky. His son Scott and daughter Erin attend Valparaiso University.
