written by team leaders, for team leaders
now I’m a team leader…
THE
AB S O L U TE L Y
ULTIMATE guide to being
A
TEAM LEADER
DEAR READER: A MESSAGE FROM ONE TR1BE THE ULTIMATE GUIDE TO BEING A TEAM LEADER
Dear Reader,
Dear Reader, The biggest learning resource has always been the experiences, learnings and mistakes If we google Leadership, we find of people. In this guide, you will see thoughts thousands and thousands of definitions and learnings of Team Leaders which will help about Leadership, and each one of them you live your journey better. In February 2015, makes sense. All our endeavours in a group of Team Leaders from across the Dear Sir/Madam, AIESEC rest upon our fundamental desire country came together to create this guide to Due to work commitments I am not able to physically collect my Vodafone to explore and develop our own leadership empower the coming generations of leaders Sim Card for the number 9920 708 182. I have entrusted/endorsed Christina potential. as a the Team as a to live their experience and build the best KelmanAnd to collect simLeader, card onbe myitbehalf. member of the Management Body, as a Thank you for your cooperation in this matter. possible experiences for their teams. LC Vice President, or even as LCP, each of us Warm are in Regards, a place to live the best leadership We hope that this practice of collecting and experience possible. compiling experiences does not stop here but Today, we know a kind of a formula to ensure a complete team experience as a Abhinav Dhatnagar team leader. They are called Team Minimums. However, we can never forget Leadership is all about people and experiences. For each of us to be able to truly exercise leadership, it is not enough to just merely follow these minimums, but, understand how to work around them with different people and in different contexts. Experiences of leaders make the best resource for us to understand this better, and help us understand our own leadership sweet spots.
builds on with time, with more learnings captured and shared. Who knows what can this turn out to be - volumes of such guidebooks published every 6 months, or even online forums hosted and run by the Team Leader community of AIESEC in India etc. This is just a start. And let's start with first doing the best we can to learn from people who have been in our position before, and ensuring we activate the generations after ours to live their experience better than we could. In Our Attempt To Scale Up People, AIESEC in India Member Committee 2014-15 One Tr1be
“Sometimes it falls upon a generation to be great…” AIESEC India Member Committee 2014-15 One Tr1be
03 07 13 18 24 31 41
table of contents
introduction
04 let’s talk AIESEC 05 the leaders we develop
planning
13 what to remember 16 what to forget
starting my team 07 09 10 11 12
team forming team building weekly team meeting monthly review quarterly team days
job description
training
22 creation of a jd 23 how to use a jd
25 training myself 26 training my members 27 three steps to team education
coaching & tracking
32 34 reflection & evaluation 35 45 quarterly team days 36 46 four ways to rock recognition 38
tracking systems the good and bad news coaching cheat sheet 3 things for coaching
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Welcome Team Leaders! It has started! You are the one, you are a team leader of AIESEC in India. Our organisation is going to amazing places and you are the one to take it forward! This guide is not just a textbook for you to be the top-performing team leader in AIESEC in India neither does this book promise that you will become the topperforming leader if you read it. However this book can help you to frame your own team leader experience in the hopes that you can experience an intense inner and outer journey so that you can emerge as an individual with stronger qualities of world citizen, solution oriented, empowering others and self awareness. You don’t have to read all of it, but during your journey as a team leader, refer to it from time to time. These symbols represent different responsibilities you have to your team.
act
ion
ste
ps
Each aspect will be covered in one chapter of the book!
ick r t & tips
s
You may see these around. These are tips and tricks written by the current and previous team leaders of AIESEC India especially for you!
You may see this symbol around also, these are recommended action steps for you to take throughout your team leader journey.
BEFORE WE START LET’S
AIESEC
TALK
Around 800 million people go hungry in the world every day
So What is the story of our organisation?
As an organisation we aim to achieve Peace and Fulfilment of Humankind’s Potential. This is our vision, but in
1,400 1,400 women will die today as they do every day, from illnesses related to pregnancy and childbirth which are easy to diagnose and treat
simple terms you can think of this as our ‘Why’. This is WHY we do what we do., this is what is driving our organisation forward.
But how do we achieve Peace and Fulfilment of Humankind’ Potential? The world is changing. All the time. The world is definitely a very different place to what it was when AIESEC started up in 1948. In fact, the only constant of our world is that it is constantly changing and because of that the social problems and societal issues are changing also. So how are a bunch of young people supposed to achieve Peace and Fulfilment of Humankind’s Potential? We need one solution. We need the right people who can go and solve these issues! We, as AIESECers understand that leadership is the fundamental solution to the world’s needs.
29,000 About 29,000 children die each day, most from easily preventable health problems
But before we move onto WHAT our organisation does to develop leadership, leadership is a big term. What do we mean exactly by leadership? Let’s Google it shall we?
BEFORE WE START LET’S
TALK
AIESEC
So What is the story of our organisation? leadership /‘li:dəʃɪp/ noun • the action of leading a group of people or an organization, or the ability
to do this. "different styles of leadership" synonyms: guidance, direction, authority, control, management, superintendence, supervision • the state or position of being a leader. "the party prospered under his
leadership" synonyms: headship, directorship, direction, governorship, governance, administration, jurisdiction, captaincy • the leaders of an organization, country, etc. plural noun: leaderships
"the leadership was divided into two camps"
In AIESEC we talk about Leadership in terms of four qualities. We believe that the leadership the world needs is people who are Empowering Others, Solution Driven, Self Aware and are a World Citizen
check them out here!
