Teamwork. Team concept. Over the past few decades, these words have become buzz words for business and industry. While many organizations have enjoyed success in implementing a team environment, others have found it difficult to move beyond theory to practical application of teamwork.
Develop an Action Plan
A plan of action is simply an outline of the goals and the action steps required to reach your team’s overall goal. The plan of action is where your team gets its day-to-day focus, direction, and stability. Though simple, a detailed plan of action is one of the most effective tools a team possesses. A clear plan of action enables team members to remain focused on the action steps required to reach the goal. You can work with more enthusiasm and commitment when you know exactly what you’re supposed to do, and you will be more competent as you progress toward the team’s desired destination. Four steps are required to develop a meaningful plan of action:
- Make an outline of the steps your team will take.
- Create short-term goals toward which your team focuses.
- Make a detailed schedule of the dates you plan to accomplish your team’s small and large goals.
- Develop an individual action plan for each team member showing what each person needs to accomplish to help the team reach the short-term goals and ultimately the overall long-term goal.
Develop Desire
A burning desire is the greatest motivator of every human action. The desire for success implants success consciousness, which in turn creates a vigorous and ever-increasing habit of success. Desire is the difference between a goal and a wish. Desire puts action into your plans. Without it, you will never succeed – no matter how worthy your goal nor how workable your plan.
Enthusiasm is the outward reflection of your inner desire. More than any other characteristic or trait of human personality, enthusiasm is the companion of success in every achievement, every worthwhile venture, and every upward step in human progress. Ralph Waldo Emerson said, “Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.” Your enthusiasm will be contagious. As you develop desire and enthusiasm to reach your goal, your teammates also will begin to feel this energy. As more team members develop desire, the momentum builds and your team will be unstoppable.
Develop Confidence
Nothing gives you more confidence than knowing exactly the actions you plan to take and the order in which to take them. When you have crystallized your thinking so that you know where you stand and here you want to go, you have laid the groundwork for supreme confidence. When challenges arise, and they inevitably will, maintain your focus on your goal and on your ability to reach that goal. Keep your eyes straight ahead and distractions will not slow you down. Obstacles are what you see when you take your eyes off the goal. Remain confident that you will reach your goal – and you will!
Develop supreme confidence in yourself and in your own abilities. Enter every activity without giving mental recognition to t
he possibility of defeat. Concentrate on your strengths, instead of your weaknesses – on your powers, instead of your problems.
Develop Determination
Develop a dogged determination to follow through on your plan, regardless of obstacles, criticism, circumstances, or what other people say, think, or do. You may expect to hear negative comments from certain people, but when those certain people are on your team, what should you do? The answer is to move forward toward your goal. Construct your determination with sustained effort, controlled attention, and concentrated energy. Do not allow negative or complacent attitudes from teammates to slow you down. Those individuals in time either change and go with the team, or they will remain unchanged and most likely be taken off the team.
Do not let others distract you. Hang on, do not quit, and you will win. Opportunities never come to those who wait – they are captured by those who dare to develop dogged determination. No matter what the goal might be, one step at a time will see it come to pass. That is why knowing what you need to do on a daily basis – and then doing it – is so important.
LMI Journal
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