Are You Building an Olympic Team?

The past week of the Tokyo Olympics has been incredible to watch.? It is easy to forget the passion and skills that the athletes have, not to mention the national pride that is easily felt.

I have been noticing the different dynamics between the individual and team events.? As an individual what does or doesn’t happen is limited to their skill on the day.? The team events are a bit different.? It takes all of the individuals on the team working together to enable them to win, similar to business.

If you look at the team that you currently have, is it operating like an Olympic team?? Does it have a group of committed individuals all working together for a common goal?? In an Olympic team everyone understands that all of their efforts for the past 4 years are dependent on their performance at this moment in time.? This can be an interesting lens to examine your team.

I was speaking with a leader who was complaining about the way one of her staff was performing.? As the person was new to their role, I asked about the process the leader used to clarify this person’s role and the expectations that she had around their performance.? Unfortunately, she quickly realised that she had forgotten this step and they had been in the role for over 6 months!? Is it any wonder the staff members' performance was all over the place and the relationship was strained.??

In building an Olympic Team there are some key ingredients that can improve our workplace teams.??

Identifying the Goal and making it personal.? First, there needs to be a clear goal that everyone is committed to.? This is where many leaders make a mistake as they talk in corporate speak with KPIs and targets that have no strong relevance to individuals.? For it to be relevant, staff need to know what achieving these goals will do for them and the team and link rewards that they want to achieve to these goals (everyone wants a gold medal!)?

Clarify People’s Roles and expectations.? Everyone needs to know what their roles are and what they should and shouldn’t do in the way they move towards the goal.? Too often we provide job descriptions that are just a list of tasks.? They need to be better than this.? Staff need role maps that provide them with what % of time they should be focusing on each area. Leaders also need to clarify their expectations of the way everyone is going to ‘play the game’ to achieve the goal.

Seek and Adjust to Feedback.? The other thing that winning Olympic teams do is actively seek feedback and adjust performance.? We need to ensure that this becomes part of the culture of our team and lead in a way that creates a culture where staff actively seek for ways to improve.? This means we need to lead like a coach and provide the right balance of supporting and holding people, making them accountable for their performance.

To gather some insights that you can use as a leader and provide some leadership hacks to build your Olympic Team, please Click Here for a free 20 minute consultation.

As we head toward the end of the Tokyo Olympics, don’t forget to keep cheering and enjoying the wonderful moments that put a smile on our face, if we could create a few more of these moments at work, imagine what we could achieve.