![What We Will Cover ,[object Object],[object Object],[object Object],[object Object]](data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7)
Recommended
Recommended
More Related Content
Recently uploaded
Recently uploaded (20)
Featured
Featured (20)
Building A High Performing Team Preview
- 1. By Peter Adebi A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a High-Performing Team 856-258-9022 www.starleadership.us service@starleadership.us
- 3. Types of Team A high-performing team is one that consistently produces superior or outstanding results. Often, these teams are innovative, efficient, and quality-driven. A high-performing team
- 5. Types of Team A dysfunctional team is a group in which the members do not work effectively together toward a common purpose. Sometimes a dysfunctional team may not have constructed a common purpose. A dysfunctional team
- 8. Building a High-Performing Team Step III: Build a foundation of trust Trust Triangle Transparency Respect Honesty Source: Star Leadership® Development Tool Kit (2008) Trust
Editor's Notes
- A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a High-Performing Team High-performing teams enable organizations to achieve and sustain extraordinary success. Individual workers might bring great skills, knowledge and abilities to a job. But one person working in isolation or as part of an ineffective or dysfunctional team cannot achieve the energy, insight, productivity and efficiency levels needed to excel in today’s complex organizations. Written by Peter Adebi, organization development expert, leadership coach, and human resource consultant, this seminar, A Step-by-Step Guide to Building a High-Performing Team, is designed to help you take your team to a higher level of performance. It identifies three types of team—dysfunctional, average and high-performing teams, guides you through a process of identifying constraints to achieving and sustaining high-performance on your team, demonstrates why you should strive to become a high-performing team, and gives you the steps to achieve high performance. Taking your team to a higher level requires commitment from every member of the team and this seminar, through the included activities, assists you in eliciting that commitment. Get ready to have a rewarding, team building experience.
- What We Will Cover We will begin by examining the differences between a group and a team, and the differences between types of team. At the end of this segment, you will be able to place your team in one of the three types that we will review. Next, we will examine the stages of team development. Again, you will have the opportunity to determine where you are in terms of your development as a team. We will then turn our attention to the key steps for building a strong, vibrant, enduring, high-performing team. You will be able to identify which of the strengths exist on your team today and which ones you will need to cultivate to consistently achieve high performance. Along the way, we will take a look at what makes a team dysfunctional and the barriers to building a high-performing team. Be sure to review the handouts and other resources that we will reference throughout the seminar.
- Types of team: A high performing team A high-performing team is one of three types of team that we will examine. A high-performing team is simply a team that consistently produces superior or outstanding results. Often, these teams are innovative, efficient, and quality-driven. They have the right people in the right seats and these team members are empowered to execute their function in the organization. One of the keywords in the definition is “consistently”. Many teams occasionally attain high-performance, but very few do so on a consistent basis. In fact, Steve Denning, acclaimed organization development consultant, argues that “high-performance teams constitute only 2% of all teams in the workplace”. Whether the number is 2 percent or 22 percent in your organization, the fact is that every organization could benefit from having more high-performing teams. By understanding what makes a high-performing team, you put your team in a better position to achieve high-performance. Let’s look closely at the attributes of a high-performing team.
- An average team The vast majority of teams fall in this category. In a nutshell, average teams do not achieve high-performance on a consistent basis. They don’t because the values, though habits, behaviors and processes that sustain high performance are not entrenched. The average team experience can be very frustrating if you have had a dream-team experience or if you realize the difference you could be making in your organization if you consistently functioned at a higher level. Average teams are dreadful because, as Jim Collins painfully illustrated in the critically acclaimed book Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't , good is the enemy of great . Good is when you survey your situation, or in this case, your team, and determine that though the characteristics of high performance might not be fully present, you’re successful where you are and that’s satisfactory. Good is when progress slows down significantly or comes to a complete stop because we believe success has been attained. To achieve great results, you must be able to overcome apathy, complacency and inertia. You must constantly seek better ways to achieve desired results. You must strive for outcomes that surpass previous accomplishments. Remember, today’s miracle product is tomorrow’s dinosaur. Culture eats strategy for lunch. Team culture is usually a product of the larger culture in an organization. If you find that there are many average or mediocre teams in your company, it might be a strong indication that good is good enough in your culture. The danger here is that your organization cannot achieve and sustain results that your culture cannot support. Even if you strive for and occasionally achieve high performance, unless the counteracting factors in your culture are addressed, you will have difficulty building a high-performing team. Now, before you give up hope, remember that change begins with one person. If you recognize this fact in your organization, and refuse to accept mediocrity, you can become a model for the rest of your organization. In fact, the essence of a high-performing team is the willingness to take on and defy obstacles such as this. Have you noticed that laziness is infectious? The next time you volunteer with a group for community or public service, watch what happens when two or three people stand together and start talking. Suddenly, and usually sporadically, other small groups start to emerge, and soon, everyone is standing around, jesting, and taking a break. Likewise, consistent high-performance on a team is a call to action. If you are not pulling your weight it won’t be long before you become the odd man out. High performers lead by example, and by demonstrating what’s possible in terms of desired results for an organization, they generate the energy and momentum that pulls up everyone’s level of performance, creating widespread excellence and enduring superior results. Perhaps, one of the greatest reasons you should pursue high-performance is that many of the same people sitting around you today have the potential to achieve and sustain high performance. What is stopping you and your team from releasing that potential?
