TEAM TUNING

The IQ Of A Team Is Greater Than Each Individual On It.

Maybe it’s time to consider a Team Tune-up. Just as you need to take your car in for a tune-up now and then to ensure maximum performance, your team might be ready for a tune-up, too. Who are the spark plugs on your team? Who applies the brakes? Who are the accelerators?

Here’s the 6 ½ Step Model for Team Tuning:

1. Talk with CEO and senior management about who’s who on the team
2. Understand your culture and how it drives the company
3. Nominate and interview team members
4. Evaluate needs
5. Use a wide variety of teaching techniques
6. Provide comprehensive follow-up
½ Share success

Team Tuning Is Not Team Building

It’s different. Team Tuning takes the team you’ve built to a whole new level. The Team Tune-up leads to totally honest conversations and open communication.

You want everyone on your team to ‘tell it like it is’ rather than yakking about problems and issues at the water cooler or over a beer at the local pub. You know how damaging out of control gossip can be.

Team Tuning Reaches Down Into the Heart of Your Company

Team Tuning begins right at the very heart of your company. As an entrepreneur and business leader, you know you and your company are unique. You do things your own way—and that’s terrific, but, have you thought about how you can capitalize on your company’s culture?

Knowing what your culture—your organization’s personality—is all about and how it impacts everything you do, is a critical factor for overall success.

For example, one of our clients had just over 100 employees when we began to work with them. We quickly learned this company’s overriding culture—chaotic, demanding and crisis oriented. So what did they do? They brought people in, worked them hard, burned them out and then started the process all over again. The high turnover rate cost them a fortune! During the Team Tuning process we helped the CEO and his leadership team see that one of the reasons they were having so much trouble was that they were hiring the kind of people who simply could not survive in their company’s culture. The fact is, the top management hasn’t changed that much, but now they hire tough-minded, strong-willed individuals who actually thrive on chaos. The company is breaking revenue records. And we’re still there, helping them achieve their goals.

What’s Really Going On?

One of the things we do best is to get people to open up about what’s really going on at work. That’s the key to the success of the Team Tuning process.

It’s a whole lot easier for people to listen to and talk to someone from the outside. As outsiders, we have a completely unbiased point of view about the issues a company faces. What’s working well and what’s not! Isn’t that what you’d like to know?

In your position as leader, you might be surprised to find out what’s really happening and what people really think about you and your company.

When we worked with the top management team of a company in the food and beverage industry, it became obvious that the CEO was hampering progress because he couldn’t resist dabbling in marketing (of course that was his background). He just had to stick his nose into everything related to marketing and sales and, in the end, every phase of the business. It was through our Team Tuning sessions that he learned the effect his micromanaging was having on overall production and even more damaging, on employee morale. And this man was a very, very successful entrepreneur. Sound familiar? Ring a bell? To his credit, he is working hard to let his managers manage their own teams.

Team Tuning Is a Process-- Not a Management Course--you can get that anywhere

What’s hard to find is someone who is not the least bit afraid to tell you the truth about what’s going on with your company. We’ll work with you and your team to change what needs to be changed and build up what is working.

Telling them the truth is what clients like best about us.

The Team Tuning Process Takes Time and It’s Worth It!

It took you some time to build your business and it will take time to fine-tune what you’ve built.

Would you be open to developing a relationship with Confidence Builders to help you move your company from where it is now to unprecedented success—while completely avoiding bureaucracy?

If Your Answer Is Yes (or even Maybe) Here’s How We Work

Obviously, our Team Tuning process is not for everyone. If you are an entrepreneurially-oriented company experiencing rapid growth and facing tough decisions about how to move ahead and build on team strengths, we should talk. To ensure success, we’ll need the full cooperation of the CEO and top management team to support the team tune-up.

What You Can Expect From Us

As relentless optimists, we find the best in every company we work with. We establish strong relationships with every team member. Conversations are confidential. We use a composite of the information gathered, never identifying individual sources. This is an important part of the process. People feel free to tell us what they really think because they don’t have to worry about political or negative consequences.

The team goes through a rigorous process beginning with the personal interviews. This is followed by a team-based culture survey, which sets our direction for the rest of the Team Tuning process.

After the results of the survey are examined and understood, we offer the precise training your company needs. It might be classes on Planning or a section on Negotiation. Sometimes your team needs to brush up on Business Presentations. (No wasted or unnecessary class time.)

Your team will learn how to manage more professionally. Professional managers take you where you want to go.