THE
LEADERS WE DEVELOP
How do we develop this leadership? We can think of this s the ‘WHAT’ AIESEC does. Our ‘What’ is through our Experiential Leadership Development Programs which include the Global Community Development Programme, Global Internship Programme, Team Member Programme and Team Leader Programme through which young people can go through the inner and outer journey of leadership.
Inner and Outer Journey is a model used and framed by AIESEC as the way that individuals can go through an intense ‘outer journey’ which describes the environment you are in and a reflective ‘inner journey’ which describes the elements of self reflection and reinvention as a result of that external environment to enable the development of Global Citizen, Empowering Others, Solution Driven and Self Awareness Qualities.
So if you think about it, your role as a team leader is developing your leadership in order for you to be the change the world needs.
You, as a team leader are going through the ‘what’ as you read this book and throughout the next few weeks, months or even years will develop the qualities of the leadership development model that you see next to you.
Let’s get started!
STARTING MY TEAM
Easier than everyone thinks.
Team Forming KEY ACTIVITIES: Team Forming (recruitment & identity creation) Team Building Activities Weekly team meetings Monthly team reviews Quarterly team days
Simply how you get to know your team, how they get to know you and how together you know what the team is all about.
“Why is this important? can’t I just start work straight away?” It leads to cohesiveness between members and team
WHY
leaders by knowing them as a person, as a human but also knowing them as a team member (their skills, strengths, behaviours, goals)
The first step is through the allocation process.
HOW
It is important for you as a Team Leader to have the opportunity to select your own team - own this right.
“You have the right and the privilege to select and form your own team” “Place people in the right position. Focus on their strengths and place your best people where your best opportunities are!” - Dey Dos
team s forming i n more tha just your first team meeting!
“Team Forming is done through identifying the correct people for the department. From mentorship report, the we can select our members along with our VP. This is done by identifying the members preference and potential.” - Anonymous Team Leader
FORMING MY TEAM … a bit harder than what I expected Team Forming KEY ACTIVITIES: Team Forming (recruitment & identity creation) Team Building Activities Weekly team meetings Monthly team reviews Quarterly team days
The second step is through the co-creation of the team identity, this is the most important. All the members of the team need to understand what the team is all about. These are the questions you should be asking: What is the team purpose? What is my individual contribution to the team purpose? What is expected of me? What should I expect from others? Do I know my members? Do my members know each other? Does everyone know how to work with each other?
s
rick t & tips The Drexler-Sibbet Team Performance Model is a fantastic read if you want to know how not-forprofit teams should ideally form. Great resource to identify where is your team currently and where you need to go.
“The hardest part of any team model is identifying where you are, but once you have you CAN easily decide what is needed to move to the team stage”
BUILDING MY TEAM
What should I do to make my team bond? WRONG QUESTION KEY ACTIVITIES: Team Forming (recruitment & identity creation) Team Building Activities Weekly team meetings Monthly team reviews Quarterly team days
How can I build belonging and trust within my team?
Team Building Helps bonding between the team members. It delivers the importance of working together as a team, which is important for effective functioning of the department.
HOW
WHY
Team Building is about creating belonging amongst the team and starting the process of trust building.
There should be a feeling of pride to be
figure it out WHAT
amongst the team, acceptance amongst each other and each person feel as if they are ‘in’
“The first team meeting that I conducted was nothing related to work, because I wanted my team to connect on a personal level first. This helps them to get to know each other better and hence, perform better.” -Jyotsna
BUILDING MY TEAM
what do your meetings look like?
Weekly Team Meetings KEY ACTIVITIES: Team Forming (recruitment & identity creation) Team Building Activities Weekly team meetings Monthly team reviews Quarterly team days
Meetings are a space that allow the members to connect to the team and work eďŹƒciently. Meetings ensure strong communication and they bring everyone to the table and to the focus/direction of the team.
One on one interactions with the team members
HOW
helps the team leaders to get to know the members on a personal level and enable the alignment of team activities towards results needed from the team.
figure it out WHAT
Case Study: Sunday Football League: Members of AIESEC in Mumbai meet every Sunday to host inter department football matches. This leads to the members becoming more comfortable with each other, and bond as a team
This step is up to you. Before you have a meeting, go through these questions?
What is the purpose of my meeting? Do I have an agenda? Who will time it? Can any of the content be done virtually? eg. checking priorities on online tracker? Will it go over 90 minutes? Why? How will we allocate responsibilities? Can this be a standing meeting?
BUILDING MY TEAM Why should I have one? Every month!! Monthly Team Review KEY ACTIVITIES: Team Forming (recruitment & identity creation) Team Building Activities Weekly team meetings Monthly team reviews Quarterly team days
Monthly team review helps to find where the team
WHY
is headed and identify the key lacking and loopholes by evaluating performance and taking feedback from each other according to the output strategy through which the plans can be revised.
s k c i r t tips &
for monthly team review
HOW
Start and end with numbers Ask ‘Are we there yet?’ Don’t change the goal - change your strategies/ plans Let the team bring up issues that need to be discussed figure it out WHAT
“By conducting monthly team reviews our members became aware of their growth over the last month and were able to redefine learning goals” -Wyonna
BUILDING MY TEAM more than a formality? Quarterly Team Days KEY ACTIVITIES: Team Forming (recruitment & identity creation) Team Building Activities Weekly team meetings Monthly team reviews Quarterly team days
These help to analyse and review the pros and cons
WHY
of the quarter, thereby allowing the strategising of the way forward to strengthen the weak points.
