One of the essential things you need to build a business that continues to grow over time is a high-performing team. But building a high-performing team isn’t just about hiring top talent. There are plenty of teams with a group of rock stars on them that struggle to harness their collective strengths in a cohesive manner to reach their full potential.
Nurturing Teams
Develop goals at the team level – Companies that have organizational-level goals and objectives are at an advantage because teams can use them as their north star. In addition to organizational and even individual, consider setting team-level goals. A meta-analysis in 2011 found that team goals are associated with better team performance. There’s also preliminary evidence in a sports context that the act of setting goals as a team can lead to higher team cohesion. Highlighting that a key step is to engage team members in the goal-setting process (rather than assigning goals to teams). This involvement can increase buy-in and ownership.
Provide feedback on team goal performance – When it comes to feedback on performance, similar to developmental feedback, this is often provided only at the individual or organizational level. According to a study by DeShon and colleagues at Michigan State University, this is missing a huge opportunity. They found that feedback leads to improved performance on what the feedback was directed to. When feedback on individual performance was given, individual performance improved. When feedback on team performance was given, team performance improved. In short, if you want to enable teamwork and performance, provide feedback at the team level. The level at which you provide feedback is a shortcut for employees to figure out what is important to your organization.
Factor team performance into rewards – When you reward your employees, experiment with factoring in the performance of their team. In 2014, Garbers & Konradt analyzed almost 150 studies and found that team-based rewards had a larger impact on performance than individual incentives, especially if the rewards were distributed equitably. However, there were team composition factors that affected the impact of the rewards, including team size and gender composition. Therefore, the context of the team should be considered as well.
Provide training in teams – There is an opportunity to train at the level that your employees are working, in teams. Individual development is still important, but it will not always improve the way people work together as a team. In general, a 2008 meta-analysis found that team training is associated with better team performance, affective outcomes (such as trust), and team processes (such as communication and decision-making). Training in a team context versus individual training has been found to be associated with greater training recall and team performance.
Identify the unique needs of the teams in your organization – While the suggestions above are general ways to unlock the potential of teams, every organization will have unique challenges. A team effectiveness survey is a great way to understand what your teams are experiencing and to give them feedback that they can use to develop. From the organizational level, results can be used to identify if opportunities are similar across your teams, an indication that the organization may not be enabling that component of teamwork. For example, if your teams are scoring low on “If someone makes a mistake, they admit it to the team” you might want to consider promoting an organizational culture that views failure as a learning opportunity.
Supporting teamwork over time – Take the time to choose the right people, nurture the team’s development, and support them if anything goes awry. Do that, and you’re setting yourself up for success.
