Have you ever seen kids playing a game of American football on a playground? It’s pretty interesting because what they do could actually teach senior management at many companies a core secret to creating “inspired performance”. Of course inspired performance is when employees are totally committed to their company, their team and their customers. It’s when an organization has a team of players that doesn’t just do what they are told but that does what needs to be done – on a consistent basis, all the time, because they actually WANT to do it, not because they HAVE to do things. This is the exact opposite of a team that is only “compliant” – defined by a burning desire to “do their eight and hit the gate” without expending any more effort than they absolutely have to in order to keep their job.

SO…

What is it that kids do on a playground when they are getting ready to play a game of football? Well, they define the boundaries of the game first and they make sure that all the players on the field know exactly what it takes to succeed and move the ball down the field. Everyone knows what is “out of bounds”, what it takes to get a “first down” so they can continue playing and everyone also knows where the goal line is and how they can score a “touchdown” to be successful.

Even young kids know the importance of making sure that all the players on the field are on the same page and know what they need to do to succeed. Yet, astonishingly, many organizations never clearly define their organizational “playing field” to the team and they don’t even know what high performance looks like. Employees are sometimes running in the dark, not knowing where the goal line is and not really understanding what they are expected to do to score a touchdown. In some cases, accountability standards are set up and recognition programs are put in place when employees don’t even understand the definition of high performance. In essence, people are expected to “take the hill” with no clear long-term goal in mind even if they reach the summit. This is a too common scenario where people have no idea of how to be excellent and no standard to aspire to in order to be their best. It is hard to consistently exceed past, best performance when nothing is defined and the only constant within the organization is ambiguity.  

Next week I will provide five tips to take your organization to a new level of success. For this week, I would like you to think about being “explicit” instead of “implicit”. Many managers typically say things like, “Oh my people know how I think. They know what I want”. When, in actuality, since they are not mind readers, they really don’t know what you are thinking and they don’t know what is expected of them. The only way people can truly know what they need to do to succeed in the organization is to have that message clearly and explicitly communicated by the leadership.

“Implied” communication will never mazimize the performance potential of an organization. Although many managers tend to think an “unspoken request” will get results from their people, that only serves to create confusion and frustration. Go to a drive through window at a fast food restaurant and see how successful you’ll be with your order while executing a strong “unspoken request”. While that may seem like a ludicrous analogy, the way some managers expect to communicate with their people, through only vague implications, is just as outrageous.

This week, work on being totally explicit instead of just implicit with your communication. Next week we’ll delve into five specific and explicit tips to maximize your organization’s results.

Michael Stahl - Senior Performance Manager, Frontline Performance Group 

“We must all learn to live together as brothers (and sisters) or perish together as fools.” 

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

Superior teams have common elements. Whether the team is a trophy-hoisting professional sports franchise, a fast food restaurant that executes a speedy drive-through, a trauma-facing paramedic unit or a crackerjack sales group; top performing teams have hallmark and universal attributes. Conversely and unfortunately, so do bad teams.

Our interactive workshop Winning by Working Together explores these team dynamics in great detail. Listed below are a few of the fallacies commonly held by today’s team leaders, and the epiphanies they frequently experience from the seminar.

Fallacy #1: A team that isn’t working together is just a bad team.

Managerial Epiphany: A team that isn’t working together isn’t really a team at all. It’s just a group of people who happen to work in close proximity to each other. Great teams, regardless of type, do not just come together. They are envisioned, built intentionally and guided vibrantly toward a collective vision.

Fallacy #2: Teams that set goals will achieve peak performance.

Managerial Epiphany: Effective teams have strong, clear and collectively compelling goals. Groups may also have stated goals, but their members never emotionally commit to them, choosing instead to put their own interests first. It then becomes impossible to unite these varying factions and directions even if there is a stated team goal.

Fallacy #3: Retaining negative team members will result in performance stagnation.

Managerial Epiphany: Negative team members will descend a “lack of commitment spiral” that will gradually contaminate or repel positive team members and eventually destroy the entire team. Once a cancer has been identified in a team, it must either be cured or excised or the team will die.

Fallacy #4: Strong teams have strong, pyramidal, top-down leadership.

Managerial Epiphany: The very best teams are more circular in structure. Although they have steel-in-the-spine leaders who can and will dictate orders when needed, they more often opt for collaboration and input to increase team member buy-in and commitment.

Fallacy #5: Vocal team members are nuisance troublemakers.

Managerial Epiphany: It is much better to have a team full of people who care enough to voice their concerns than a team of apathetic participants who could care less. A wise man once said, “It is tough to steer a parked car.”

Building a team is an art; a sculpture of like-minded individuals all moving in the same direction. Once created, it is known for its ability to perform, to engage, to drive and to adapt. It becomes a joy to manage, however, because of its ability to also create…create something much sought after but seldom found…harmony.

Chris Brown - Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group

Creating a cohesive team from a group of independent workers with diverse backgrounds, abilities and aspirations takes patience, persistence and clarity of vision. Will it be hard work? Undoubtedly. Will it be worth it? Absolutely.

The following four environmental elements have been proven to move incongruent groups into effective teams and have a dynamic impact on how organizations function.

Commitment Through Input

Dictated goals and mission statements do not inspire. If you want your team to be fired up about the company’s direction, let them help shape it. Soliciting and using organizational input to craft a vision everyone shares will tether employees together toward the company direction. Whereas before, employees had nothing to lose if the company did not achieve its vision, now each person has a personal investment in the goals set.

Personal Accountablity and Leadership

The most progressive companies have learned that only through universal accountability can they function at their highest level. Circular models in which employees are interdependent and self-policing are highly effective. If you want your team to hold itself accountable, give each team member something to lose for poor performance and the ability to do something about it.

Collaboration and Trust

If there is a potential landmine that can derail the best team building efforts, it is the inability to resolve conflict harmoniously. Therefore, you must keep lines of trust and communication open by valuing all contributions, regardless of employee position or topic. Encourage respectful diversity of opinion. Understand and communicate that team members ultimately have the same motives – to satisfy their customers, families, fellow employees, managers and owners. The team is simply trying to determine the best course of action to satisfy all of these parties simultaneously.

Synergy

Organizations that reach their peak potential have a unique ability to combine solutions, “leap” beyond the collective knowledge of the team, and spontaneously generate new solutions as ideas are shared. A high level of synergy stimulates innovations that force competitors to constantly play catch up. Opposing companies cannot duplicate the game plan of a synergistic organization because it is organic and only grows when the team comes together and combines their creative energies.

Focusing on these four environmental elements will not only enable you to build strong organizational teams, but give your employees the one thing outside a paycheck they desperately want, but will never speak of – a sense of belonging.