Quarterly team days depend largely on the needs of the team from a personal and professional standpoint. Assess your team and ask
‘Are we on track’? in terms of team building or the team plan. This is the time to check the data, assess where you are and how much you still need to cover. Don’t forget to review the plan and the job descriptions of each person in the team! It is also a chance for you to ensure team development is on track - consider 360 feedback, team building activities and/or appreciations.
figure it out WHAT
HOW
ion act
“The success of a team day is largely dependent on what happens before” -Anonymous
ste
ps
“After each quarterly team day, the team’s vision is broadened and mistakes are rectified.” -Jeff create your team purpose with your team hold your first team meeting feedback your first team meeting with your team and yourself create a team building agenda
OKAY I HAVE MY TEAM, NOW WHAT? you have two choices:
KEY ACTIVITIES: Planning Re-planning Quarterly Review
What is a Key Performance Indicator? (KPI) It is the KEY to success of your organisation It is related to PERFORMANCE - it can be measured and quantified It can be used as an INDICATOR it provides leading information about future results.
1. Make decisions about where you want to go aka. make a plan
5
2. Go on autopilot
THINGS
TO REMEMBER ABOUT PLANNING
1.Pre-planning is important
In order to have eective planning you must have the right data and research to commence. Before you start your planning process - ask yourself a)
What data will we need to plan goals and timeline?
b)
Do we know what has happened for the past 2-3 years in our department?
c)
Do we have enough information to start and finish this planning process.
Why should I use KPIs?
Make better decisions Have a clearer focus Track performance Stronger coaching
2. Build Ownership Planning is not the role of the team
leader and you don’t just want to plan for yourself? You need to plan for the team to contribute - so The question is how will you build ownership of the plan for your team? What will you do to ensure that each individual understands his/her contribution to the plan?
MAKING THE PLAN: The plan should contain individual action plans, clear goals and timeline.
KEY ACTIVITIES: Planning Re-planning Quarterly Review
3.Plan to track the Plan
Your plan should include your evaluation points of your activities and strategies. For every plan that you make you must have a way to track it and that must be within the plan!
For example - My goal is to lose 20 kgs. Plan:
s k c i r t tips&
-
Go to Gym
-
Eat Healthy
-
Go Swimming
for kpis How do I know if going to the gym is effective enough to lose 20 kgs?
You should measure 2 things:
How will I measure if my swimming is adding value to lose 20 kgs?
1. The Outputs and
When will I lose 20 kgs?
Outcomes that
How often do I eat healthy?
need to occur ‘at
How will I measure if I am really eating healthy or not?
the end’ 2. The Activities and actions to lead to the outcome that
All the answers to these questions lie within how you make your Plan trackable and measurable.
B
can be tracked during the process. eg. 1.
Lose 30 kgs
2.
Going to the gym 3 times a week
A 1
2
3
For example don’t just plan how to get from Point A to Point B. Plan how at stage 1, stage 2 and stage three you know you are going the right direction.
5
THINGS
TO remember ABOUT PLANNING
KEY ACTIVITIES: Planning Re-planning Quarterly Review
4. If you feel safe, it’s not a good plan. Plans are based on strategies and strategies are always involving risk. If your plan is making you feel safe then perhaps it’s too restrictive or not risky enough.
What is a Gantt Chart? A Gantt Chart is a popular way to to show activities versus time. On the left will be a list of activities your team needs to accomplish and on the right is a time scale.
5. Plans should be dynamic, goals shouldn’t. Due to the nature of plans - it’s okay to re-plan and adjust your activities as you move forward. Things will never turn out as your expect. As you learn what strategies are working and which aren’t - keep adjusting as you progress. However your goals should not change.
5
Change your strategies to meet the goal - but never change your goal.
This allows you to clearly see when does a project start? when does it end? How long will it last? etc.
THINGS TO forget ABOUT PLANNING
1.Planning is a formality If you want to build ownership within your teams about Planning, it should never be a formality.
2. Planning is complicated
The simpler you make your plans the easier they will be to refer to and the more they will be used by your team.
KEY ACTIVITIES: Planning Re-planning Quarterly Review
5
THINGS TO forget ABOUT PLANNING
3. Over-planning is good
Allow for flexibility in your working style and the working style of others.
If Plan A doesn’t work there are 25 more letters in the Alphabet
4. Planning takes a long time
If you’ve done the research and the pre-planning, planning can easily be completed within 1 hour. Prepare well and planning can be a fast, fun activity
5. If it doesn’t work, scrap it
AIESEC works fast, but sometimes we throw away strategies before going them the chance to work. Think before you scrap everything.
act
ion
ste
ps
with your team rather than a administrative formality.
Plan your team
What should a plan look like? simple!
planning day Facilitate and create
Have your goal.
your first team plan with your team!
What do you want to achieve?
Update your team plan
How you are going to get there.
weekly
Who will do this?
Review your team plan Re-plan
When will it be done?
other super important elements of planning! KEY ACTIVITIES: Planning Re-planning Quarterly Review
Re-planning Re-planning doesn’t need to always be the formal Quarterly re-planning process. It can as simple as one of your members changing their weekly timetable and editing their plan as they progress week-by-week.
Make sure that your plan is so simple that it allows for team members to adjust their individual plans to it.
Quarterly Review The Quarterly Review is the formal re-planning process with the entire team. The key theme of the Quarterly Review should be:
4.
2. 3.
1.
Key Performance Indicator is a measure of what will make you or your team successful. eg. KPI of sales activity is: 5 cold calls per week. A plan should contain an individual action plan, clear goals and a timeline A Gantt Chart is a horizontal chart that shows the list activities and when they will be completed. There is never a right time to change a goal. Reconsider if you need to change the goal or change the strategy to reach the goal.
Answers to test:
a)
Are we on track with our outcomes/ goals
b)
What did we learn? How does that change things?
The focus of your re-planning should be to refer to the goals and KPIs and review is these are on track or not.
