Sal Silvester

The challenge in many organizations is not just that there are too many meetings, but that there are too many poorly run meetings. As a result people waste time and energy instead of getting "real work" done.

Most organizations have a discipline process or policy that escalates discipline through a series of steps. As I mentioned in my previous article, they are often wrought with warnings, threats, and ultimatums – none of which do much to build team member commitment. Instead, I would recommend the following three tiers to the Discipline Continuum that put the choice of change into the employee's hands.

I recently heard a client say, "I have never seen an employee stick around after having been through a performance improvement process." The challenge in many organizations is that they view discipline the wrong way. The process is filled with warnings, threats, and ultimatums, and as a result good people leave bad managers.

Numerous leadership books will tell you that having a vision is important. But for many people, the idea alone is difficult to understand, which makes developing a team vision elusive. Having a vision for your team is critical because it gives the members clarity on the team's purpose and where it's going. That clarity helps in day-to-day decision making, prioritizing, and understanding expectations.

The fact of the matter is that we all bring our different perspectives, goals, values, and backgrounds into the workplace. We have different ways of seeing the world and different preferences in how we approach our work.

The number one reason why senior leadership teams don't focus on more strategic things is….. "There isn't enough time."

The Manager who approached me in Part 1 of this series had used his original question of ‘Sal, why do I have to give people recognition for doing their job?' to set me up. He was persistent and continued, "I don't give people recognition for just doing their jobs. That's what they get paid for." The conversation went on, and he justified his position of not giving people recognition by saying that he had high standards. Hmmm. High standards, I thought. What does that have to do with it?

Recognition in the workplace is a critical element toward creating a cohesive team. So, the next several posts will deal with the topic. In this article we'll start with the business case – the "why" – for recognition.

Leadership on any team is important, and the foundational things that leaders do – like establishing goals, creating an environment of open communication and trust, providing performance feedback, and recognizing people – are all applicable to managing remote teams. But, in the absence of being co-located with team members, leaders have to make an extra effort to align their team, build cohesion, and engage and cultivate their people.

In my last two articles, we tackled a few challenges that remote teams face. Part 1 was focused on getting your remote team aligned. Part 2 on building cohesion. In this article, we'll focus on process.