High Performing Teams - Dr Sangeetha Madhu and Vani Bhardwaj

The value of teamwork is not unknown. Reid Hoffman, LinkedIn cofounder, summed it up by saying, “No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy is, if you’re playing a solo game, you’ll always lose out to a team.”  An organisation has its foundations in cooperation of individuals in achieving common goals. Executive, projects, marketing and sales teams dominate the contemporary work settings. However, not all teams are conducive of growth and progress. Many times, teams hit stagnation and thus, performance is impacted.

What is a high performing team?

A high performing team consists of ‘a group of goal-focused individuals with expertise and skills, who collaborate innovate and produce consistently superior results’. Consistent efforts towards higher performance result in innovative ideas, fresher perspectives, better problem-solving and communication, and more productive collaborations.

 J. Richard Hackman suggested that teams thrive on certain enabling conditions, three of which are of particularly critical- a compelling direction, a strong structure and a supportive context. Compelling direction refers to knowing explicitly what a team is working towards. Strong structure refers to the right mix and number of members, with designated tasks and processes designed in a manner that work along with norms, discouraging destructive behaviour and promoting positive dynamics. Lastly, a supportive context allows a maintenance of reward system that reinforces good performances, an information system that provides access to the data needed for the work, and an educational system that offers training along with securing the material resources required to do the job.

Factors & Characteristics of High-Performing Teams.

Beech & Crane (1999) also recognised three important factors that were crucial to development of teams with superior performances, namely, transparency, check ability and a climate of community.

Some characteristics of high-performance team are:

·         Having clear goals tied closely to team and organisational priorities.

·         Having defined roles and responsibilities.

·         Understanding how their work fits into the organisational mission.

·         Communicating clearly and respectfully.

·         Managing work and deadlines based on priorities.

·         Trusting and respecting each other.

·         Celebrating success together and recognizing contributions.

·         Practicing continuous learning.

Practices that can help in enabling high performance teams are creating a shared sense of purpose to which the team can work towards, investing in employee development, streamlining communication so that everyone is updated, having an environment of mutual accountability, sustained commitment towards performance, rewarding achievements, having good leadership and ensuring healthy resolution of conflict.

References

(n..d.). Developing and Sustaining High-performance Work Teams. Society of Human Resource Management. https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/toolkits/pages/developingandsustaininghigh-performanceworkteams.aspx

Haas, M & Mortensen, M. (2016). The Secrets of Great Teamwork. Harvard Business Review. https://hbr.org/2016/06/the-secrets-of-great-teamwork

Keller, S. & Meaney, M. (2017). High-performing teams: A timeless leadership topic. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/high-performing-teams-a-timeless-leadership-topic