sponsorship unit-based teams

Sponsors are the go-to people for UBT co-leads, providing resources, guidance and oversight for teams — and effective sponsorship is one of the most important ingredients for a high-performing unit-based team. If you’re a sponsor, provide your teams with the support they need to create an environment where UBT members are always learning, always improving, always innovating.

1. Make it a priority to be involved. Provide feedback and hold teams accountable for action plans.
2. Coach and mentor co-leads; connect them with opportunities to develop needed skills or knowledge. Developing strong team members will ease your work in the long run.
3. Take time for face time. Walk the floor with team members and occasionally attend UBT meetings.
4. Share expectations up front with your co-sponsor and team co-leads. Define how you’ll make decisions and how you’ll communicate and how often.
5. Help team members build their problem-solving skills by having them develop solutions, but if there are barriers outside the co-leads’ or team’s scope, get busy breaking them down.
6. Educate your teams about local work plans and regional performance priorities so they can work on the right projects. Be sure, too, that things team members care most about get addressed.
7. Celebrate and highlight successes, both large and small, by rewarding individuals and teams in a way that is meaningful to them — whether it’s an email, party, lunch or a parking spot for a month.
8. Secure the resources your teams need to get work done, such as time for regular trainings or meetings and access to data that will help benchmark their performance.
9. Establish a baseline Path to Performance rating. Assist teams in understanding the rating and connect them with resources or successful practices that will help them become high performing.
10. Ensure teams are documenting their work regularly, accurately and concisely in UBT Tracker.