As part of this year’s State of Work report, Workfront found that if the average employee had to rate their colleagues like an Uber driver, they’d give them only 3.65 stars out of five. Think of what that means. If you saw an Uber driver with a 3.65 rating, would that score make you think twice before accepting the driver?
It doesn’t necessarily speak well about the state of relationships at work. And if we can’t rate our fellow team members highly, what chance do we have of getting good work done with them?
If this sounds familiar, I’m sure you’re keen to track down and fix the problem. Here are some ideas to kick start a programme to get you on the right path for a team functioning at the optimal level.
1. Discover your benchmark
You might start by asking your team members to anonymously rate each other as they would rate an Uber driver. Maybe you’ll find that you don’t need to focus on improving the relationships between team members because everyone already respects each other. If that’s the case, congratulations! Your work here is done.
However, maybe you’ll find that your team needs some help when it comes to mutual respect. If so, you’ll know you’re heading in the right direction with this programme.
Either way, you won’t know until you ask. So send out an anonymous survey and let your team know that they might not see the results until the entire programme is over, so they don’t immediately leap to the wrong conclusions about their co-workers.
Assuming the scores indicate you need to work on the relationships between team members, you can move on to the next step.
2. Find out if your team members are doing what they value most
Sometimes employees know they personally don’t deserve the respect they would like to deserve. They’ve checked out or are producing mediocre work, and they know it. The problem might simply be they aren’t doing what they value most.
Luckily, the solution to this problem is simple. Ask each employee if they’re doing work that excites them. If they hesitate or give a lackluster response, you can brainstorm how to change their workload in a way that best appeals to them.
You might find that they’ll likely never feel passionate about any part of their workload, and it might be best for both them and your company if they find a different role elsewhere. Either way, you’ll be able to improve the respect across your team by making sure each team member actually wants to do the work they’re assigned to do.
3. Re-introduce your team members to each other
There are instances when the only time team members discuss their hobbies is during the interview process. Once they’re hired, it’s all heads down work, work, work.
One way to fix this problem is to set up meetings or lunches with team members – especially remote team members via video conferencing – to encourage personal discussion.
You might structure the meeting with two or three questions to break the ice, but ideally these meetings should be an informal way for people to become re-acquainted with each other on a personal level. Nothing too serious or formal.
4. Ask team members to list the strengths of their colleagues
If your team doesn’t rate each other highly, it might merely be a sign that too many people aren’t in the exact role they should be in and aren’t playing to their strengths. If this is the case, try a test like StrengthsFinder so you can help your team understand why certain people add value even though they have totally diverse skill sets.
In addition, sometimes team members are merely in the wrong role, and they’d like to change. Moving forward with requests like this can fix problems that might otherwise go unresolved for years. Better to have a clear grasp of everyone’s strengths right now so you can match them to a role that they can excel in.
5. Give team members visibility into each other’s work
Our State of Work report also showed us 59% of workers say they know what their company’s priorities are but other people’s actual work is a mystery to them. This opens up the possibility that employees may think less of their team members simply because they don’t know how much work their co-workers are getting done.
To fix this, you might find ways for every team member to see what each person is working on in an operational system of record. This will enable other people’s work to no longer be a mystery and will help team members get a better sense for just how much work is happening on a day-to-day basis. Once they see this, they may have increased respect for each person on their team – and may even realise they could do more.
Of course, added visibility could also backfire when it comes to improving respect across the team. After all, some team members might find that, indeed, their colleagues are doing hardly anything. But maybe that situation is merely a sign your team needs to do some restructuring.
Get the ratings you’d want in an Uber driver
Just as you may not be thrilled with an Uber driver who is rated only 3.65, you likely are also looking for five star colleagues.
Take matters into your own hands and try these tips to get your team to that optimal level.
Hopefully by the end of your programme (whether it be weeks or months) you’ll be in a position to get a higher ‘Uber score’ all round and your team will start producing better work – work they can believe in together – as a result.
