182 | HR Team Building: An Activity Every New HR Leader Should Try

🎁 Download your free Personal User Manual template:

https://brightskyhr.co.uk/resources

Taking over the leadership of an HR team can come with a long list of things you want to improve, but one of the most valuable things you can do first is help your team build trust, understand each other and work well together.

In this episode of HR Coffee Time, Fay shares one of her favourite team-building activities: creating and sharing Personal User Manuals.

Personal User Manuals give everyone an opportunity to explain how they work best, the strengths they bring, what helps them thrive and what their colleagues should know about them.

They can make some of the information that is usually invisible within a team much more visible, helping people understand each other’s preferences, avoid misunderstandings and make better use of the strengths and experience already within the team.

Fay talks you through how to run the activity, from deciding what to include in your Personal User Manuals to facilitating the sharing session and turning what you learn into practical changes in how you work together.

In this episode, you’ll discover:

• Why investing in relationships can create a stronger foundation when you take over an HR team
• How Personal User Manuals can help your team understand each other’s strengths, preferences and ways of working
• How the activity can help you start building greater psychological safety
• Ideas for useful categories to include in your Personal User Manuals
• Why it’s helpful to ask your team what they think everyone should include
• How to create the right environment for people to share what they’ve written
• Why you, as the leader, should share your Personal User Manual first
• Questions you can use to encourage positive reflections after each person has shared
• How to turn what you learn into practical improvements to the way your team works
• How to keep the learning alive after the activity

Chapters

[00:00] Why relationships matter when you take over an HR team

[01:20] What is a Personal User Manual?

[02:50] Why Personal User Manuals can be so useful

[04:55] What to include in your Personal User Manuals

[06:50] Involving your team in choosing the categories

[07:50] How to run the sharing session

[08:50] Why the leader should go first

[09:30] Encouraging positive comments and reflections

[10:40] What have you learned about yourselves as a team?

[11:35] Keeping the learning alive

[12:35] Download the free Personal User Manual template

Useful Links

• Download your free Personal User Manual template:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/resources
• Connect with Fay Wallis on LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/faywallis/
• The Essential HR Planner:https://essentialhrplanner.co.uk/
• Learn about the Inspiring HR Leadership Programme:https://brightskyhr.co.uk/hr-leadership-course/

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