How to Create Better Teams for Better Outcomes
This is not an easy time to be a leader. With burnout and looming macroeconomic uncertainty, your company is guaranteed to be going through change right now. Many companies are starting to tighten the belt. You might be one of the lucky few companies that are growing, which means you might be struggling with what that growth means. Either way, being a leader in this moment means navigating growth or contraction (a.k.a. change).
Leaders often get so focused on growth (or contraction), they lose track of sustainability. Look at Peloton’s growth struggles, or rumors of Meta’s anticipated layoffs. Of course, leaders can also get so focused on themselves that they lose track of their purpose entirely.
This is the time to get back to basics: The Team.
If you're not mindful of the health of your team, there will be reverberating consequences across the organization. Research shows that team dynamics are in crisis, with over 70% of team members not being committed to mutual elevation of professional capabilities. The same amount reported that their team does not collaboratively engage in the most important business problems across the organization nor is accountable for shared (team) goals, with over 80% reporting that their team is not operating anywhere near their full potential.
Here are some things you might be hearing from your team:
A team can show indicators of ineffectiveness in multiple ways, including the refusal to take ownership of their decisions, blaming each other for setbacks, hoarding information from each other or being unable to make decisions. These symptoms are like an iceberg. What you are seeing as a leader is likely only 10% of the problem. The larger problems around trust, team dynamics, and communication norms are often hidden beneath the surface. These symptoms are indicators that the Conditions of an Effective team might not be met, per the research of Drs. Ruth Wageman, Richard Hackman, and Erin Lehman of Harvard University.
As a leader, you need to focus on creating an environment that propels the team towards high levels of effort, excellent quality work strategies, and the full range of their knowledge and skill to the work.
Resource Allocation
How are the essential components of your team and the elements that enable your team to thrive supported and properly allocated for in your leadership? Supporting your team revolves around resource allocation. Exercise influence upwards and outwards to remove roadblocks, open opportunities, and provide the resources the team will need. Moreover, look to where adjustments and interventions are needed. Something available to a team is adjustment through someone—inside or outside the team—intervening in the team process in ways that promote the best use of collective resources in completing the work.
Mission Alignment
Furthermore, is your team in agreement with its mission? Does your team have a unifying rallying cry that brings them back to their purpose within their organization? A team out of alignment is a team struggling to succeed. Clarity in vision and organization are integral to team success. Ask your team members what your team’s top 3 to 5 priorities are and the associated impact on the organization or the team’s customers. You’ll likely get differing answers. This is a sign of being out of alignment. A team may know what makes the organization good at what they do, but will have differing answers on how they uniquely contribute. Strategically aligned enterprises are made capable by their organizational resources, including people, structures, cultures, and work processes. These elements all inform each other, guiding a team and allowing for independent and cohesive decision-making capabilities with members. Are you communicating the goals as well as the guiding values of your organization to your team? How are you inviting your team to raise questions of clarification?
Sound Structure
In the Team Diagnostic Survey research, an effective team is one where the task output meets or exceeds the needs of the team’s client(s), is becoming increasingly capable performing as a unit over time, and the members’ personal learning and growth are fostered by their experiences.
You want a real team that is bounded, interdependent, and stable populated with the right people, of which all members have both task and teamwork skills, and adequate diversity--a good mix of perspectives and capabilities needed for the work. So how do you enable the essential matters of your team? Develop sound structure. Sound structure should be meaningful team tasks and specified clear norms of conduct. Keep this structure simple (single digits in listing) and encourage collaborative philosophy of work within the organization.
Meet the needs of your team and your team will meet you
Through developing sound structure, strong team alignment and effective resource allocation, a team can thrive individually and collectively. Listen to your team and invest in their implementation of strategy through healthy communication and cohesion. As the leader, you set the example of progress and excellence. Outside support through coaching is available. To learn more, contact me for ways to build an effective team.