Ever wondered why ‘High Performing Team‘ training often does not produce ‘High Performing Teams’?

The training says, “An all star team beats a team of all stars any day”. This fundamental flaw causes the failure of high performance team training. It puts high performing people against high performing teams, as if you have to make a choice.

In this case, you can have your cake and eat it too. You do not have to choose between high performing teams and high performing people. You need to choose both for either to work effectively.

Reasons why teams don’t perform

Four key reasons why teams do not perform are:

1. The team is more important than the individuals –  If the team is more important than the individual, staff engagement will fall, as people do not feel that their individual contribution to the team is valued. In this scenario, training is directed at the team. This can lead to under-skilling of the members of the team that will seriously affect the ability of the team to perform.
2. The individual is not playing as part of a team – In the other extreme, if the individuals are more important than the team, the focus will be on individual achievement. The challenge with this is that people focus on their achievement at the cost of other people. This can lead to the “team” pulling in different directions at the same time and hence the team burns up a large amount of energy pulling against each other.
3. The team lacks focus – A lack of focus will also hinder a team’s performance. Imagine a soccer team trying to score if it did not know where the goals were! Workplace teams often have exactly that situation. Goals are not clear or are constantly moving. In some cases, goals even conflict with each other. This will also occur where the team does not have a clear understanding of its purpose, strategy and goals.
4. The team lacks an effective leader – A team will flounder without a leader clearly guiding the team in a single direction. This person does not have to tell the team what to do, but does need the skills to facilitate decision making in the team so that the team continues to travel in a single forward direction. They must be able to clearly sell a common theme for the team, using a common language, to be effective.

Recognising when teams don’t perform

Do you know whether your team is performing? This may sound like a strange question to ask. Teams often do not have clear direction, nor clear measures of how they are performing. Even if they do have measures, they usually measure outcomes, rather than reviewing the team itself and its efficiency.

If the team is more important than the Individual is, you are likely to find low engagement and missed individual KPIs. High turnover, high unplanned absenteeism and low morale will generally result from low engagement. If you do not currently track these, they are good indicators to show how the team is performing.

If the individual is more important than the team, you will generally see individual KPIs met. This will, however, be done with a large degree of frustration. There are unlikely to be shared goals and your people will talk with a different perspective on the same topics. The team will miss their KPIs on a regular basis if they are not also the individual’s KPIs.

If the team lacks focus, it will also tend to miss the team KPIs (that is if there are any team KPIs). The lack of team KPIs will contribute to poor team performance. The manager’s KPIs usually then become the team’s KPIs by default. The manager does not communicate these clearly and so the team becomes frustrated trying to hit what appears to be a moving target.

Rectifying teams that don’t perform

The first step to rectifying team performance is to recognise that the team is not performing. This can be done by reviewing team and individual KPIs and using a balanced team scorecard. Being able to measure the team performance is vital to an effective improvement process.

Once you can measure the performance level, you can use a balanced team scorecard to help you identify key areas to concentrate on to improve the team. Put in place the activities and training to rectify the gaps and then re-measure.

When measuring team performance you need to measure the activities and training that you put in place as a way of getting some quick wins for the team. If all the KPIs and measures are focussed on longer term measures (lag indicators) it will take too long for the team to see that they are working together to improve.

High performing teams do not have to be a myth. High performing teams can be high performing. It takes effort focussed on the functioning of the team, the individuals in the team and the team goals & objectives. As you measure these, monitor, feedback and correct in a continual cycle you can see your team become a high performing team.

Guest Author

Brad Cork, The People Expert, Improving People. Brad can help you get the most out of your people. Contact Brad on 0425 335 659 or [email protected] to find out how! To download a complimentary one page report on each of the six great keys to getting the most out of your people please visit http://www.improvingpeople.com.au.