- A dysfunctional team A dysfunctional team is a group in which the members do not work effectively together toward a common purpose. Sometimes a dysfunctional team might not have constructed a common purpose. Let’s take a look at some of the common behaviors on a dysfunctional team.
- Step I: Clear and compelling purpose A clear purpose is a vision or picture of the future that motivates us to act. The stronger or more compelling the vision, the more it stimulates our minds, engages our bodies, and causes us to embark on activities that actualize it.
- A clear purpose enables you to ensure you identify people with common interest and the required level of competency and proficiency to be successful on a team. Say you were in a competition to navigate around the world in a boat. You need sailors who are tested, capable and successful to accompany you in this journey. However, you picked the sailors before you knew your mission. Suddenly you realize that some of the individuals who described themselves as sailors had never been on a boat before. They had learned about sailing in school. Had you known and applied knowledge of your purpose in the selection process, you would have increased your chances of picking the right sailors. Likewise, a ttempting to function effectively on a team without a clear purpose is like navigating the boat blindfolded. You never quite know which way the storm might blow. And often the best you can do is to go with the flow. Unfortunately, coasting is not a recommended path to achieving high-performance.
- Step III: Build a foundation of trust An important foundational step in building a high-performing team is developing a high level of trust among team members. Three important components make up trust. Honesty. Honesty is nonnegotiable if you wish to build trust with your team mates. There is no room for doublespeak or lying in a high-performing environment as it erodes credibility and damages reputation. Honesty also means following through on commitments. If you say you will cover Sally’s shift in her absence, don’t back out at the last minute or leave the organization in a quandary by not showing. It is better that you did not promise than to promise and not follow through. Akin to the saying that you don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, it is a huge challenge to try to overcome a reputation of dishonesty. Building trust from scratch is hard. Rebuilding trust after it has been breached is much harder. Respect. We look at respect from two perspectives: respect given and respect earned . Both must be present to successfully build trust. First, respect given implies knowing your team mates well enough to treat them the way they want to be treated without compromising your own personal values. The Golden rule taught us to treat people the way we want to be treated. The problem is that in some cases, some people don’t care much about how they are treated, and as a result, they might have a nonchalant attitude in their relationship with others. Our approach nudges people to find out how the other person wishes to be treated. If their wish is consistent with the way you would like to be treated, great! However, if they differ in small or big ways, show that you respect them by adapting as much as possible to the way they desire to be treated, without crossing your own ethical boundaries. Respect earned involves the following: (a) Competence . This means you possess the knowledge, skills, and behavior to be successful at what you do or profess to do. People will not value what you have to offer, respect or trust you if they feel you are incompetent at your job. (b) Reliability. This speaks for itself. It is difficult to earn anyone’s trust if you are unreliable. Keep your word. Follow through. Don’t play games. (c) Treating others right or the Platinum rule. This means treating others the way they want to be treated without compromising your own values. Transparency. Transparency ties the first two components of trust together. Respect and honesty must be transparent in the trust building process. This means that team members must learn how to communicate effectively. They must communicate in a clear, open, and consistent manner. They must also seek to build healthy working relationships with team members. The relationships will allow trust to thrive. Cliquish, territorial and other self-centered behaviors negate transparency. Avoid such behaviors.