You can use a simple framework of Start, Stop, Continue to collect and channel the key learnings for the quarter. Ensure these changes are reflected in your planning sheets.
Quick Test! What is a Key Performance Indicator? What are the three things a plan should contain? What is a Gantt Chart? When is the right time to change a goal?
JOB DESCRIPTION what do my members do?
let’s define it in a job description
KEY ACTIVITIES: Creation of the Job Description from the Plan Negotiation of the Job Description with the members Quarterly Review of the Job Description
" According to me, Job Description is an integral part of anyone's AIESEC experience. It gives them a clarity as to what is expected out of them.
If they have a clarity of what they are supposed to do, then they will do it better and with more heart. It will connect them more to the organisation and will result in more productivity.
Job descriptions are something that should be implemented strongly in our LC’s and I will make sure that they are implemented well here.” -Jeel Sanghvi, Ahmedabad
what is a job description? It is so that each member understand his or her role and contribution. It tells a member what they need to do, for how long they should do it, the main ways they will be measured and the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed but also developed for the job. The Job Description should include Roles & Responsibilities, Duration, MOS, Competencies Required & Developed.
JOB DESCRIPTION How do I make one? KEY ACTIVITIES: Creation of the Job Description from the Plan Negotiation of the Job Description with the members Quarterly Review of the Job Description
“So you’re put into a team which has been given particular targets to be achieved, what would you want to know first? It would be …
“what do I have to do?’” The Job Description is what a new team member’s role and contribution in the team that would help achieve the team goals. It channelizes the work and makes the work easier by dividing it in the group.
The JD’s contain roles and responsibilities, duration, MoS, competencies required and developed. Roles and Responsibilities: the team member has to be given some responsibilities and they can be held accountable for the work delivery. This way each person has the responsibilities and the work burden narrows down. NOTE: Responsibilities doesn’t mean that the particular team member has to complete the whole task. It simply means that he needs to make sure that the work is done and the work doesn’t reach to the level above in the hierarchy (team leader in this case). Therefore if a member is unable to complete the task he has been held responsible for, he has to make sure that the particular task has been given to some other person and the output isn’t affected.
JOB DESCRIPTION Why do we need one? A Job Description gives clarity for a team member in understanding
KEY ACTIVITIES: Creation of the Job Description from the Plan Negotiation of the Job Description with the members Quarterly Review of the Job Description
his role in the team. When a documented proper JD’s are given, it brings a sense of professionalism amongst the team members which is a very important factor in achieving the team goals. So basically after you get a JD, you know how critical your job in the team is, and hence a sense of responsibility would help in making you work more effectively. A team leader expects something from the team member, so the JD acts as the base of expectations from the team member.
— If a proper document is maintained, the member can go through it whenever he wishes to, which would help in making his task productive and also can help him in self-realisation after completing the task and the member and the leader can keep a track of performance.
— When a work is divided segmentally, it helps making the work easier and the team goals could be achieved easily at a smoother pace.
What important to remember is that: Job Description’s are tangible
JOB DESCRIPTION JD is basically the tasks and expectation setting of a
KEY ACTIVITIES: Creation of the Job Description from the Plan Negotiation of the Job Description with the members Quarterly Review of the Job Description
HOW
team leader and a team member. So, when JD is given to a team member, he himself knows what he has to do and what is expected out of him. The team leader then explains the team and the term plan to the team members for the easy understanding.
When the team leader interacts with the team members, he can find out the competencies of the team members through some basic tests and conversations and hence he can analyse the member or make a SWOT analysis so that he can focus on the member’s strength and can make the JD’s better. — Job Descriptions should be adjusted to bring out a member’s strengths.
“Team Minimums are very important and need to be implied in every team. According to me
—
the most important Team Minimum is giving the members a very well defined Job Description. The reason being it gives every member a perfect idea as to what is expected out of them in the team.” - Aditya Punjabi, VIT
JOB DESCRIPTION Then the team leader distributes the job keeping in mind that The JD’s should be department specific and not be generalised. For example JD of a member of iGIP would 90% differ from one of the Marketing Department.
KEY ACTIVITIES: Creation of the Job Description from the Plan Negotiation of the Job Description with the members Quarterly Review of the Job Description
So keep the JD’s department specific. The 80-20 ratio should be kept in mind by the team leaders, and accordingly the plans and JD’s should be explained to the members. Right after you make your plan, plot your timeline,
WHEN?
understand what are the competencies required and how will you align with the members you have.
Retention will be a word not used in AIESEC INDIA is JD’s are implemented properly. Everyone will stay.
80-20 Ratio What is the job role of
How can you make a Job Description from the Plan?
you - the team leader
Your plan will have the activities
and what is the job role of your members? When in doubt, follow the 80-20 rule. 20% personal productivity
what’s the link between the plan and the JD?
with the key responsible. This will tell you how people are ‘specialised’ in certain areas.
80% empowering,
For example one member
developing and leading
receives more sales activities
others
can have a sales JD.
JOB DESCRIPTION You might originally receive a template of a Job Description for your team. However it is your responsibility to tailor this to your team plan and the
KEY ACTIVITIES: Creation of the Job Description from the Plan Negotiation of the Job Description with the members Quarterly Review of the Job Description
individual members. This process is called Job Description Negotiation It is important within the first 10 days of a member joining your team for you to clarify and negotiate the Job Description. This means that you find out this member’s strengths and weaknesses, personal and professional goals and their expectations of the organisation.
—
Based on this knowledge you are able to edit the Job Description with them to suit the member’s needs to ensure higher development and therefore high performance.