Our ultimate goal is to see your company become everything it can be!

TEAM TUNING FAQs

Question: How is Team Tuning designed and developed?
Answer: Each Team Tune-up is custom-designed based on your team’s unique needs and your company’s culture. We never do “cookie-cutter” or “one size fits all” consulting or training. We develop a respectful and hard-working partnership with you and your team.

Question: How long is the program?
Answer: Most Team Tuning programs continue for at least 6 months to one year. Participants usually meet monthly to study each module.

Question: How many people are in a typical group?
Answer: 10-15 on a team

Naturally, you’ll want to find out if Team Tuning is right for you. Just send Dorothy and Jessica an e-mail dal@confidencebuilders.com or js@confidencebuilders.com, and we’ll get the process rolling right away.

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TEAM PLAY DAYS

All Work and No Play Makes Jack & Jill Bored and Boring

Play with purpose. Now that’s an idea. Instead of showing up for work one day, imagine if you sent your team to play games, laugh, and have fun. What do you think would happen?

Get ready for a huge bounce in motivation that will have permanent positive effects.

6 ½ Step Ways to Play with Purpose

1. Play
2. Learn
3. Amuse
4. Yell
5. Dare
6. Act
½ YOU

Confidence Builders’ Play Days are loaded with fun and games, yet there’s a very serious side to everything that goes on. What happens is that everyone has many “aha” experiences during the day about how the team really works.

All games and play themes are carefully coordinated to allow play to act as a metaphor for how people actually behave at work.

We have games that challenge players, games that require high degrees of trust, and games that highlight the individual strengths of team players.

Team Play Days are fun, exciting and fast-paced. Each activity is immediately followed by a high-spirited and in-depth debrief. Everyone gets to share insights—and there are tons of them.

The team gets to see, firsthand, how people act in a variety of situations. One of the best parts of the Play Days is the opportunity for teammates to get to know one another in new and different ways.

All of this leads to a more cohesive team. Teams become more tolerant and more energetic. Play Days usually lead to major changes in attitude.

Play Days make sense for any team that wants to be refreshed, revitalized and reconnected. It’s so much fun—everybody loves Team Play Days. It’s just good business to laugh and play every once in a while.

"You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation." - PLATO

Why Does Laughter Precede Learning? Laughter releases chemicals in your body that help you relax and enjoy the moment. When you laugh, you open up the possibility for learning because, at that very instant, all other things you’ve been thinking and worrying about disappear. Your mind is free to take in new ideas. We know this is true because we’ve been testing the theory with our clients for 10 years now. We can actually see them relax and watch them absorb information more rapidly and with a higher degree of retention. Laugh and Learn.

TEAM PLAY DAY FAQs

Question: How long is the program?
Answer: One full day works best. ½ day optional

Question: How many people in a group?
Answer: Up to 30 people

Question: What do we do?
Answer: Games & Challenges, Team Building Activities, Recognition Awards, Laugh & Learn

Question: What location is prefered for the program?
Answer: A large auditorium, gymnasium or outdoor facility recommended

Call Jessica at 513-336-9194 to find out why Team Play Days make work days much better and how to get your team involved.

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Can You Imagine What Would Happen to Your Business if Everyone on Your Team Made Really Terrific Presentations?

YOUR PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKOUT Exercise Your Body Parts

This seminar is based on our book

1. Analyze your fears
2. Narrow your focus
3. Assemble the pieces and the parts
4. Tackle the details
5. Observe yourself
6. Make a great speech
½ YOU (go out and speak)

The Ability to Speak With Confidence & Authority Makes a Huge Difference

Most people have learned about public speaking by watching boring, uninspired speakers. They think these dull presentations are okay. What a waste!

There’s a way to make a presentation that inspires and motivates people. It’s much more fun to speak this way. People who capture attention and keep audiences interested are always rated as more powerful than the ones who get up there with a ton of Power Point slides. Do the PPT junkies think the audience is thrilled and captivated?

What Happens at the Seminar?

At the Confidence Builders YPSWO seminar, students learn what the pros know. And they practice. There are no lectures, just good information followed by a chance to practice and be critiqued. This is the only process that really works. No one can read a book or listen to a tape and become a good speaker. (Although we do recommend reading Your Public Speaking Workout by Dorothy & Jessica)

Public Speaking is a skill that has to be learned and then practiced. Nothing else will do.

