Fast Track your Team Performance

It makes sense to have clear roles and responsibilities within a team or job. With this in mind, it’s important to differentiate between clear roles and clear job descriptions.

A job description can state the tasks you are responsible for carrying out, is often quite specific and can be narrow in scope.

A role is about accountability and the outcomes you are responsible for making happen. It can therefore give you license to do more than what would typically be in a job description, if it helps to complete the objective you are responsible for.

In successful teams I’ve been part of, not only is everybody’s role made clear to them, everyone is encouraged to know what role their team members also play, so there is no ambiguity.

In my teams, I also allow for a bit of variation, which means that if problems occur and work just needs to be done, you are encouraged to step outside of your comfort zone and learn something new in order to achieve the objectives.

Whilst roles should be clear, high performing teams look out for each other and do uncomfortable things when needed so they can achieve the mission, even if it’s not exactly their job.

Benefits of clear roles:

• Helps team members understand their responsibilities and how they contribute to the overall mission.

• Helps individuals to know what their team members are responsible for.

• Improves accountability and identify gaps that need to be filled before it’s too late.

Have you ever worked on a project or in a team where the work just starts, people focus on the tasks, processes and the product that needs to be built but the team doesn’t fully know why the product needs to be built and how they will know if it was a success?

This is common, and is often due to lack of shared goals and objectives. It may feel slow at the start, but taking time to make clear what the team goals are and how to identify when a goal has been achieved, pays dividends later.

This can be the difference between building a useful product at pace, compared with delivering an average product which does not serve its intended audience effectively.

To this end, a delivery team needs to have a clear and mutual understanding of its objectives and work together to achieve it.

Benefits of shared goals

• Shared goals helps the team to focus on the purpose of what they are delivering and give a sense of belonging.

• Provides meaning to tasks and activities, increasing the likelihood of higher quality work.

• Can increase motivation and commitment from team members.

• Simplifies decision-making, as key decisions must align to shared goals.

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There are two main considerations with autonomy, the team autonomy and individual autonomy.

High performing teams have the skills and resources they need to deliver to their objectives.

This means that top performing teams can and should be a mix of different skills from different departments with the ability to govern themselves and make day-to-day decisions relevant to their work.

If a team member is from a different department but can only spend a small amount of time in the project team, the team will not be able to function optimally, hence they need to be dedicated and self-governing in that sense.

Once team members are clear on their roles and the norms of team governance are clear, individual team members should be given autonomy and trusted to focus on their work in the way that works best for them, as long as it doesn’t negatively impact the rest of the team.

This could extend to working slightly different working patterns as long as they adhere to agreed team meeting times, or it could mean they are empowered to make decisions within their level of expertise without having to wait for approvals that might slow them down.

Here are some added benefits of autonomy within teams.

• Motivation and Engagement: When team members have the freedom to make decisions and take ownership of their work, they tend to feel more motivated and engaged. This often leads to greater job satisfaction and can help keep turnover rates low.

• Creativity and Innovation: Autonomy gives team members the chance to explore new ideas and solutions without the hassle of being micromanaged. This creates a culture where innovation can flourish and creative problem-solving becomes the norm.

• Faster Decision-Making: Autonomous teams can make decisions on the fly without waiting for approvals from higher-ups. This agility is crucial in fast-paced environments where timing is everything.

• Increased Accountability: When team members are empowered to work autonomously, they’re more likely to take responsibility for their work and outcomes. This sense of accountability can lead to improved performance and results.

• Better Collaboration: Autonomy encourages team members to communicate and collaborate more effectively. When individuals feel empowered, they’re more likely to share ideas and support one another.

• Stronger Team Dynamics: Autonomy can enhance relationships within the team, as members learn to trust each other's abilities and judgment. 

When team members do not implicitly trust one another, motives are questioned and the team no longer works for each other. Motivation then tends to diminish and people start to think about protecting themselves and self-survival.

This does not make for a high performing team and barely makes for high performing individuals. With that said, a high performing team can significantly outperform high performing individuals, therefore trust must be established and nurtured throughout a project or team endeavour.

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni majors on the importance of trust in teams, and how building trust within a team is the basis of high performance.

Here are some examples of what could happen when a team lacks trust.

• People protect themselves and often stay quiet. Good ideas are suppressed.

• Issues and problems are not surfaced and therefore not resolved, causing inefficiencies in process.

• Standards often fall below expectations as people are more concerned with their own work and less likely to seek feedback.

• Reporting and data accuracy standards can slip, or can be used to protect individuals, rather than to identify threats to success and seek improvements.

So, how do you establish trust in a team and help to achieve peak performance?

• Leaders should show their human side, including vulnerabilities and concerns. Then encourage the rest of the team to do the same. Showing a human side outside of your work role can increase trust in team members as individuals.

• Honesty and transparency. Be open about things that have gone wrong, or could go wrong, and make visible your efforts to put them right.

• Set a side down time for casual or social activities.

• Lead by example and show trustworthiness through your own actions. Follow your own instructions as a leader and let people see that you are prepared to do what you ask others to do.

• Recognise and celebrate personal achievements and the contributions they have made to the team. Be genuine when you do this as people can tel if you are not sincere.

• Active listening. Show team members you are listening to their points and comments. Show them that you value their opinions and ideas.

Here are some of my favourite resources related to high performance, including previous posts from this newsletter.

Must Read

The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Author: Patrick M. Lencioni

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