Maintaining Team Performance

Kanaga, Browning

• Editore: Center for Creative Leadership Press
• Anno: 2003
• ISBN:
  9781604917161
• Argomento: Business
• Categoria: Leadership

Between the time a team is launched and the time it delivers results, managers need to know that the team is on course. Whether they have launched a team to achieve a business objective or have inherited a team, they need to monitor effectiveness on an ongoing basis and make course corrections that keep small problems from becoming major disasters. Monitoring and maintaining team performance is a key element of leading a team. You can provide that leadership by paying attention to four important dimensions: team member effort, team member knowledge and skills, team tactics, and group dynamics. By focusing on those four areas, you can assess your team's performance, zero in on areas of weakness, and take the corrective measures necessary to ensure peak performance and to deliver expected results.

Monitoring Team Effectiveness – Using the Success Factors

In your role as a team leader, you can use the dimensions of effectiveness as team performance indicators. Fully evaluate each dimension as you conduct periodic assessments.

A Clear Purpose

Lack of clarity about purpose is a frequent cause of team failure. Everyone on the team should be able to answer the question What are we here to accomplish? in the same way. When the purpose is clear to all, it provides the motivation for ongoing effort and willingness to endure setbacks and tackle tough obstacles. Team members remain energized and are moved to a high level of performance when the team’s purpose represents an engaging vision of possibility. Members are stimulated by a shared direction and by goals that are a challenge, but not impossible, to achieve.

When the team’s purpose is not clear, motivation and effort suffer. When members have different understandings of the team’s purpose and direction, conflicts arise and they may work at cross purposes.

What to Look For

	Foot dragging and boredom. When part of the team’s task becomes mundane, repetitive, or unclear, motivation drops off. Look for a lack of effort by team members, such as lateness to meetings, less discussion during meetings, and a less dynamic approach to problems.
	Duplicate skill sets. When too many members have the same competencies and expertise, those skills may be overemphasized and the direction of the team will shift. Look for a lack of creative problem solving or the reliance on the same solutions for every challenge.
	Convoluted tactics. Complicated, confusing, disjointed ways of getting things done are often a sign that the team is unclear about its purpose. Look for tactics that don’t align with the task or that don’t suggest a greater strategic purpose.
	Low trust levels. When the team’s agenda is not crystal clear, members may perceive each other as having hidden, personal agendas. People struggling to make their work purposeful may not trust others to help them in that struggle.

What to Do

Help the team set challenging goals for itself that are clearly tied to its purpose, and that will require ingenuity and renewed effort to achieve. Setting a stretch goal is an excellent way to sharpen a team’s focus because it forces members to move beyond where they are comfortable and leave behind familiar thought processes and methods. They have to use everything they know, and seek new knowledge, insights, and experience to reach the goal. They have to depend on their own abilities and strengths, and also on the skills and expertise of the others on the team. Challenging goals keep the team’s purpose vivid and compelling.

An Empowering Team Structure

An empowering structure helps the team make the most of its resources. That kind of structure means that when the team was formed, the person responsible paid attention to team functions, member roles and responsibilities, member competencies required for the work, team size, team stability, and the role of team leadership.

Once a team gets rolling, it may become apparent that some key roles or competencies are not represented or are overrepresented. Defined roles allow for smooth transitions of leadership as the task migrates between areas of expertise. The team may need to be expanded as the scope of its mission becomes clearer. Some members may leave the team for one reason or another, and decisions will need to be made about how or whether to replace them. Teams that believe they have the necessary talent and skill to achieve the goals move forward with confidence.

Teams usually develop tacit, unwritten norms that govern the behavior of their members. Problems may develop when there is turnover on the team and new members work against the prevailing norms. The processes established for the team to carry out its work need to be reviewed periodically to see if they are working well. Teams that feel a sense of ownership about the procedures and processes they use will be more motivated to follow them to the level of thoroughness required.

What to Look For

	Frustration about roles. Undefined, missing, and duplicate roles are all sources of team frustration and flagging effort.
	“Can’t do” attitude. The lack of a key skill and the inability to acquire that competency – through training or by adding a member with that skill – can cause your team to stumble or even fail.
	Rigid structure or lack of structure. Teams need a certain amount of definition and form to function well. They can be hampered by having too many tactics or having problems solved for them, which can stifle energy and initiative. Teams can also suffer from too little structure, which may leave people floundering, not knowing how to proceed.

What to Do

Roles, responsibilities, norms, and procedures (as well as other components of your team’s structure) are likely to change or may need to change as the team adapts to shifting demands. Often in the midst of these changes tensions arise between members because they don’t have a shared understanding of what is expected of one another – they’re not on the same page. By occasionally setting aside time at team meetings to discuss roles and responsibilities, you...