For my team, customer service week means a chance to eat and share food and share time with others. It’s a great time, and while it takes a smidge of work, the payoff can be huge!

Food for my team – I’m bringing in healthy food for my team; fruit, yogurt, tea and coffee, so they have something to eat in the morning that they don’t have to worry about it for at least one day. Some of my friends tell me a cake or pie or pizza is a good thing for their teams. Get to know your team and find out what they like to eat…then get them that. If your team is a health-minded team like mine, feel free to copy me. The key is asking your team what they want.

Food and drink for others – I’m going to buy plenty of food, not just for my team, but enough food and drink so other teams can come visit my team and get to know them a little better. For some reason, people love to talk when they have food, so I’ll invite down the rest of the IT department (after my team has had time to eat their share), the HR department, a few of the firm’s other client facing departments, and some other leaders too. All of this to share the experience with my team and do a little team building by knowing what others they don’t often get to interact with in person look like.

Build something social (or food for no reason) – Sometimes (though not this year) we do ice cream bars, we have food contests that require outside judges, or we just bring in food for no reason. It’s another excuse for folks to bring in what they like and share it with others. We get all sorts of things shared this way; pea pods, carrots, sugar free desserts, new flavors of coffee and tea, and (my personal favorites) banana and zucchini bread because someone had leftovers and wanted to use things up.

Do you do food days for your team? If so, what’s your experience been with it? Does it bring your team closer together?

If you haven’t done food days before, why not try one this week?

cc licensed flickr photo by M0les: http://flickr.com/photos/m0les/219980646/

Post from: EveryJoe

Customer Service Week Means Food

Go first – As manager, you have to go first, show that you’re vulnerable, that you’re human, and that your team can trust you. If you aren’t willing to go first, why would anyone else want to contribute?

Share something folks don’t already know – Sure, it’s great to share the adversity story your team has heard 100 times…but not if you really want to build a team. Share something new, something surprising, that folks don’t know.

Let folks not participate – Some folks won’t participate in your team building activities. So WHAT! Make it safe for those who want to participate, and perhaps you can leave your non-players back to watch the phones or to do work while the rest of the team has fun.

Don’t play YOUR favorite game – Everyone wants to win, and everyone knows what the boss’ favorite game is. If you play your favorite game, you risk the trust of the whole team because folks either won’t play with you because they don’t want to risk beating you, won’t play as hard (and then will complain behind your back) or they’ll see that it’s your favorite game and try to ruin it for you. Not good outcomes. Instead…

Find out what your team enjoys (and play that instead) – Ask your team what THEY want to play–and then play their games. Let them set the rules, let them organize things, back them up so it’s safe to fail–and give them all the kudos if it’s a huge success.

Make it fun – Fun stuff is more apt to build teamwork than more work stuff. Make it fun, and folks will play. Just remember that everyone’s definition of fun is a little different.

Keep it simple – Simple stuff is more likely to get done than complicated stuff. Make it as simple as possible for folks to participate, and they will be more likely to do so.

Pizza is NOT teambuilding – Just because you bring in a pizza does NOT make it a team building exercise. Unless you’re making a pizza, or you’re eating pizza at Dave & Busters, pizza doesn’t equal teambuilding.

What are YOUR best teambuilding suggestions?

soccer practice photo credit to woodleywonderworks

Post from: EveryJoe

Teambuilding 101

Play requires you to be vulnerable and let your hair down. It may be uncomfortable at first, and it may feel forced.

DO IT ANYWAY!

How can you play with your team?

Trivia Days – Send out a trivia question (no Googling allowed) and give the first correct respondent a coffee beverage of their choice, or a small gift card. Winner asks the question next week (but you still buy the coffee!)

Flashback Friday – Share your favorite song from your childhood, and encourage the rest of the team to share theirs.

Name That Tune – Take Flashback Friday up a note and  see who can figure out the title and artist…and let someone go home early for guessing the most right.

Share Your <insert personal tidbit here> – One of the best things my team has every done was during a morning meeting (at 6:30 AM), we shared a personal note about ourselves. Things like what we liked, what we don’t like, where we went to high school, favorite movie, biggest fear, stuff like that. Send out 10 questions and encourage folks to pick 5 they are comfortable answering…and YOU go first!

Two Truths and a Lie – Instead of just sharing information, turn it into two truths and a lie, where folks share 2 odd facts and 1 that SOUNDS close but is a lie, and have folks guess at what the li was.

All of these things are easy to do, but they require you to give up control, to be a little vulnerable, and to let your team take things where they are comfortable.

WARNING: If you’ve never been vulnerable and open with your team before, they may wonder what’s wrong with you. DO THIS ANYWAY!

What’s YOUR best team building tip? Please share it in the comments below.

Photo credit to silwenae

Post from: EveryJoe

Play With Your Team: 5 Tips

5 Ways to Be There For Your Team

1) Single task your direct reports

2) Manage by walking around

3) Open your door to your team

4) Open your heart to your team

5) Listen, I mean really LISTEN, to what your direct reports are saying

Dad's the Boss - Image: Flickr

What can you do to BE THERE for your team?

Listen to the music photo credit to vagawi

Post from: EveryJoe

5 Ways to Be There: Friday Fish Philosophy

• The Enlightened Manager shares When is team building not team building – “If you really want to build a team – be very intentional about it. Don’t just assume that if you bring donuts that everyone will work effectively together. You’re more likely to contribute to giving employees diabetes than giving them job skills.”

• Ryan at Employee Evolution reminds us that if you’re interviewing for a job, there are some questions you can ask to make sure your boss doesn’t suck -  “In an interview, the questions you ask are just as important as the questions your potential boss asks you. They can determine what the relationship will be like and they can determine whether or not working for this person is really right for you.”

• Simple Rich shares “It’s not Brain Surgery,” where he reminds all of us managers to relax.

And relax is what I will do now. I’m off for the weekend, and I’ll be back on Monday. Enjoy the slack that is the weekend!

Please share your favorite management links of the week in the comments below.

Post from: EveryJoe

Management Roundup for Week Ending February 9th, 2008