Quarterly Review
—
Every time you adjust the plan, you must also adjust the Job Description. Therefore a Quarterly update of each JD is necessary. In your quarterly review you can do you performance assessment and based on the performance achieved/ not achieved and change in personal and professional goals edit, remove or add roles, responsibilities and MOS.
TRAINING
Every team has an educational cycle that includes a breakdown into knowledge, skills and attitudes. This should be based on the operational and team cycle and can enable and
KEY ACTIVITIES: Initial Education: Transition/ Education Education Planning Conferences Outsourced Education
drive the job description.
be concrete
Your team members have their JDs, but don’t know how to go about it. Training them will build a concrete base in which they can work and explore. For example, If your member has to get five ICX raises but isn’t clear on cold calling. There will be no productivity. - Akshat Shivkumar
independence
WHY
Team Members have to explore themselves and come up with solutions. They cant solely depend on their team leaders for providing them the required information. This way you have chances of generating innovative solutions. -Akshat Shivkumar
Don’t forget about the Global Learning Environment Forget the perception that training has to be
foundation
Foundation is required so that plethora of developments can occur. Focus on providing team member which such a strong foundation so that they get clear about the operation and crystal clear about the objective.
a session at a conference. Training can be within the team or a simple as a conversation with your team member
need sensing
-Exploring skill sets needed for the department. “Using google forms to know your members existing skill set.” -Archie
They should be well aware of the principles and not more on techniques and tactics are manipulative. -Siddhant
“spoon feeding in the long run teaches us nothing but the shape of the spoon” - M. Forster
TRAINING KEY ACTIVITIES: Initial Education: Transition/ Education Education Planning Conferences Outsourced Education
“Training is not just a classroom … this can be done through a webinar, google hangout with the vp and even a the conference.” -Shivani Sapra
HOW
What is the education I as a Team Leader need?
Let’s first consider you the reader. What is the initial education that you
Skill Development
“A s a member in
need as a new Team Leader? Or what is the initial education you have already received? As a team leader you cannot be restricted to what you have been given. Kudos to you for reading this book to gain more knowledge!
the Marketing Department, I wanted to learn
What else can you do to train yourself? Talk a previous MB from last year read articles from Harvard Business Review/ Forbes on the topic you want to learn
photoshop & mail
want to gain.
chimp. During the
Attend a national or international Apply for an online course
eventually learned
Ask your VP for a book read
how to do it.”
recommendation
ste
conference
ion
course of time I
ps
Inform your EB/ LCP/ MC of the knowledge you
act
how to use
TRAINING
What is the education my members need? Now, as a Team Leader how do I start the initial education process? Always,
KEY ACTIVITIES: Initial Education: Transition/ Education Education Planning Conferences Outsourced Education
always refer to the competencies required and developed within the job description.
— What are the key skills, knowledge and attitude that someone would need to perform this JD to the best of their ability. —
Hopefully you were part of the selection/ allocation process
otherwise ask someone for the details - so now you can compare! What are the key knowledge/skills/attitude someone would need - what knowledge/ skills/ attitude has your new member displayed . Now make your initial education Operational Cycle
plan as a gap analysis of this.
Modules:
Knowledge: What are the basics of your members Job Description that they need to
The operational cycle is a collection of
know? For Example:
theory-practice
What is Exchange?
modules, designed to
What is the role of Exchange in AIESEC?
take members
What are the customer flows?
through a learning
What is Net Promoter Score?
experience as qualitatively as possible while allowing them to convert this learning to performance in parallel.
Skills: What activities does your new member need to complete? What are the skills that can enable my member to perform this activity better? For Example: I need to deliver a pitch for projects: Sales Skills I need to plan a project: Project Management Skills I need to contribute to the team: Team Management Skills
TRAINING Attitude: What is the world/self perspective that your members
KEY ACTIVITIES: Initial Education: Transition/ Education Education Planning Conferences Outsourced Education
need in order to be high performing and high developing? For Example: I need to achieve my goals: Attitude of achieving, striving for excellence
What do I do next?
Make a Plan. You can do this through simple questions in a survey “What knowledge or skill gap is stopping you right now from doubling your performance” or
Planning is important. So often many Team Leaders reach the end of their term realising that they never planned for the education of their teams and as a result operations or the team achievement suffered.
So how do I plan for my team education?
teameducation
o t ps e st
THREE
Need Sensing through conversation or survey
1
Education Plan must be based on the team plan.
Operations timeline should inform when you need to educate you team
“Rate your sales skills
members. For example. Does it make sense to teach your members about
out of 5”
promotions during matching time?
act
ion
ste
ps
assessing needed skills
2
Needs Sensing should inform your plan.
As with any plan, your education plan should be dynamic and flexible. Need Sensing is your ability to see what is happening with your members that tells
make your first team education plan
you where their education/ training is lacking or needs improvement.
.
TRAINING
3 Ensure the plan has an output
KEY ACTIVITIES: Initial Education: Transition/ Education Education Planning Conferences Outsourced Education
After you identify the key educations/ trainings that need to be delivered you must ensure that these are placed within a plan/ output. Think about these questions that will help you plan.
What are the outputs (short-term results) and outcomes (long-term results) of the training? How will you measure it?
s k c i r t &
tips for training
How will you deliver the training? Are you using elements of the Global Learning Environment? Does the training need to be always in a session can it be in a team meeting? When are these trainings happening and are they consistent with the
Always be frequent in passing on information and have a frequent reminder of the previous session plus the assessment continued with a related topic on the current
operational timeline? Does my plan reflect all the answers to these questions?
“Conferences have taught me a lot, it has given me an inner of the organization has helped me network and build more friends”
meeting to not forget
-Eklavya Shetty
nor get confused avoiding the lack of interest, The current topic too needs to be the bridge between the future and past
Conferences
Team Leader
Be part of activities and discussion which helps us to discover more and clarify our information
sessions.
