The Talent Development team at a national financial services company brought me in to help them with team building to improve their ability to work together and also figure what type of talent they needed to hire to strengthen the team.

The work occurred over a calendar year.

Identifying the Root of the Problems

We started by having all team members take the Kolbe A™ Index, a tool that reveals a person’s natural way of approaching problems. We followed that with:

• individual sessions, to help everyone understand their own Kolbe Result and what it meant in the context of their job;
• team sessions, to help the team members understand each other’s Kolbe Result and how that played into team dynamics.

There was much laughter and “aha’s” as members discovered the reasons for their team building challenges and patterns to improve collaboration. For example, Joe was most engaged when working on new projects, but lost interest quickly when the work became routine.

Using the Kolbe System™ For Team Building

The dialogue provided the foundation to create stronger partnerships when the team worked in sub-groups. We looked at what happens when they get stuck working as a team. We created strategies that would either prevent the issues from occurring or help them course correct in real time.

When working together, the team could get stuck in the data and over-create new concepts. No one on the team had the talent to manage timelines; often projects were left incomplete when they moved on to new topics.

Hilary, the team leader, embraced the Kolbe Concept™ completely and was instrumental in the team building process.  Hilary and I met with team members individually to deepen their understanding of how their unique talent helped or challenged them in their roles.  In those talks, Hilary addressed how to improve their working relationships, using the Kolbe insights. Hilary was open and honest about herself, encouraging the rest of the team to do the same.

Everyone came away with an understanding of the value of their contribution to the team. They also felt more comfortable talking about their challenges and seeking help from others on the team whose talents would provide the support they needed.

Through the team building conversations, Hilary also recognized that some of the team members were not in roles that fit their natural talent; so she changed their jobs. Also, the team reports revealed that no one on the team had a talent for creating systems and providing project management energy, so she added two new team members who brought that talent to the table. These changes made a huge difference in the team’s effectiveness and productivity.

New Team Dynamics

As the team leader, Hilary did a fantastic job using the Kolbe Concept to develop and engage the team. The transformation was quite astonishing. When we did a review at the end of the team building coaching, everyone reported greater degrees of self-awareness and an environment of higher energy and collaboration when working together.

Takeaway

The Kolbe Concept™ is an outstanding resource for team building. The insights provided will be a game-changer. When they are integrated into the team culture, the sky is the limit to what you can accomplish.

Contact me if you are experiencing teamwork challenges or simply want to take your team performance to the next level.

Kolbe A™ Index and Kolbe Concept™ are trademarks of Kathy Kolbe and Kolbe Corp. All rights reserved.