MODERN MANAGEMENT
ability to thrive depends greatly on
each person’s ability to express
themselves openly and effectively.
Grow your team’s ability to engage
in honest and yet respectful
conversations and you will go a long
way toward enabling collaboration.
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managers understand how they
can consistently reinforce these
expectations through their own
behaviour and actions.
5
Hold people accountable
Among the most common
reasons organisations struggle
to shift culture is they fail to hold
people accountable for their
behaviour. Driving any behavioural
change requires that you make
alignment matter. Reward and
recognise only behaviours wanted
and take remedial action to address
those that aren’t. Avoid the all too
common pitfall of allowing so called
high performing individuals to get
away with uncooperative behaviour.
Hold everyone equally accountable
to building a collaborative
environment, irrespective of
his or her seniority or individual
performance scorecard.
enabling you retain them. The
benefits also extend to your ability
to build a culture in which people
are empathetic to one another’s
challenges and feel ownership
of the success of the team as a
whole. There’s no greater way to
build understanding and regard than
stepping into another person shoes.
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Select carefully
Every aspect of your culture
should be non-negotiable selection
criteria when hiring new staff. To
build a collaborative culture, look
for and hire people who have a
collective mindset and sincere
desire to be a part of a successful
team. Place priority on hiring people
who are open minded, respectful
and motivated by the success of
the team. Look for those willing to
both speak up and step up when the
teams needs them to.
Recruit well
Develop Relationships
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8
Hire from within
Look for opportunities to
internally recruit people to roles
in other areas of your business.
Moving people around is a great way
to build their skills and experience
and will go some way toward
12 ModernBusiness
July 2016
Build relationship skills
Invest in your team’s ability
to build and maintain great
relationships. Help people
understand how to develop rapport
with their colleagues and to
communicate effectively. Any teams
Address conflicts
Reflect for a moment on how
often you have seen people hold
onto conflict. In some cases you
would be forgiven for thinking they
enjoy the battle and want to keep it
alive. Take early and decisive steps
to address conflicts that people are
unable to work through on their own.
Make it a baseline expectation that
everyone take responsibility for the
impact they have on other people
and work in a spirit of cooperation.
Appreciate that people will at times
struggle to get along, what matters is
their ability to put differences aside,
work through disagreements and find
ways to work together.
Karen Gately is a leadership and peoplemanagement specialist and a founder
of Ryan Gately. Karen works with
leaders and HR teams to drive business
results through the talent and energy
of people. She is the author of The
People Manager’s Toolkit: A Practical
guide to getting the best from people
(Wiley) and The Corporate Dojo: Driving
extraordinary results through spirited
people. For more information visit www.
karengately.com.au or contact info@
ryangately.com.au