Delegate
Guide your team through the different activities and conversations and enable their learning through mentoring.
Share your knowledge and stories and enable your own growth
Facilitator
TRAINING “Google how to train someone” KEY ACTIVITIES:
act
ion
ste
ps
Initial Education: Transition/ Education Education Planning Conferences Outsourced Education
Start now! Google how to train someone and do some basic research
The one who uses google for everything is the one who’s learning the most. Google acts as the most prior way under outsourced education to train someone. Google can give thousands of way of training differently to different person. Eg: You want to train someone on pitching skill use google to have some effective phrases lack in the pocket to strike on phrases back in the pocket to strike on the right point. How to keep conversation interesting? If we have access to knowledge provider like google, make full use of it. It helps to check where we are lagging, how to improve, work on it. As a TL, how to improve, work on it. As a TL we can gain knowledge also and apply in the most efficient way” -Parth
TRAINING Outsourced Education
External references within your training:
KEY ACTIVITIES: Initial Education: Transition/ Education Education Planning Conferences Outsourced Education
We’re not always experts for all the content we need to deliver during training and in order to deliver the best content it is important to leverage off external references. Why? Make your point catchy. Ensure members understand it from various points of view. To spice things up - make it interesting.
Don’ts Overdo this. It might cause their distraction from the gist of the topic. Show complicated videos or articles like a 45 min TED-X video Do’s Use relevant videos and articles Give a debrief after the content External Mentors and Outsourced Education Case Study: Throughout our AIESEC journey we come across clients, alumnus and senior members who expertise in certain areas such as customer relationship management, on ground marketing etc. When training our members we should not use the contacts to help us train our members and acquire an outsider’s perspective.
For example, you could provide your members with sales training by having them call up alumnus or senior members and pitch them as potential clients. This way members would learn his areas of improvement and not affect potential customer flow.
Skype calls, webinars and team day meets with these individuals would help members to gain on outer perspective and it would also align with the personal goals members have joined AIESEC for. It acts as a resource. -Amruta Sukumaran
TRACKING How do I make sure my members are performing? Tracking is to ensure the implementation of the plan. It
KEY ACTIVITIES: Weekly Team Meeting
WHY
is based on the plan and also the Job Description.
It enables us to measure the success and productivity of our local entities, teams and members. Tracking also enables us to react and make good decision making if problems arise.
“In my previous department, trackers were made to keep the record of work done in which we were supposed to fill colours according to work done(green), Pending/in process(yellow), Not done (red). Also we were ought to fill a tracker regarding our personal goals and priorities for short term.� - Anonymous
TRACKING
what’s been happening recently in AIESEC “Till now, tracking was done by team leaders of TM department
KEY ACTIVITIES: Weekly Team Meeting
which subsequently faded their interest from work and subsequently from AIESEC. Now, I know tracking can be done efficiently, if team leaders are tracking their own respective team. This would help them to keep a track of their team’s productivity.
be measured on their achievement”
act
ion
ste
ps
Members should be solution oriented & their performance should
Tracking System Tracking of members productivity, activities and work is make much simpler
Open up Podio
through the use Tracking Systems.
and make a workspace for your team! Create a google drive for your team documents
Podio: It can help to centralise the whole tracking process so that any proper evaluation of membership growth can be done. Try using Podio more than just a survey tool. It’s team and workspace functions enable strong tracking and project management.
Google Documents: Google Documents are strong for priorities tracking and timeline tracking. It is also strong for a central system of your team’s activities, meeting minutes, documents etc.
No matter what system it is important to ensure you have a way to know who does what, where and when?
TRACKING
What is Pocket Tracking?
A system of follow up of every activity from attending a team meeting to attending national conference via pocket tracking.
KEY ACTIVITIES: Weekly Team Meeting
Pocket tracking will divide data which we want to track , Eg: tracking team minimums, different elements LDM, value generation, skill enhancement, which would be regularly updated in membership databank. Case Study: • Break down the elements that need to be tracked reducing the amount of data to be filled at a time, thus helping to make tracking as a behaviour. • Prepare a tracker which includes progress of a member in a period of 10 days. • Strategise plans to improve productivity & take feedback from comembers on ill performing members. Parallel acknowledging membership who achieved something really worthwhile. • Have sessions in LTS, LC forum or departmental meetings to emphasise key points
Follow Up
— With regular tracking we reach the point when we can understand each of our members more in terms of how to motivate, empower them and what each individual needs to be coached on. —
TRACKING The good and bad news about team meetings KEY ACTIVITIES: Weekly Team Meeting
WARNING
AIESEC India team members have indicated that the key area of improvement for team leaders is how to hold effective team meetings.
the good news •
All of was mentioned on the previous page can be covered in one touch-point. The weekly team meeting. Find out more about effective team meetings in the TEAM
ste
ps
•
act
ion
chapter •
Meetings are a great way to communicate
•
Meetings are empowering
•
Meetings develop knowledge and skills
Think about some of the best and worst team meetings you’ve
the bad news
attended. What was
•
Meetings don’t have focus
•
Members attending the meeting are unprepared
•
AIESEC has too many meetings
•
Most meeting times are wasted
the main difference between them? Create your own do and don’ts for team meetings
Ensure that you understand that the weekly team meeting is not necessarily the place to tracking membership activities but rather activities that are contributing or still need to contribute to the overall progress of the team.
What’s my role? leader? mentor? coach? asking the right questions
KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly Individual Meeting
Coaching is to improve the competencies of your members. It looks forward to improve the implementation and attainment of goals. It is based on the plan and also on the Job Description and focuses on performance and connecting development with performance.
