13. Team habits of High Performing Teams part II: Habits 1-5

In our previous article?we invited you to do the free team-scan to find out which habits in your team need some attention to perform better together.

Today we will give you some explanation about habit 1-5, to come to a deeper understanding.

We suggest you read one habit at the time; try to get the essence of it for yourself in a few key words and rank your team on this habit simply with gut feeling.

What is on track and what might need attention?

HABIT 1: WE TAKE RESPONSIBILITY?

We choose?

We believe that we are in the driver’s seat and the future is in our hands. We maintain a “Yes we can” attitude and live up to the following sentence: ‘If it’s going to be, it’s up to me’. Therefore, we take responsibility for our attitude, actions and future, understanding that these things are a direct result of our own choices.?

Responsibility breaks into two parts: “response” and “ability”. Responsible people develop the ability to choose their response to events and situations. By doing this, we become a product of our values and decisions, rather than our moods and conditions.?

This power of choice is the freedom that allows our team to create our own future. As Tony Robbins says,

Your past is not your future.

We are honest about our roles in past challenges, and learn from mistakes to move forward. We don’t blame other people or circumstances for obstacles and problems.?

When something happens externally, we don’t react, but respond with ability by choosing our response. The more we exercise this freedom to choose the more response/able we become. The more responsible we become, the more successful we become as this ability is strengthened.?

We really believe that the future is ours to create. We are the programmers, not a program, and know that we have the skills and abilities to write our own scripts.

We focus on our immediate circle of influence, rather than on the larger circle of concern. In this way, we focus on the things that are within our reach – with time that reach will ripple and expand.?

We become not reactive, but proactive people as we begin to see?the big picture and choose to take charge at all times. We are not?victims of circumstance and do not believe that we must wait to be?told and there is nothing we can do. Instead, we develop an inner?strength and believe in our own abilities. We know that we have the?right talent and skills to make it happen.?

As truly responsible people, we work daily on our attitude, which?develops our mental strength and belief in ourselves. Without this strength and attitude, some young people give up trying and are unable to create a vision for themselves. They are left struggling to survive and get through the working day.?

HABIT 2: WE HAVE CLEAR VALUES?

Our foundation?

All great teams have clear values, which mean we know what is really important. Together, we have chosen what we wanted as our foundation. It is shared and lived because we have discussed, perhaps argued, held off-sites, spent time reflecting, thinking and discussing what matters most.

Is it winning? Profit? People? Growth? What matters most is that it is agreed upon and created by the team together, and provides us with a common foundation.?

We stay in our jobs because the values fit and are in alignment with who we are. When the team values do not match our individual values, we walk away. Therefore, clarifying our values helps our team to attract and retain the best people.?

We regularly reflect on our values to bring clarity to ourselves. This clarity guides our decisions and determines our actions so that all decisions are based on these values and not on daily moods or conditions.?

There is no gap between what we say and what we do. Our values act as guidelines that help our team to be consistent and live with integrity. This lays the foundation for building our team’s character, integrity and ultimately our desired future. It makes us strong.

We can stand on our values, just as a lighthouse stands on its foundation.

Based on clear common values, we know we are together.?

HABIT 3: WE HAVE A VISION?

The power of vision propels us to action?

Peter Drucker says

The best way to predict the future is to create it

Only teams that take responsibility, have clear values and know what matters most are ready for the next stage – namely to create a vision. Vision is powerful! With vision we have defined our success and know where we want to be as a team. We understand that things are created mentally before they are created physically.?

Our vision is VALUE-driven, which means it clearly aligns with the things that matter most. Many people reflect on the question: “What is the purpose of life?,” instead of asking “how can one create a life of purpose?” As we gain clarity, that vision pulls us forward and gives us purpose. In turn this creates life’s energy and passion.?

In contrast, teams without clear vision struggle to define priorities. They don’t feel a sense of passion or a sense of purpose. Each day is spent on day-to-day emergencies, putting out fires, and spinning their wheels, as they go from one problem to another with no sense of direction. Rather than envisioning what is possible, they complain about what is not!?

A clear vision is a great motivating factor. We will invest our time because we know our vision and use it as a framework for decisions. Teams with vision begin each day and week?with a clear understanding of their direction and destination. We reflect on values and vision before creating weekly plans and make choices that will move us closer to our vision.?

The power of vision provides inspiration to get out of bed early and purposefully work towards creating the future. This future, shared by our team members, defines our success.?

HABIT 4: WE HAVE TRUST?

We really know each other. We can be vulnerable.?

Henry Ford says

Coming together is the beginning; staying together is the challenge.?

The kind of trust that a high performance team needs to establish in order to reach peak performance takes time to develop, because we must be open and vulnerable without fear of repercussion. This means that when I say something, I can trust that my team and colleagues will not use it against me. We lay our cards on the table, thus completely vulnerable, and know others will accept us as we are, not as they expect us to be.?

We feel safe revealing our perspective, intent, and motivation to others. Respectively, we can trust our team members when we understand the intent that directs their actions, now and in the future. We learn to trust only by repeatedly taking personal risks and experiencing positive outcomes. This takes time.?

Building trust is a planned process, and requires deliberate actions. We plan ahead to find time to have shared social activities, such as drinks and celebrations for achievements. This means we have spent enough time getting to know our colleagues so that we can be open with each other. We do off-sites and on-sites. We have fun together. We can share. We learn about each other, including family relationships and children. We know each other’s hopes, dreams, and fears. We know each other’s strengths and weaknesses because we have spent time discussing them. We feel safe being totally open and vulnerable, and we know we can share freely with the rest of our team.?

When we reach this level of trust, we are “on mission”. Trust and openness lead to healthy conflict.?

HABIT 5: WE HAVE HEALTHY CONFLICT?

We agree to disagree.?

Conflict avoidance prevents highly effective decision making. High performing teams view disagreements as healthy growth instead of a challenge to authority.?

We have a healthy conflict culture. Effective decisions come from voices able to ask the difficult questions, raise unnameable issues and work together productively to sort out endurable solutions. When handled well, disagreements result in more careful thought about the problems we face.?

We agree to disagree. In our meetings and one-on-ones, we challenge each other. Instead of one man or woman doing most of the talking, healthy conflict helps us all state our opinions and form new ideas. Meetings take longer because we challenge, ask and are not afraid to put unpopular issues on the table.?

We have open discussions about “the look” and “sound” of healthy conflict and have established group norms ahead of times. We acknowledge and reward team members who have the courage to disagree constructively, to raise concerns, to debate productively and problem-solve effectively. We know that listening and speaking respectfully will focus the discussion on ideas and opinions rather than persons. We will ask questions to improve understanding, highlight other points of view, and clarify misunderstandings.?

Teams that engage in healthy conflict have lively, interesting meetings, extract the ideas of all team members, solve real problems quickly, minimize politics and put critical topics on the table for discussion instead of ignoring them.?

Teams that focus on the critical topic will discover new ways of thinking, growth and innovation. Healthy conflict facilitates full involvement and commitment.?

What do you think is the current challenge for your team after reading this?

Make sure you follow us to make sure you don't miss our next article about habit 6-10. Or contact us to have a talk about your team and all 10 habits and get some ideas about strengthening your team.