Everybody I speak with these days is building high-performing teams. I am too, at least that is what I am supposed to be doing. Of course, between what we all think we do and what we actually do often falls one hell of a shadow. This is particularly the case when it comes to team development.
There are several reasons for this, but the primary one is that very few organisations have the brand pull or deep pockets required to hire and keep top performers. When or rather if they pass through the doors of the average organisation, this is more through luck than good management. Because of this, the average manager cannot take a Jack Welch approach and run the infamous 'Lifeboat Weekends' which gathered senior executives and asked them to imagine that they were on a lifeboat with limited space, meaning some people would need to be thrown overboard.
The goal of the lifeboat exercise was to force leaders to identify which employees or managers were most essential to the company's future, particularly in times of crisis or change. The primary purpose of this exercise was to:
- Identify top performers: Welch wanted his executives to be crystal clear about who were the most indispensable and highest-performing employees.
- Make difficult decisions: It challenged leaders to evaluate talent realistically and prepare to make tough decisions about layoffs or restructuring.
- Create a culture of meritocracy: By identifying and promoting only the best talent, Welch aimed to instil a culture where performance was the key metric for advancement.
While the exercise may seem harsh, it aligned with Welch's broader philosophy of rigorous talent management and his belief in rewarding top performers while cutting under-performers.
Given the impracticality of this approach for all organisations — not to mention it burns employees, teams, and eventually organisations — a more inclusive path needs to be walked. By inclusive I do not mean a cross section of colours, sexes, and creeds, I mean inclusive as in keeping the people Jack would cut: under-performers.
The good news for truly performance minded managers, or those who wish to be seen as such, is that the following approach takes a leaf from Aristotle's adage that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Which means that by leveraging the critical components of high-performing teams, and by weaving in insights from both ancient and modern thinkers, we can arrive at a nuanced guide for today's managers. While the result may not be a high-performing team, the team will certainly be high(er)-performing.
Building Trust and Psychological Safety
The bedrock of any high(er)-performing team is a foundation of trust and psychological safety. For managers this means fostering an environment where team members feel safe to speak up, share ideas, and admit mistakes without fear of negative consequences. Amy Edmondson describes psychological safety as a 'shared belief that the team is safe for interpersonal risk-taking'.
Research supports the critical role of psychological safety in driving innovation and problem-solving within teams. Teams characterised by high psychological safety are more likely to engage in creative thinking and are better equipped to handle complex problems. Managers can cultivate psychological safety by:
- Demonstrating openness to feedback and acknowledging their own fallibility.
- Encouraging team members to share diverse perspectives and ideas.
- Recognising and valuing contributions from all team members, fostering a culture of mutual respect.
The Importance of Role Clarity and Communication
While trust and safety provide the necessary foundation, role clarity and effective communication act as the pillars supporting a high(er)-performing team. In the context of team dynamics, this means ensuring that each member understands their role and responsibilities and how these fit within broader team objectives. Clarity of roles prevents confusion, minimises conflict, and promotes efficiency.
Clear roles enable teams to function more effectively, particularly when handling complex tasks. Managers can enhance role clarity by:
- Implementing frameworks like a Responsibility Assignment Matrix (RAM) — often called RACI charts — to define responsibilities clearly.
- Regularly revisiting and refining roles to adapt to changing team needs.
- Ensuring that every team member is aware of not just their responsibilities but also those of their peers.
Effective communication is just as crucial. Wittgenstein's remark, 'The limits of my language mean the limits of my world', underscores the importance of clear and open communication within teams. Effective communication allows for better coordination, facilitates problem-solving, and enhances team cohesion.
Creating rules and norms for communication between team members early in the team's life cycle can also increase effective communication and therefore improve performance during complex tasks. This is essential for managing highly complex tasks and avoiding misunderstandings that can arise as a result of high task complexity combined with high virtuality.
Morrison-Smith & Ruiz, 2020
Virtual teams, which rely heavily on digital communication tools, face additional challenges in maintaining effective communication. Research stresses the importance of regular virtual meetings and a mix of communication tools to sustain team cohesion . Managers can enhance virtual team effectiveness by:
- Encouraging the use of video calls to foster personal connections.
- Establishing clear communication protocols to avoid misunderstandings.
- Leveraging a variety of digital tools to cater to different communication styles.
- Most critically, getting people in a room whenever practicably possible. If this means flying them to the office, the cost of the flight is amply repaid in enhanced team cohesion.
A Shared Vision and Mutual Accountability
Beyond trust, clarity, and communication, high(er)-performing teams are united by a shared vision and a strong sense of mutual accountability. Aristotle observed, 'man is by nature a political animal, and a man that is by nature and not merely by fortune citiless (being without a city or country) is either low in the scale of humanity or above it', highlighting not only our intrinsic drive to belong to a collective and contribute to a common cause, but our desire to rise above low performance. In business, a compelling vision serves as this collective cause, aligning the team's efforts toward a common goal.
However, a vision alone is insufficient without Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound (SMART) goals. This is an essential element to performance because specific and challenging goals are more effective in driving performance than vague or easily attainable ones. Managers can foster commitment to the vision by involving team members in the goal-setting process, ensuring goals are both challenging and attainable. Key strategies include:
- Setting clear, SMART goals that align with the team's overarching vision.
- Engaging team members in goal setting to enhance ownership and commitment.
- Regularly reviewing progress and adapting goals as necessary.
Mutual accountability is the other side of this equation. High(er)-performing teams are characterised by a culture of mutual accountability, where members hold themselves and each other responsible for meeting commitments and maintaining standards. Managers can foster accountability by:
- Establishing clear norms and expectations for performance and behaviour.
- Reinforcing accountability through regular feedback and recognition of achievements.
- Encouraging a culture where team members feel comfortable holding each other accountable.
Making Tough Choices
Building a high(er)-performing team is a complex endeavour that requires strong philosophical underpinnings and effective measurement. This means understanding the dynamics of human behaviour, fostering a culture of trust and openness, and applying strategic management practices to ensure clarity, communication, and accountability. As Nietzsche eloquently stated, 'If you have your why? for life, then you can get along with almost any how?'. For managers, the 'why' is the pursuit of excellence through the creation of teams capable of greater achievements than they would have been without coaching.
By focusing on psychological safety, role clarity, effective communication, a shared vision, and mutual accountability, managers can create teams that not only excel but also adapt and thrive in the face of change. In a world where the only constant is change, the ability to build and sustain high(er)-performing teams will remain a critical determinant of organisational success.
Yet in leadership, each the tasks of role clarity, shared Vision and mutual accountability, even psychological safety and trust, require making decisions — often tough ones. These decisions invariably come with uncertainty, incomplete information, and conflicting values. The best leaders manage these complexities by combining rational analysis, intuition, and moral judgment to arrive at choices that not only achieve results but also maintain ethical integrity.
In next week's column, The Art of Decision-Making — How Effective Leaders Make Tough Choices, I explore the unspoken key to building high-performing teams — making tough choices.
Good night, and good luck.