WARNING
AIESEC India team members have indicated that the key area of improvement for team leaders is having monthly coaching chats
“ I believe coaching is like this. My member has been given a target of 20 raises in a month in oGCDP. Now, depending upon J.D his/her performance will be tracked to ensure proper implementation of plans is happening. In case if he/she fails to achieve the target, he/she might be demoralised, motivated and depressed. So, now we need to see what was the reason, he/ she was unable to achieve his target.So, now accordingly coaching will be given so that his performance could be increased. Additionally he/she will start believing on himself which will eventually lead to his learning and development and boost his confidence.” - Anonymous
your coaching
cheat sheet everything that you need to know about coaching
asking the right questions
KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly Individual Meeting
M
odelling and Equipping is a very simple model for how coaching can be taken forward by you.
Competence Demonstration Coaching Empowerment Reproduction
A Why coaching? Coaching helps us to improve competencies of our membership. It helps us in improving performance of our members which in turn leads to improvement of learning and development of our membership.
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
I do it I do it and you are with me You do it and I am with you You do it You do it and someone is with you
in simple terms..
ssessment. This is about asking the right questions to your team member. Where is this person now and where do they want to go? Your questions and assessment will aid your members to develop self-awareness and insight towards themselves and their role.
C
hallenge. This step is about challenging them to where they need improvement to better manifest and further develop their strengths. Push your members to think outside the box, look for more solutions, challenge their assumptions about themselves. Challenging them doesn’t just need to come from you, support the challenge with resources, conferences, books, videos that can enable their personal growth.
S
upport. You are pushing people outside of their comfort zone. Are you just doing this for higher performance or do you care about your members? How will members feel your support and know that you are listening? let’s look at these in more detail…
COACHING
Modelling and Equipping
asking the right questions
KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly Individual Meeting
Competence Demonstration Coaching Empowerment Reproduction
1. 2. 3. 4. 5.
I do it I do it and you are with me You do it and I am with you You do it You do it and someone is with you
This simple process of modelling and equipping enables you to be with your team members and guide them through to success. For example you have a member who is truly struggling at sales especially at meetings. 1.
I do it - I go to the meeting and debrief you after and you watch and learn through me doing the taks.
2.
I do it and you are with me - I go to the meeting with you and we handle the meeting together. You are able to see more of the process and understand more through observation and small participation.
3.
You do it and I am with you - You go to the meeting and I tag along to as a back up.
4.
You do it - there is no longer a need for me to go with you. You are strong enough to handle it. I don’t even need to check I just expect you to come and tell me the result individually or in the meeting.
5.
You do it and someone is with you - you replicate this entire process with another person to pass along the sales culture, skills and attitudes to another as a ‘pay it forward’
asking the right questions
3
THINGS
TO remember ABOUT COACHING
There are three elements in coaching that enable a team leader to drive
KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly Individual Meeting
leadership development in others.
1. Assessment This step is about asking the right questions about your team member. For example: Pick a person you are currently leading and looking forward to develop into a leader. Ask yourself: A.
Where does this person seem to be failing?
B.
Where are these person’s blind spots? C.
What does my intuition is ‘off’ in this person’s thinking?
D.
asking the right questions
Why is this person not transforming his/her potential into performance?
E.
Who might be leading this person in the wrong direction?
F.
When does this person do well and excel?
G.
When does this person stumble?
H.
What telltale clues can I find that give me insight into where this person needs helps?
I.
Where is this person’s sweet spot?
asking the right questions
KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly Individual Meeting
3
THINGS
TO remember ABOUT COACHING
2.Challenge This step is about challenging them to where they need improvement to better manifest and further develop their strengths. Ask Yourself:
A.
Which books or resources can you recommend this person? How can you find proper recommendations for this person?
B.
How can you increase the level of challenge for this person to further develop strengths
C.
What practices can you recommend to enhance character
D.
How can you move from supervisory meetings to mentoring conversations?
3.Support Support as a team leader in AIESEC is not just about ‘How to get more performance’ but it is also about supporting them throughout their life difficulties and their leadership difficulties. A.
Do you care about this person as a person? What he/she is going through? (After all, it is difficult for someone to make the most out of their leadership experience if the rest of their life is a wreck!)
B.
Do you know this person’s story?
C.
How can you support this person to use his/her leadership experience as a tool for self-expression?
COACHING Monthly Individual Meeting asking the right questions
KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly Individual Meeting
All of the above mentioned are topics that can be covered in your monthly individual meeting.
s k c i r t tips &for coaching Your members might not have an objective for the monthly chat but you do, so make sure you prepare your content for the chat. Your monthly individual meeting doesn’t need to be so formal, rather it can be a casual conversation over coffee and tea.
icks r t & tips • Build a connect with your members
Make sure each monthly chat is a follow up from the previous month’s chat and it is a continuous flow but also addressing current issues. You can’t coach someone you don’t trust/ who doesn’t trust you
Giving Feedback Feedback is a necessary part for member retention and better productivity.
• See where he/she can improve • Appreciate if they
So the team leader(after a particular time period) must also ask the team members for feedbacks which might help in the team plans becoming stronger and the bond to connect even stronger.
have done
If the member doesn’t seem growing in the work that he has been assigned
something good
to, or if he isn’t liking what he is doing. The responsibility of the leader is to make sure the member grows and can also shift to the place which would benefit him as well as the department. NOTE: An important suggestion: the team leaders also might keep a record of each and every member(on paper or documented) and might show him the parts where he is growing to build self confidence in the team member.
