How to build a high-performance team

I've been doing a lot of work on high-performance teams in the past year. This is coupled with the fact that I've had the fortune to lead some high-performance teams too.

But what is it that differentiates a good team from a brilliant team? What can you do to progress your team towards excellence? And why is it so important to build high performing teams?

Don Warrick summarises it neatly when he says,

“The ability of organizations to be skilled at teamwork and building high performing teams is a major key to competitive advantage and may well determine the future success or failure of many organizations.” 

In this article you'll get a deeper understanding of the difference between good (effective) and high-performing teams. More importantly, at the end of the article there are some useful tips and activities to help you take your team to the next level.

The effective team

There are a few pieces of research I normally refer to when lecturing or consulting and when talking about effective teams (which are different from high-performing teams as we'll see).

The first is by Douglas McGregor in his 1960 book The Human Side of Enterprise. He suggests that you can tell a team is effective because they exhibit the following characteristics:

• There is a relaxed, comfortable and informal atmosphere;
• People understand and accept the tasks they're assigned and there is a lot of task-relevant discussion that takes place;
• Team members listen well to each other;
• People are comfortable expressing both their feelings and ideas;
• Conflict and disagreement are evident but focus on ideas and methods, not personalities and people;
• The team as a whole is self-conscious about and takes ownership of how it operates;
• Decisions are usually based on consensus, not majority vote; and
• When decisions are made they are broadly accepted by team members.

The second is by Glenn Parker, from his 1990 book Team Players and Teamwork: The new competitive business strategy. He suggests the characteristics of an effective team are as follows:

• Team members are clear about the team's purpose;
• There is a level of informality evident between team members;
• People proactively engage and effectively participate;
• Team members listen well to each other;
• There is civilized disagreement and constructive argument;
• Decision making tends to be by consensus;
• Communications is open between team members;
• People are clear on their roles and their work assignments;
• Whilst there is a clear manager, there is also a sense of shared leadership;
• Relationships with other teams inside and outside the organisation are positive and constructive;
• Differences in working style are respected and welcomed; and
• The team regularly assesses its level of effectiveness.

But it is a strong personal commitment to each other that is the differentiator and distinguishes high-performance teams from effective teams.

Jon Katzenbach and Douglas Smith put it neatly when they say,

“Energized by this extra sense of commitment, high-performance teams typically reflect strong extensions of the basic characteristics of teams: deeper sense of purpose, more ambitious performance goals, more complete approaches, fuller mutual accountability, interchangeable as well as complementary skills”

High-performance characteristics

One of the best-known and still widely referred to references is the work of Carl Larson and Frank LaFasto. Their work on high-performance teams identified the following eight characteristics:

1. The team has clear, stretching goals. This is evidenced through:

i) Clarity of purpose;

ii) All team members each have agreed annual objectives; and

iii) Each team member feels sufficiently stretched in their work.

2. There is a focus on results across the team. This is evidenced through:

i) All team members being clear on performance levels that need to be achieved;

ii) The team manager regularly and proactively talks to whole team about performance;

iii) Poor performance is not ignored but is quickly and effectively managed; and

iv) All team members take responsibility for the team's performance.

3. Standards of excellence are clear and understood. This is evidenced through:

i) The team having clearly defined, shared and understood standards of customer service;

ii) The manager has made explicit what 'excellence' looks like and has ensured that all team members understand this; and

iii) There are benchmarks with other, similar teams in place that are actively used by the team.

4. The team is collaborative and the environment enables this. This evidenced by:

i) The manager actively encouraging team members to collaborate widely;

ii) The manager leads the way by having excellent relationships with peers across the organisation; and

iii) There is a mentoring and coaching culture across the team.

5. There is unified commitment across the team in achieving it's purpose. This is evidenced by:

i) All team members being united and working together to deliver a great service;

ii) Team members broadly agreeing with the direction of the team; and

iii) The team manager is dedicated and passionate which, in turn, inspires loyalty, passion and commitment across the team.

6. There are reward and recognition mechanisms in place. This is evidenced by:

i) Credit being given to the right people at the right time, such as in the form a thank you note which details the specific reasons for recognition;

ii) Excellent performance is recognised and rewarded in some way, with managers not just relying on the wider corporate system to do this; and

iii) The team achieves external recognition, such as industry awards.

7. Team members are competent and confident. This is evidenced through:

i) People being confident in their colleagues' skills, knowledge and experience;

ii) People being confident in their own skills, knowledge and experience; and

iii) Team members being given space and time to learn, develop and grow.

8. The team manager is a principled leader. This is evidenced through them:

i) Always leading by example;

ii) Sharing what is important to them, such as their core values;

iii) Treating everyone fairly; and

iv) Always treating everyone with respect.

High-performance is electrifying

Whilst the managers and leaders I work with have always found the Larson and LaFasto characteristics a useful framework to work to. I've become more interested in the intangible aspects. I mean that vibe you get when you walk in to a team's area. There are some teams where you get a real positive buzz. It's almost like there is electricity in the air. There is banter and happiness.

It's one of the first things I look (or rather feel) for when I'm reviewing a team.

This is why I was interested in the research of Alex Pentland, at MIT. A summary of the research can be found in the Harvard Business Review.

The MIT research used technology to assess how, when and where people communicated, who with and what that did to their energy levels. The results were amazing and have implications for those teams and organisations who operate in rigid, hierarchical ways.

The researchers found that the best predictors of performance and productivity are a team’s energy and engagement outside formal meetings. This was evidenced through:

• Team members proactively stepping outside the team to explore and find new information which they then bring back for the team to benefit from;
• People participating in back-channel or side conversations across the team;
• Everyone listening and talking pretty much in equal measure, with contributions kept short and to the point;
• People connecting with each other across the team, not just with the team manager; and
• Team members facing each other when talking, using gestures and demonstrating energy.

The research also found, unsurprisingly, that the best way to communicate and engage was face-to-face, closely followed by telephone and with email languishing in last place. Yet, how many organisational cultures mean that the opposite is evident, with email being the go-to?

Five things you can do to build a high-performance team

1. Ensure you and your team are all clear and in alignment on the team's purpose. Check out this blog post, Before 'what' there is 'why', for an activity you can run with your team.
2. Clarify what average, good and excellent performance looks like so that your team understand 'the rules of the game'. The blog post, It's all about results, has an activity to help you do this.
3. Take the time to understand what motivates each individual person across your team. You can then use this to put in place different approaches to reward and recognition. Why not download this reward and recognition questionnaire to use with your team?
4. Work with your team to create a framework of behaviours and 'rules' that encourage and enable collaboration. The blog post, A collaborative climate, has a helpful activity you can use with your team to do this.
5. Co-create a set of team values which everyone then works to. The blog post, Agreed ways of working, has a step-by-step activity you can use with your team.

*****

Hayley Lewis is a chartered psychologist, consultant and university lecturer specialising in organisational behaviour and performance. She shares new insights and advice on work and psychology every month in her consultancy's newsletter: HALO Psychology