I would like to ask for your help in constructing a response letter to my new hired boss. There was this one time that we had a problem on who to manage the set of trainees we had on the operations area. Because of that incident she sent me a letter about it. The letter started with how she appreciate all my hard work and how glad she is that she have someone under her wings who works more than what he is tasked to do and then the letter went from that to how she view me as a person. She stated all her bad personal thoughts about who I am. I wanted to tell my boss that I would appreciate it if we focus on the mistakes and not on how she view me as a person.

The Team Doc Says…

First I’ll say that yes, how she views you as a person shouldn’t figure in her feedback (even though it probably figures in her opinion of you). Second, this whole thing sounds really weird. She tells you how good you are and then slams your personality. Totally inappropriate.

Feedback that is given to you should be specific and timely. And in person, wherever possible, so a discussion can take place and you can decide what behavior changes you will make based on what you have been told. There are several keys to giving good feedback. A good feedback list is here.

You cannot control what your boss will say to you, all you can do is control your response and you don’t want to get into a spitting contest here. Stay focused on the task at hand and respond to her feedback based on your demonstrated behavior.

I think it would be a good idea for you to meet with her face-to-face. Once you’ve had your first meeting, set up a regular schedule to get together. Try to get inside her head so you can figure out where she is coming from and work forward with that. If you don’t, your job their may become too miserable to tolerate.

What about you reader? Do you have suggestions  to offer?

Is trust important to a team? You bet it is. Without a foundation of trust, your team will never reach its full potential. So how do you find out the trust level in your team and what can you do about it?

A good starting point is to survey your team members, assess the results and move forward from there. And I have found just the right tool for you to do that.

Leadership expert, Dan Oestreich, has created a survey that measures trust in your team. And he’s made it available to you for free. (Yea!!) The Team Trust Survey can help you find out how trust — or the lack of it — affects the way people engage, decide, produce, innovate, and share in success.

You can get the survey here.

To get started, download the survey and share it with your team. Then follow these suggestions from Dan on ways you can use the survey with your team.

• Our team is performing at an acceptable level. How do we take it to its full potential?

• We are consciously working to build our trust levels and team performance. What will help us the most?

• We are already an extraordinary team. Where can we go from here?

• We have conflicts, disrespect, and “undiscussables” causing tension for us. What can we do about it?

I hope you find the survey useful and would love to hear what you think of it.

This topic was originally featured in my weekly Team Building Tips newsletter. Are you a subscriber? Get timely team building tips and tools straight to your email box by signing up here.

Do team leaders get to act differently just because they’re team leaders? Nope. One of the things you should remember is that your team will pay more attention to what you do than what you say.

Remember when you were growing up and your Mom said, “Do as I say, not as I do.” That is a death trap for a team leader. If you manage your team using the “as I say” approach, you will soon find yourself with a dysfunctional team that’s low in motivation and morale. Requiring employees to behave differently than what you demonstrate is like asking them to row upstream without a paddle. It just won’t work.

You can’t expect teamwork from your team if:

• You spend your day building walls between you and your peers.
• You keep secrets that would help others in the company.
• You make it a point to talk negatively about the rest of the organization.
• You only communicate on a “need to know” basis with select team members.
• You foster unhealthy competition between team members.

These type of behaviors undermine the success of the organization and often go all the way to the top. Leading with ulterior motives in mind will backfire sooner or later. Creating silos and unhealthy competition within or among teams will eventually break a company down — no matter how good the people are.

Always remember that no matter what you are doing, someone is watching.

Ask yourself how you would feel if you observed your behavior in your company’s leadership team. And never lose sight of the fact that if there is no company, there is no team. Your goal is to help your company be successful.

Here are some actions you can take that will make you proud to say you’re a team leader. And it will show in your team.

• Communicate openly, often and with your peers and team
• Collaborate with others on issue solutions
• Establish a method for cross-functional interaction with other teams when possible

Does your organization promote do as I say or do as I do? The next time you hear someone say, “They don’t work as a team,” or “I don’t understand why they don’t communicate with each other,” examine the leadership team’s behavior first.

What do you have to add?

How does a manager develop trust in the team?

The Team Doc Says…

Trust is not a right, it is earned. Some team members will trust the manager from the outset, and others will have to see proof. Here are a few ways:

• By doing what you say.
• By communicating openly with your team.
• By actively listening to your team members.
• By allowing team members to take risks and grow.
• By breaking down walls for your team.
• By providing feedback that enables growth.
• By rewarding in public.
• By managing discipline in private.
• By sharing the lead.
• Add yours — please leave a comment below.

My team does a Peer Assessment Process each quarter where every team member rates all the other team members on ten different items. When I received my assessment results, I was shocked. I thought I was doing so well as part of the team, but my assessment says otherwise.

The Team Doc Says…

First of all accept the feedback as an opportunity for growth, not as something you’ve done wrong. It sounds like there may be a couple more opportunities here too.

Written feedback should never be a surprise. It sounds like your team could use some heavy-duty practice in this area. One way to start would be to have some type of quick morning meeting every day or at least a couple times a week.

In these sessions, each person should provide feedback to team members using the feedback model. The format should be ‘what and why’ for what someone did well and why the person providing the feedback thought it went well or ‘what, what and why’ for what someone did, what they could have done better and why.

Take a look this article for some good feedback guidelines.

• The Do’s and Don’ts of Giving Feedback

Your team will stay in a state of chaos until the members face the fact that feedback is an integral part of working together effectively. That means giving the feedback face-to-face, not hiding behind a piece of paper.