In the workplace, no challenge is more complex than human relationships. Managing a team requires an incredible amount of so-called “soft-skills” that unfortunately aren’t taught at school: empathy, communication, leadership, intuition, trust, self-improvement, and more.
In our ever-evolving, complex environment, doing a good job at managing your team can be quite a challenge. Luckily, TeamMood can help you dissolve some of the most common management issues you may encounter:
1. Open communication and foster transparency
Communication - or the lack of it - is the number one problem in most organizations. Team members don’t always feel in confidence to share issues or concerns with their managers. They may not know how to, nor whether their team leader will listen to them with goodwill. As a result, issues remain unspoken, at the expense of the overall mood and functioning of the team.
TeamMood is a strong managerial sign that a team leader gives importance to his/her team members’ opinions and well-being. It gives them an official channel to share feedback anonymously and creates a ground for better communications.
2. Spot underlying issues
No organization is perfect - issues are part of the game. But if the manager doesn’t identify the signs of a crisis, it may burst in front of his/her eyes - or at least considerably hinder the team’s effectiveness.
By gathering the mood of the day for each team member, TeamMood helps managers to identify underlying issues. It’s still their responsibility to tackle the issue, but at least, the data provides the ground to open up the discussion with the team and try to defuse the conflict before it bursts.
3. Empower an unmotivated team
There is nothing less motivating than the feeling of powerlessness. Many employees find themselves in this situation: whatever they do or say, nothing will change. Not a great incentive to do their best, is it?
TeamMood is a great tool to empower your team members. It gives them a voice and the opportunity to warn their manager if something is going wrong. No more long faces and silent resignation. With TeamMood, team members can take their work situation in hand and find solutions to make it better.
4. Improve engagement and lower your turnover
Turnover can be very costly for a business: between the recruitment costs, the time spent to interview candidates, and the training of the new team member, replacing an employee can add up to tens of thousands of dollars. According to a study commissioned by CPP –publishers of the Myers-Briggs Assessment and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument–, 30% of workers state that interpersonal issues have led to someone leaving the organization. How’s that for unresolved conflicts?
Once again, using TeamMood can help you improve your team engagement and lower turnover. Your deeds are more important than your words. By listening to them, you are showing a genuine interest in them and their wellbeing – one that will be appreciated.
5. Convince candidates to join your team
Hiring new employees can be a hassle for managers. Indeed, the competition is fierce to attract the best of the best in critical areas: IT, developers, data scientists, … And candidates can feel little informed about the reality of the team he/she is applying to.
One of our customers recently shared his tip: by showing his TeamMood’s data to the candidate, he was able to convince him to join his team. By this action, he was able to demonstrate transparency and reflect the team’s culture and what teammates were living daily. From now on, this manager systematically shows his TeamMood’s history to new candidates, so that they can see what happened and how it has been handled.
6. Gather bottom-up feedback
Strategy, assessments, advice… communication streams usually follow the same path in most companies: top-down. Do you see where you could be missing something? Team members are far more than robots that implement a strategy. Their different experiences, reasoning, and ideas are invaluable for the company.
By inverting the streams and listening to their team members, managers can:
- Improve their knowledge and management style
- Listen to weak signals from their team
- Gather ideas for improvement
- and much more!
Want to try it for yourself?