A very senior executive at a global multinational this week was discussing the importance of "high performance teams" in his management ranks. We have been working together for several years, during which his strategic vision and energy have been rewarded, but he remains unsatisfied by the tenor of interpersonal dynamics at the top.
A recent engagement within his own team had provoked a few interpersonal truths - some of which were hard to hear from colleagues and more challenging still to act upon. Would it make them operate better as a team?
Teamwork is a common corporate value and highly touted as a means to, or synonym for, collaboration. How do "high performing teams" really behave, anyway?
An image came to mind of NBA basketball players. The best ones pass often and accurately to others. The skill of shooting baskets is certainly valuable but it takes a lot of passing to get anyone to the hoop. Whether that operates at the highest level has a lot to do with how the players feel about themselves and those close to them. This is as or more important than individual strengths and weaknesses.
The sports metaphor brought me to this weekend's upcoming Super Bowl and the Pittsburgh Steelers. On television of late they have stopped talking about themselves as a "team" and have been talking instead about their fellow Steelers as "family."
Now what about "family," I wondered aloud, makes a "team" better?
Unconditional love?
Faith that others care about you and are covering your back?
Trust that if you make a mistake, you will be forgiven?
Confidence that others assume that you are doing your best?
A sense of safety if you tell the truth as you see it?
Putting "the family" first?
These may sound like idealizations and different from what you experienced as a member of your family. It may also sound foreign to business relationships in a company or corporation - though not the best ones. Research suggests that "visionary" companies, some of them family owned at the outset, are roughly six times more profitable than others and more fun/satisfying to be in because they have core values and they live them.
The Steelers are talking about a feeling. And it is a feeling that is largely lacking (if not entirely missing) from many corporate and business environments. And often missing, it would seem, from teams of all kinds.
A sense or feeling of "family" denotes a set of behaviors and values to pursue in corporate behavior, whether as part of "high performance teams" or more broadly.
How do you encourage these? And how do you know that they are helping the workplace and the people in it?
Answering these questions is part of the work to be done if we are to raise workplace satisfaction and the increased productivity that goes with it. If you have thoughts here, please pass them on...
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