High Performing Teams
This week I’ve been thinking a lot about teams and in particular high performing teams, and the transferable analogies between sporting and corporate success.
I’d hardly consider myself an expert on the topic, so consider these blog-perspectives in a way, but I hope at least they inspire some thought in each of you around working as a team and performing well. Having said that after 20 years of managing teams including 6 years as a high-performance coach in sports like athletics, soccer and volleyball through to elite level, I’ve learned some things along the way.
If you think about a team in say soccer or volleyball, for those not familiar, there are a variety of team roles and specialisations, and each arguably is as important as the next, though positions like strikers or goal scorers will ultimately attract more of the spotlight. There are literally 1000s of publications and blogs out there on the topic if you should feel like a Google, but there are common themes which I’ll summarise for you in plain speak through my subjective lens:
A commitment to shared vision and values and a zero-tolerance for the contrary. By stepping back to see the forest for the trees it can help us keep perspective. Are we just going through the motions? Or are we regularly checking in with ourselves to make sure our work directly aligns to overall team strategic objectives
Team before self. A team is a group of individuals working collaboratively together for a shared purpose to achieve the best team results possible. It is not a group of individuals working independently for personal success, especially personal success at the expense of team success. The ‘that’s not my job’ thinking can at times be a good example of self-before-team. In my experience, individual operators are more suited to say contractor work which can permit a more detached, transactional working style.
Accountability. Owning tasks not done well as learning opportunities to do better and celebrating things done well helps to hold players to account for actions within the team. Our performance is our own responsibility as is measuring it against requirements and objectives. We also all have a responsibility to hold others to account in an appropriate way. High performing teams aren’t trying to do an acceptable job, they’re trying to do an outstanding job. Actively seek feedback and actively seek to provide it.
Agility. To do things the same way as the way they’ve always been done in business as in sport is a recipe for disaster. The best teams are constantly looking for ways to do things better and be better, and in a competitive setting are looking to do things that no one else is doing and lead by example.
If it doesn’t challenge you it doesn’t change you. It is through discomfort that we grow. Ordinary effort yields ordinary results. Embrace every opportunity to improve, acknowledging that change is inherently difficult, so buckle up and adjust your expectations if need.
Trust and inclusion. People should feel safe to be themselves and be able to trust that those around them are there to support and enable the best individual and team performance.
Empathy. Efforts for increased scrutiny and understanding between team members should be welcomed as a chance for enhanced understanding and where another might have fresh ideas from a different perspective this is an opportunity to do things better, ultimately helping the team. Do you often put yourselves in your colleague’s shoes? Do you know what they’re dealing with? When was the last time you reached out and offered assistance or asked “is there anything I can do to help?”? Or if you feel others don’t understand your role, what actions have you taken to help their understanding?
Respect. Language and behaviours should be collaborative and non-adversarial. Disagreements even if robust should aim for objectivity, win-win outcomes, de-escalation of tension and avoid making things personal. If any of you have a sporting background you’ll know that feedback to do things better is commonplace because improving individual player or process performance ultimately improves team performance.
Diversity. A soccer team with 11 star strikers will most likely lose. The best teams take action to understand their skill and capability gaps and improve on their weaknesses thus ultimately becoming a more rounded unit. This can also be applied to the theory of diversification of skills within individuals i.e. every attacker should also be able to defend reasonably. Diversity of skills across a team and within players reduces risk and improves empathy. There is of course also the argument for specialisation which is very context dependent.
Humanity. The best teams have team members treating each other like real people not numbers, while embracing their own humanity. For example, none of us are perfect, we all get tired, we all make mistakes, and we all have stuff going on that you don’t know about, so be kind, think beyond the surface you see, and be inclusive.