Building High-Performing Teams: a Four Step Process Leaders can Follow

Can hiring for job qualifications alone hinder team success? Explore the nuances of building high-performing teams through coaching with us, and discover the often-overlooked importance of team fit and personal interactions in the workplace. Learn how fostering shared interests and personal connections can break down barriers and create a more cohesive and enjoyable work environment. We'll also share insights on essential skills like active listening and conflict resolution that are vital for a collaborative team culture. 

Our episode also delves into the critical role of leaders in this transformative journey. Hear practical strategies for facilitating positive team experiences and encouraging continuous improvement through constructive feedback. From organizing regular team breaks to implementing monthly themes focused on key teamwork skills, we offer actionable tips to help leaders bring out the best in their team members. Join us as we uncover how a growth-oriented and supportive team dynamic can significantly enhance overall performance and motivation.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:36

When leaders are faced with running and managing their teams, especially in the workplace, we often have to understand where things start. Yet we also have to understand how we can coach to solidify great teamwork. First, let's start with how teams are formed. Let's say you're a manager, a manager at your company, and they typically will for lack of a better description inherent talent. They'll have maybe three or four team members and they might have to hire two or three team members down the road, and what happens is is we have a collection of people that are formed together to do jobs. Now let's think about this just for a second. Let's think about the interview process. Let's think about the interview process. Do we ask questions around? What kind of teammate are you? What do you do as a great teammate? Where do you struggle as a teammate? See, here's the funny thing If you're a leader and you have six to 10 people on your team, studies show 70% are going to be neutral or actively disengage, 85% are going to lack self-awareness. Leaders already have it tough. And then what we do is we throw people together of different behaviors, different personalities, different goals and we say, oh, we've got a job to do, yet we want you to collectively work really well together. That's tough. Now I'm not trying to oversimplify the discord of a team. Yet that is how teams are formed. We hire individuals and we put them on the team. Sometimes we hire people based on the job, the job expectations, the resume, the talent they bring. Yet do we hire them to fit in with the team? Do we hire them because they're going to be a great teammate? Now that's how things, typically very high level, start.

Speaker 1: 2:26

Number two I want you to write this down. There are a number of actions leaders can take to solidify great teamwork, but I'm going to start with the first rule Do not let work form the relationships. When we have a clutch of people thrown together that have to be a team, we typically do so based on the merits of the work, meaning we have work to do. Do we understand each other? Do we know each other? Let me give you an example. There is a process that you can take and when you think about the first two steps awareness and commonality are we even aware of each other? We typically do the onboarding sit with Bob today. Julie and you know learn the job, but are we aware of her goals, her hobbies? Does she have a family, we just tend to let that kind of work itself out right. We just tend to let that kind of work itself out right.

Speaker 1: 3:20

Yet when we become aware of each other and then we find out that we have some things in common, like gardening or beach volleyball, or we love to read books or travel to Hawaii, what happens? The walls come down that typically are built when the work is the only thing that drives the work relationship. See, when work drives the relationship, the relationship will feel like work. So, number one, let's understand how teams are formed. Number two, let's facilitate awareness and commonality of each other. Number one I would encourage all leaders to let their teammates get together, take breaks every two weeks for 15 to 20 minutes and just update each other on one another's life and share what they're comfortable with. Now somebody might say, wait a minute, that has nothing to do with work. You're darn right, it doesn't Now. So we have our teams formed. And then, number two, we have awareness and commonality. Then, number three, we have something called foundational skills. I would encourage and this is something we do here at Progress Coaching fuel people's minds at a foundational level.

Speaker 1: 4:35

So let's have a month of active listening. Let's have a month of handling conflict plausibly and professionally. Let's have a month of what does it mean to be a great teammate. Have monthly themes that fuel their minds with actions and activities. Now I'll give you a little bit of a sales pitch. We have a whole process that does that. We have a whole framework where we work with leaders, we coach the leader, we coach the individuals and we provide foundational skills with a coaching automation platform that we've built.

Speaker 1: 5:04

But the whole premise is what really causes discord within teamwork? Is it our inability to produce the teamwork at a skill level or is it our inability to collaborate and cooperate as good teammates? So, number three you have to have foundational skills Handling conflict, attentive listening, active listening. What does it mean to be a great teammate? How to be supportive of it? As a great teammate, we have to fuel people's minds. That's number three. Number four we have to facilitate, as leaders, experiences and we have to use something called framing. And I'll give you one of the greatest lessons that we teach At a staff meeting leaders should sit down and say Joanne, you know what did Bill do really well on that project that assisted you?

Speaker 1: 5:58

Joanne says something nice. Bill now hears what Joanne says Guess what happens. It's tough to be negative, it's tough to say yeah, but he was late on this one project. Now we know that those things will exist. Yet when you frame out questions, when you use questions that frame out positive responses, it builds momentum within the fiber. Then the leader can say where do we have opportunities, without mentioning names, to raise our game? And oh, by the way, I'd love to have everybody on a note card write down one thing you individually need to improve to support the team.

Speaker 1: 6:30

See, if we don't talk about the team, the team is thrown together around this thing called work. If we don't formate a plan and formulate a strategy and facilitate that strategy through coaching, experiences, framing questions, the team tends to evolve based on our ability to bring our skill sets to the team and do the work. Our advice is make sure people are aware of one another, get them to find out where they have things in common. They become more plausible, more likely to be better teammates with one another. Number three develop the mindset of foundational skills active listening, engagement, motivational skills. Active listening, engagement, being a great teammate, learning how to handle conflict in the event it arises, because it will. And then, number four it's the coaching. What can leaders do? Number one more than anything. Number one the leader has to coach the individuals based on their motivator. Where do they want to go?

Speaker 1: 7:42

See where leaders get in trouble is they try to motivate based on the job. See, if the only focus that team members have is on the work being done, they will find discord in it. Yet if you're a team member and you're connecting with your teammates, you become aware of them. You find out some teammates where you have a lot in common with. And oh, by the way, you're prompted at staff meetings to talk positively about one another from your leader. And oh, by the way, every single month you're going through very micro-type lessons that fuel your mind to be motivated a better attentive listener, a better active listener, a better teammate, a better handler of conflict.

Speaker 1: 8:23

Guess what happens? We have prepped the mind to continue the teamwork and it's outside of the actual work. Again, when work drives the relationship, solely the relationships will feel like work. Again, when work drives the relationship, solely the relationships will feel like work. You have an opportunity and if you are intrigued, fill out a link on our Team2U information gathering form and we will send you some information on the product. We work with teams where we coach the leader and the individuals, we become a partner to the leader. So if you're a leader, if you're a L&D or human resource professional who has some leaders that need some assistance, this is exactly what this program is about.

Speaker 1: 9:05

But again, I go back. We are thrown together based on our resumes, on our individual talents. Number two where there's awareness and commonality, there's less defensiveness, there's less conflict. Number three when we fuel the minds of foundational skills, guess what happens? We become better prepped to handle challenging things when the work arises or within the work. And then number four coaching. Now, this isn't the only thing leaders should coach to, yet coaching individuals to where they want to go, motivation increases. When you have highly motivated employees based on their feeling they're progressing towards an individual specific goal, they become easier to work with. So, bring the greatest team you can, bring the greatest team you can. Bring the greatest team you can to the front, bring the greatest team you can to the surface, and it's not solely dependent on doing the work. Good luck.