Team Spirit

‘Wickets, runs, bowlers, overs, stumps, the Gabba, the Barmy Army...’

This week saw the start of the Ashes and a month of cricket played between England and Australia. The anticipation has been building for weeks and the rivalry between the teams and the fans is strong. Both teams really want to win, England want to hold on to the Ashes crown and the Australians want to take it back. Both teams have been training hard for the test matches ahead and their fans are depending on them to perform at the best.

In order to have any chance of winning each side needs to work together as an effective team, this is the same for any group of people in any business, unless they work collectively to produce their desired outcome they will not achieve the best results possible.

Here are some tips to help your team to be effective and keep on track –

Have frequent and open communication - Most teams dysfuntion is rooted in coommunication breakdowns, such as poor listening, interrupting, rambling, an inibility to get to the point and simply not communicating enough to create team cohesions.

Build Cooperation – In a strong team, individuals rely on each other to make processes and interactions function as planned.

Recognize strengths – Take time to give honest and sincere appreciation to team members.

Manage results, not tasks – Ultimately, what matters is each team member’s contribution to the team’s goals and mission. Strong teams, with diverse peronalities, learn to focus on the results each team member achieves, rather than trying to make indivduals achieve results in a certain way.

Leverage competitive spirit to create communication – Friendly competition generates results. Keep the competition between the team and it’s own past results, not between individual team members.

For more tips and articles on how you and your team can achieve your maximum potential click here to visit the Dale Carnegie Knowledge Centre .

Sophie Whittall
Marketing Co-ordinator

www.London.dalecarnegie.com

I challenge you to a duel!

Laying down a challenge is a concept that has been around for years and years and is something that we still do today, we may not challenge each other to a duel but we lay down challenges for ourselves and others that we set out to tackle all the time. If we didn’t take on these challenges life would be very boring!

By setting ourselves challenges we push ourselves out of our comfort zone and force ourselves to try new things. This helps us to flourish and grow instead of always staying in the same spot and going round in circles. As Dale Carnegie said ‘Take a chance! All life is a chance, the man who goes furthest is generally the one who is willing to do and dare.’

Here at Dale Carnegie we have set ourselves the challenge of running a half marathon to raise money for Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research. After training for three months and going through the highs and the lows, the big day is almost upon us - Sunday 21st March. We are all very excited and looking forward to taking part in this challenge and feeling the sense of achievement (and glory!) as we cross the finish line. Who knows what our next challenge will be once we have completed this one, the london marathon perhaps or maybe a triathlon...I’ll leave this thought with my team mates!

By setting ourselves challenges we achieve things we never thought we could and with each challenge we complete we feel we have progessed in an area of our life and feel proud of what we have acheived, this is what life is about.

So today I challenge you to set yourself a challenge!

• The challenge may seem daunting so set yourself mini goals that will help you reach the end result.


• Put enthusiasm into what you are doing.


• Do the very best you can.


• Push yourself out of your comfort zone.


• Enjoy what you are doing.

Good luck with whatever you set out to achieve.
For more advice and help with your challenges and goals, please visit our Knowledge Centre.

Sophie Whittall
Marketing & Admin Co-ordinator

www.london.dalecarnegie.com