7 Keys to Maximizing Team Performance

In today’s business environment, the ability to operate as part of a team is every bit as crucial to leaders, self-styled and otherwise, as it is to the rest of the team, and understanding the dynamics of a team and how to finesse the best efficiency and performance is crucial to success. Since many of us may find ourselves alternating between serving as a leader on one particular project and operating in another capacity on yet another, it is useful to view these tips holistically and applicable 360 degrees with all team members.

The 7 keys which are crucial for maximizing the performance of a team include:

• Communication
• Clarity of Goals
• Goals Determine Strategy which Dictates Tactics
• Know the Team’s Capabilities (Strengths and Weaknesses)
• Cross-Training of Team Members
• Regular Progress Assessment
• Cut Dead Weight

COMMUNICATION & CLARITY OF GOALS

The fundamental cornerstone to a team’s performance is communication. Despite all the emphasis placed on this as a skill, the truth of the matter is that many people are not particularly effective communicators. Training a team to be able to clearly understand each other, whether by adapting common protocols, regular meetings, common reporting tools, etc. is all too often overlooked or given scant attention. If you cannot make your needs known, or there is confusion or uncertainty about actionable tasks, responsibilities or other mission-critical details, the team’s performance will invariably suffer.

Achieving clarity on the team’s goals, or its “mission” is another fundamentally vital indicator of the team’s likelihood for success. In dynamic environments, the specific goals or mission may change over time, and accounting for these changes in how the team operates is essential to smoothly navigating a fluid situation. This highlights yet again the need for clear, coherent and cogent communication at all levels of the team, and among all team members. From a business perspective, the first building blocks of this effort arguably start with assessing whether the team can agree upon or is even aware of the mission and vision statements of the organization, providing these exist. How many of us have found ourselves working alongside people who if asked to justify the raison d’être of the business could not articulate this concisely? The ability to boil down what solutions a business provides to a customer’s need is essential to being able to identify opportunities or potentially generate new ones.

Since so much attention is given to the subject of goal-setting, and applying the SMART acronym (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-based) as a criteria for their definition, I won’t belabor this point other than to state the absolute need to make sure that the team’s goals are known to all and not subject to individual interpretation. By applying SMART criteria, this should be avoided, and by having clearly defined goals, this in turn can help determine a strategy, upon which the tactics to achieve the strategy are based. Many times, teams go off track because they either start to fall in love with specific tactics, failing to realize that these no longer support a changing or otherwise evolving strategy, or they become so reactive to external events that they lose sight of important goals and the objectives which need to be met for the desired outcome to materialize.

CAPABILITIES & CROSS-TRAINING

The admonition, “Know thyself” is every bit as crucial to a team as it is to the individual. Perhaps more so, because having multiple individuals involved, each who brings specific strengths and weaknesses to the mix which in turn will shape the team’s overall strengths and weaknesses, complicates things considerably. While it is certainly important for the leadership of a team to have a realistic understanding of capabilities, every team member is likely to be able to perform to a higher standard if they share this information and act accordingly. Knowing where gaps in competency or capability lie provides an opportunity to address the deficiency, by backstopping with outside resources if available or mitigating the risk arising from the gap.

Often neglected in the business world is the notion of cross-training team members or purposely assigning individuals with interdisciplinary skills in order to provide coverage if a team member is unavailable for any reason. While certain subject matter expertise and skills may not be easy to develop without significant training and experience and require a high degree of specialization, the truth is many skills, as well as general knowledge, are far more fungible and a reasonable level of acumen can be achieved with focused effort. For example, there is no reason that a marketing specialist cannot understand or implement core project management functions if needed, or a finance specialist cannot grasp marketing principles and concepts and understand how and why these might be useful. And, of course, in business, everyone should understand that they are “in sales” and how they comport themselves on a project, and their ability to recognize new opportunities, is vitally important to future growth.

ASSESSMENT & ACTION

Whether a project’s duration is a matter of hours, days, weeks, months or years, each unit of time becomes a building block upon which the ultimate outcome is determined. Regular assessments of the progress being made can help stave off problems which may go undetected and begin to compound very rapidly, and if addressed proactively can prevent these from erupting into crises or major disruptions or setbacks. Anyone trained in solid management fundamentals understands that if you cannot measure something you cannot address it, and having a methodology or project plan which provides for regular assessment to gauge progress is essential to keeping things on track. And good leaders should welcome assessments which come from all levels of the team, as everyone’s view of the project may be slightly different and in order to achieve a full picture, input is needed from all stakeholders.

Finally, a word on the necessity of cutting dead weight. One of the most dispiriting things to encounter on a team is another member who cannot or will not rise to the occasion and perform to necessary standards. If this is allowed to go on, it invariably infects the rest of the team and is detrimental to morale and overall discipline. And leadership should never be given a free pass on this either. If a leader is not providing the direction necessary to achieve the team’s goals, depending on how the organization is structured, there ultimately should be a means to bring this out into the open and find a solution. In some instances, such as a small business where the leader is the owner, employees may find that the only way to resolve the situation is to address it head-on and perhaps risk termination, or if the situation truly warrants it, to voluntarily quit if things are no longer tenable.

(Photo Credit: Flickr Commons)