One way to improve the performance of your members:
Reflection & Evaluation KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly tracking of performance & feedback Quarterly Team Days Rewards and Recognition
Performance Appraisal to assess performance and organisational contribution to Measures of Success. Assessing an individual’s development through the achievement of personal goals and development of leadership qualities.
The Evaluation period starts as soon
evaluation not a tool for judgement
as team member gets his own job description and starts working. As a team leader you should be able to understand what your team members are doing to an extent that you can give remarks and feedback.
In School you have an exam at the end of the year that evaluates your grade and school performance, the question is: what do you want to use as a team leader? Remember: The purpose of the evaluation is to be update on his or her growth, performance and development but not for the purposes of ‘judging’ or ‘comparing’ people.
After all there is a reason why people prefer the learning environment of AIESEC over schools.
One way to improve the performance of your members:
Reflection & Evaluation
Once the member is evaluated he or she
KEY ACTIVITIES:
should be able to understand more
Monthly tracking of performance & feedback Quarterly Team Days Rewards and Recognition
about themselves - their strengths,
Reflection
weaknesses and areas of development.
Members should be able to identify the things that they can improve on and also the mistakes that can be prevented from repeating.
Depending on a member’s reflection a member can try and make changes in his actions and goals. The team leader has to be with the member during the entire journey to make sure they are supported and learning
A useful tool.. The Performance Appraisal is used to assess performance and organisational contribution to Measures of Success. Assessing an individual’s development through the achievement of personal goals and development of leadership qualities.
Another useful tool.. Standard performance measures, which allow you to evaluate an member’s performance objectively, can cut down on the amount of time and stress involved in the evaluation.
“You never make the same mistake twice. The second time you make it, it’s not longer a mistake, it is a choice” - Lauren Conrad
One way to improve the performance of your members:
Reflection & Evaluation
Although developing these measures can be one of the more time-
KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly tracking of performance & feedback Quarterly Team Days Rewards and Recognition
consuming parts of creating a performance evaluation system, it’s also one of the most powerful. This is what you can use for your monthly tracking of performance and feedback If you have current job descriptions for each position, already the first step toward creating standard performance measures is taken, which are essentially specific quantity and quality goals attached to the tasks listed in a job description.
Case Study: Examples of a Local Committee tracking performance measures -
Accumulate all the available trackers
-
Prepare a target vs achieved report
-
Include names of the member who have done exceptionally well to encourage them and motivate others
-
Make a Business Intelligence report that exactly points out the impact of the department on the entire LC
-
Include the growth graph that compares the previous month and current month
-
Draw proper inferences (in terms of numbers)
-
Quantitative analysis of department stats and quantities representation of each member’s contribution (KPIs and MOS achieved)
One way to improve the performance of your members:
Reflection & Evaluation s k c i r t tips &
KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly tracking of performance & feedback Quarterly Team Days Rewards and Recognition
how to use your team meetings for reflection
Did you know team meetings can be used for evaluation and reflection? At the start of each meeting have a 5-15 minute check in about your emotional state/ key learnings of the week.
At the end of a meeting you can have a 5-15 minute check out about your emotional state, how you feel about the team, how you feel about your performance etc. Minutes of a corporate meeting can be used to analyse the flow of the meeting and understand the point where one went wrong. This could be used to reflect and improve the content and delivery next time. Example: Suppose you are meeting a company, minutes of such an appointment will help you analyse where exactly you may have gone wrong and also find the key points that the company actually liked about your product and your pitch. These points can be used by other members as an example about what to do and what not to.
Case Study: Feedback from Colleagues and Family Taking feedback of member from other members, Vice Presidents , Team Leaders and family members after a certain period of time in terms of: •
Behaviour
•
Attitude towards people around
•
The way he/she looks at different situations and people
•
Impact he/she is generating on others
•
How much he/she has improved work wise (attitude towards work)
•
Experience gained
One way to improve the performance of your members:
Reflection & Evaluation Quarterly Team Days KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly tracking of performance & feedback Quarterly Team Days Rewards and Recognition
Team days per quarter can be used to showcase the results of each member’s performance in the respective department, recognise the hardworking members, give space for self reflection and help the Team Leader to determine a development plan for improving job performance and ability utilisation.
A team day would proceed with each member looking up to each other and their development and so the member would evaluate himself on the development basis, per month, followed by the member’s by the member
act
ion
ste
ps
reflecting upon himself and where he stands.
Create your quarterly team day agenda
“Talking from personal experience, my LC came up with an RNR campaign when I was a team member which gave all of us the required push. the most performing department would get recognized and rewarded at a local conference and the most performing member gets a free winter internship in Sri Lanka. This was a very lucrative RNR and it boosted the LC operations tremendously and created a healthy competition between all the members and the department.” - Anonymous
One way to improve the performance of your members:
Reflection & Evaluation KEY ACTIVITIES: Monthly tracking of performance & feedback Quarterly Team Days Rewards and Recognition
four ways to rock employee recognition be in the moment! be timely. If you see something good - don’t hesitate, recognise! be in context! see what is your team purpose and plan - if an employee is doing things that matter, recognise! be appropriate! how are you recognising being on time versus completing a major project? Be fair and appropriate
act
ion
ste
ps
be authentic! you have to mean it people will see through inauthenticity and it will do more harm than good.
Rewards and Recognition Who would you like recognise this week? Send them a message now (:
Rewards and recognition are a very important part of member development and retention because if not received member will lose interest and the will to work as they lose the motivation to work towards any set goal. Think about RnR campaigns but also causal but genuine individual recognition within teams.
‌ENDING NOTES, a message from the team leaders of aiesec india not to spoil the ending for you, but you will figure it out.
make thisexperience book a topawaits secretyou of the team leader your top performance
written by team leaders for team leaders