HOW TO MANAGE A WINNING TEAM: good coaching in football and the workplace

Football. It’s only a game, right? Wrong! Football is a way of life! You only have to look at the excitement in the build-up to this year’s Euro Cup. Many coaching strategies and best practices from the world of sports also apply to project management. It’s no coincidence that business coaching and leadership development experts are often former athletes and sports stars. They apply the winning disciplines and mentalities they developed over their professional career to help teams become efficient, adaptable problem-solvers and visionaries who can outperform, outsell and outlast the competition. But you don’t have to be Claudio Ranieri to lead your players to victory. The key to a successful project is effective collaboration and communication between team members. With the help of our 7 pro tips for team leaders and a business tool like GoToMeeting, your team will put in a title-winning performance.

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1. Train together regularly An elite team needs to develop strength and stamina, improve skills, and build motivation, ambition and confidence together. Hold regular team meetings to find out if your key contributors and other team members need any kind of support. That way, you can identify weaknesses or obstacles early enough to take action and drive efforts to meet project goals.

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GoToMeeting Pro Tip: Set up a recurring meeting in GoToMeeting for regular status updates and knowledge sharing.

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2. Select the right players There’s no point playing your best striker in defence, or fielding your youth team against seasoned opponents. With a typical project, the key players probably work from different locations. So to maintain business agility, it’s vital to overcome geographic limitations. With a collaboration tool like GoToMeeting, your team can win at home or away using web and video conferencing.

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GoToMeeting Pro Tip: Use screen sharing to present to the whole team. It’s almost like being in the same room. Share keyboard and mouse control to collaborate on documents in real time.

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3. Provide the right kit No successful coach would want his players to turn up for a match in trainers instead of football boots, just to save a bit of money. Likewise, it’s important to provide your people with the right kit for the job, so they can be professional at all times. When selecting your collaboration solution, make sure it’s easy to use so your team will readily adopt it, otherwise your investment won’t pay off.

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GoToMeeting Pro Tip: GoToMeeting is incredibly easy to use: three clicks are all it takes. And don’t forget to equip your team with audio headsets and HD webcams, too.

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4. Ensure you have a strong bench

Even the best squad can lose a key player to injury, so it’s vital to have a strong bench of substitutes that can can be fielded at any time. If a member of your team is absent, it’s up to you to quickly select a sub and bring them up to speed, so they can run with the ball. After all, you don’t want to jeopardise the project, so you need to be able to resume play without disruption.

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GoToMeeting Pro Tip: Use desktop recording during your online meetings so you can share the session afterwards with absent colleagues or customers.

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5. Analyse your rivals

A good manager isn’t focused solely on their own team’s performance – they scrutinise their competitors’ stats and strategies, too. Your rivals might be working on a similar project. You need to know what you‘re up against in business. Instead of relying on rumours and anecdotes, collaboratively research any new features...

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GoToMeeting Pro Tip: Use desktop sharing so the team can periodically review competitors’ websites, marketing content and industry news.

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6. Talk team tactics

Fortunes can be reversed in the course of a game. Coaches and commentators now regularly use interactive multi-touch displays for team briefings and tactical analysis. It’s the same in a rapidly changing business. Your team must be able to quickly react to the latest market trends, which means you have to adjust your project plans and roadmaps to the emerging situation.

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GoToMeeting Pro Tip: Present your tactics visually, to get your point across more clearly. Use the pen, highlighter or arrow to draw, emphasise or indicate items of interest on your screen.

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7. Keep your eyes on the prize

Victory isn’t just about winning today’s match – it’s about performing consistently over the whole season. Don’t let your team get so burdened with their current workload that team morale suffers or other projects are left under-resourced. Try to get a sense of how things are going in your team, so you’ll be able to react if something’s wrong. Don’t wait until the final whistle.

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GoToMeeting Pro Tip: Hold informal one-to-ones using HDFaces video conferencing gives you the benefit of eye contact and body language. You’ll be better able to detect any priority clashes or resource issues before they derail the project.

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Find out how GoToMeeting can help you manage a winning team. Start your free trial today:

www.gotomeeting.co.uk Get your free trial version: United Kingdom: 0800 011 2120

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Resources to increase business agility Additional white papers and case studies about GoToMeeting are available at: resources.gotomeeting.co.uk/h/

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About Citrix Citrix (NASDAQ:CTXS) is leading the transition to software-defining the workplace, uniting virtualization, mobility management, networking and SaaS solutions to enable new ways for businesses and people to work better. Citrix solutions power business mobility through secure, mobile workspaces that provide people with instant access to apps, desktops, data and communications on any device, over any network and cloud. With annual revenue in 2014 of $3.14 billion, Citrix solutions are in use at more than 330,000 organizations and by over 100 million users globally. Learn more at www.citrix.com. © 2016 Citrix Systems, Inc. All rights reserved. Citrix and GoToMeeting are trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. and/or one or more of its subsidiaries, and may be registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, with the Office of Harmonization for the Internal Market, and in other jurisdictions. All other marks appearing in this piece are the property of their respective owner/s. 781EN/WP/2016-06-06