36 / MANAGING A TEAM
High-performing teams
As Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler Corporation, said: “All business
operations can be reduced to three words: people, product, and profit.
People come first. Unless you’ve got a good team, you can’t do much with
the other two.” Successful managers are those who create, work with,
and manage successful teams.
WHO ARE WE?
Sharing strengths,
weaknesses, work
preferences, and
values allows the
establishment of a set of
common beliefs for the
team, creating a group
identity and a feeling of
“what we stand for.”
WHERE ARE WE
NOW?
Understanding the
current position means
that a team can
reinforce its strengths,
improve on its
weaknesses, and
identify opportunities
to capitalize on and
threats to be aware of.
WHERE ARE WE
GOING?
Teams need to have
a vision of the pot of
gold at the end of the
rainbow. They also need
a mission, a purpose,
and a set of specific
team goals that they
are all excited about.
Understanding team performance
Defining high-
performing teams
A team is two or more people who
meet regularly, perceive themselves
as a distinct entity distinguishable from
others, have complementary skills, and
are committed to a common purpose,
a set of performance goals, and an
approach for which they hold themselves
mutually accountable. High-performing
teams engage in collective work
produced by coordinated joint efforts
that result in more than the sum of the
individual efforts. Research and practical
experience have shown that teams with
many more than 12 members tend to
lack cohesion and struggle to make
fast and effective decisions.
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HIGHPERFORMING TEAMS / 37
HOW WILL WE
GET THERE?
Team members must
understand who will
do what and when to
accomplish team goals,
and must be clear about
their job description,
roles on the team,
responsibilities, and
areas of authority
and accountability.
WHAT SUPPORT DO
WE GET/NEED?
Reviewing each
member’s training
and development needs
can set the stage for
individual training,
counseling, and
mentoring that
will strengthen both
the individual and
the team.
HOW EFFECTIVE
ARE WE?
Regular performance
reviews of quantity
and quality outputs and
the team process—
with recognition and
reward for success—
ensure achievement
of team goals and
provide members
with standards.
In focus
MUTUAL TRUST
A climate of mutual trust is
essential in a high-performing
team—each member of the team
needs to know they can depend on
the others. Successful managers
build mutual trust by creating
a climate of openness in which
employees are free to discuss
problems without fear of retaliation.
They are approachable and
respectful and listen to team
members’ ideas, and develop a
reputation for being fair, objective,
and impartial in their treatment of
others. Consistency and honesty
are key, so these managers
avoid erratic and unpredictable
behavior and always follow
through on any explicit and
implied promises they make.
Communication is at the
heart of building and maintaining
mutual interdependence between
members of a team. Managers
of high-performing teams keep
team members informed about
upper-management decisions and
policies and give accurate feedback
on their performance. They are
also open and candid about their
own problems and limitations.
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38 / MANAGING A TEAM
Achieving good teamwork
To help your teams perform to the best
of their ability, create clear goals. All
team members need to have a thorough
understanding of the goals of the team
and a belief that these goals embody
a worthwhile result. This encourages
team members to sublimate personal
concerns to those of the team. Members
need to be committed to the team’s
goals, know what they are expected
to accomplish, and understand how
they will work together to achieve
these goals.
However, these goals must be
attainable; team members can lose
morale if it seems that they are not.
To avoid this, set smaller interim
milestones in the path to your overall
goal. As these smaller goals are
attained, your team’s success is
reinforced. Cohesiveness is increased,
morale improves, and confidence builds.
As the manager of a team, it is your
job to provide the resources and support
that the members need to achieve
success. Offer skills training where
needed, either personally or by calling
in specialists within your organization
or outside training services.
members is the ideal
number for a team to work
at optimal effectiveness
6–12
Steering your team
Team members should all share in
the glory when their team succeeds,
but also share in the blame when the
team fails. However, members need
to know that they cannot ride on the
backs of others.
Identify what each member’s
contribution to the team’s work should
be and make it a part of his or her
overall performance appraisal. To help
monitor performance, select members of
the team to act as participant–observers.
While a team is working, the role of the
participant–observer is to focus on
the processes being used—the sequence
of actions that takes place between team
members to achieve a goal. Periodically,
the participant–observer should stop the
team from working on its task and
discuss the process members are
engaged in. The objectives of the
participant–observer are to improve
the team’s functioning by discussing the
processes being used and creating
strategies for improving them.
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HIGH-PERFORMING TEAMS / 39
Setting standards
Create a performance agreement to
record the details of what the team is
aiming to achieve, what is required and
expected of every team member, and
what support will be available to them.
Setting out the framework for team
success clearly helps to ensure that
there is a mutual understanding and
common vision of the desired results,
and emphasizes the standards that you
expect from every team member.
CHECKLIST...
YES NO
Creating a team performance agreement
1 Have I identified what is to be done and when? ..............................
2 Have I specified the boundaries (guiding rules of behavior)
or the means for accomplishing results? .......................................
3 Have I identified the human, financial, technical, or
organizational support available to help achieve the results? ....
4 Have I established the standards of performance and the time
intervals for evaluation? ..................................................................
5 Have I specified what will happen in performance evaluations
and the consequences of not meeting the standards? ..................
CHANGE PERSONNEL
If your teams get bogged
down in their own inertia or
internal fighting, rotate the
members. Consider how
certain personalities will
mesh and re-form your
teams in ways that will
better complement skills.
Tip
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