Classes are small (6-10 people) so everyone can be videotaped several times. The
learning that takes place is phenomenal. People who come into the class saying they hate to get up and speak leave with a whole new sense of confidence. Those who like speaking find they can be even more powerful using the skills we teach.

There is No More Critical Skill to Learn than Public Speaking.

With all the opportunities to communicate, it’s just essential that the people on your team learn how to be confident and sure of themselves every time they speak in a meeting, at a conference, in the board room, or on a sales call. Ideas count. Your team will learn to share ideas with wit, wisdom and enthusiasm.

YOUR PUBLIC SPEAKING WORKOUT FAQs

Question: How long is the program?
Answer: Two Days—highly recommended for extensive skill building and practice sessions. One Day— complete training, somewhat limited practice time.

Question: How many people in a group?
Answer: Up to 6-10 in a class so we can videotape several presentations

If you want to be 100% sure that your team makes the best presentations possible, call Dorothy (561-347-1620). In a brief conversation, you can find out if the Confidence Builders’ approach is right for your team.

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WRITE WHAT YOU MEAN

Words on paper tell a lot about how the writer thinks. Being a good business writer moves a person to a whole new level of respect in the eyes of customers, employers and peers.

6 ½ Steps to Writing Success

Plan
Rough Draft
Edit
Proofread
Action
Reaction
Enthusiasm

An Associated Press release (September 2004) by Madlen Read stated, “Businesses are really crying out—they need to have people write better …in a fast-paced workplace precision and brevity are essential.” Business owners must pay attention to the poor writing skills of their employees and how it affects the bottom line. Bad or unclear writing leads to mistakes, misunderstandings and management headaches. And it doesn’t have to be that way.

The Write What You Mean class addresses two issues: how to write clear and concise letters, memos and emails, and how to be grammatically correct.

The method we use works because people participate fully. They write, proofread and edit documents as they learn the best way to get a message across to a reader.

No one can believe that they’ll actually have fun in a writing class, but that’s exactly what happens. Learning grammar can seem daunting and tedious. Our method takes the pain out of it because we rely on our notion that laughter precedes learning. When people begin to laugh at some of the writing mistakes and grammatical errors we share, they open up to learning how to do it better.

The goal for Write What You Mean is to show participants that they are fully capable of writing documents that would get a passing grade (and an occasional “A” from even the toughest high school English teacher.

WRITE WHAT YOU MEAN FAQs

Question: How long is the program?
Answer: One full day

Question: How many people in a group?
Answer: Up to 20 people

Question: What is the format?
Answer: Program is highly interactive and fun
with an emphasis on writing style and content

Call Dorothy (561-347-1620) to help you decide if Write What You Mean is right for your team.

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OOPS, Your Attitude is Showing

SIGNALS of Communication
A 6 ½ Step Approach to Getting Along with Others

One of our most popular programs, SIGNALS, focuses on the way we SIGNAL our attitudes through words and body language. In this program, we explore new and exciting ways to look at the way we communicate. We concentrate on 6 ½ Signals of communication.

1. S uperior Attitude
2. I nsecure Feelings
3. G ender Differences
4. N eutral Ground Communicating
5. A uthority Figures
6. L ikeminded Behavior
½ S elf Awareness

Remember: 87% Of CEOs Claim Lack Of Communication Is Their Biggest Challenge.

People accept all forms of communication as a natural part of life, and yet, survey after survey shows that lack of communication is the biggest barrier to getting along in this world. It’s what causes breakdown after breakdown. WOW! What happens to create these barriers? How can something that seems so natural cause so many misunderstandings and problems? The SIGNALS program identifies and provides simple solutions to everyday communication issues.

We use a practical approach to communicating, providing your team with tips and techniques we’ve seen work again and again.

One Of The Things That Makes Us Happiest Is Our Relationships With Other People.
One Of The Things That Makes Us Unhappiest Is Our Relationships With Other People.

Life is about communicating. Good communications result in healthy working relationships. Isn’t that what we all want? Our SIGNALS workshop is fun, practical, and filled with immediately useable tips.

A Couple of Authentic Communicators

Oops Your Attitude is showing FAQs

Question: How long is the program?
Answer: One full day (recommended for greatest benefit to team). ½ Day optional.

Question: How many people in a group?
Answer: Class size: up to 20

Question: What's the dynamic?
Answer: Highly interactive. Games & Prizes.

Question: What's the preferred location?
Answer: At a location of your choice

Call Jessica (513-336-9194) and she’ll spend a few minutes with you to see if our SIGNALS workshop is right for you.