Typically, groups do not feel secure in an environment with no rules or guidelines. Team members may want reassurance that certain important needs will be met. They may want their work group to be a special kind of team. Ideally, everyone will be involved in deciding what is important enough to them to be spelled out as a norm or standard.

Specific principles, values or guidelines can be agreed upon and written down. If they are not written down, people may not be sure they are operating. These norms may address mission issues such as customer focus, openness to new ideas, concern for quality and attention to detail. Or they may address people issues, such as honesty, loyalty, feedback and confidentiality. Leaders affirm group norms or standards by personally conforming to them and by letting members know when their behavior is inconsistent with the norms.

The people who gave you feedback may feel that you do not enforce the norms and standards of the work group.

• They may have noticed that some people don't conform to norms.
• Maybe team norms and standards have never been formally agreed upon.
• Perhaps you've forgotten what the team norms and standards are.
• You may feel that team norms and standards are not enforceable.
• The team may be so busy that enforcing norms seems a lower priority.
• You may believe that a leader has the right to overlook norms.
• You may have considered most violations to be isolated incidents.
• You may want to avoid confrontations, for people to self-correct.

• If the comments in your report do not describe in enough detail why you received a relatively low rating, consider asking the people who rated you for more specific examples of your actions.

• Perhaps the people who work around you expect more of you than you realize. Tell them that you want everyone to uphold team norms and standards. Ask what improvements team members would like to see in the way you enforce them.

• If the team has not already done so, meet with everyone to discuss, agree upon and write down what principles people consider so important that they want to live by them. Help them decide upon the right language and make sure that it is recorded.

• If the team has already gone through the exercise of recording its norms and standards, how long has it been? Has it been more than two years? Does the team have a new mission, vision, or goals? Have new people joined the team? Have the team guidelines been shared with them? If the team feels it is needed, meet to review and reaffirm the team norms and standards.

• Appreciate that like any law or rule, team norms that are not enforced in effect do not exist. People will come to believe that the team really didn't mean it or that the rules have changed.

• It may be a good idea to affirm team norms by having them represented on paper in an attractive way for each team member to keep and refer to.

• When you notice that someone's behavior is not in agreement with a team norm or standard, address it immediately by giving feedback to the individual. An effective approach would include:

1. Describe the behavior to the individual.
2. State the norm and why the team feels it is important.
3. Ask if the person wants to renew agreement to live by the norm.
4. Express your appreciation and confidence in the person.

• Consider that a leader must try harder than anyone to comply with team norms, because people will look to the leader's example for evidence that the norms and standards are valid.

• Consider believing in and doing things based on these positive attitudes:

"People want and need structure."

"I will affirm my expectations through my actions."