High performing teams have these 3 in common

Last week I had the honor and joy of becoming a Certified Pro with Squadify.

That's valuable to you because I now have additional tools to help you drive stronger team performance, using a data driven approach.

Today I want to share a particular finding that you can take action on.

It's the 3 conditions that have been found to consistently align with higher team performance.

Before I dive in, a quick plug:

What I'm about to share is a glimpse into what we'll be covering during Creating A High Performing Team, one of the new sessions in my Excellence in Management course that kicks off Sept. 19th!

The course has gotten a kickass reboot with 3 new sessions and updates to the other 3.  Join me! 

Alrighty, let's dive in!

From 2020 - 2023, Squadify examined their entire dataset and found 3 conditions that correlate with consistently high team performance.  They were:

• Team delivers against commitments

• Team understands how to work together

• Team proactively supports others in the business

Let's look at each individually.

Team Delivers Against Commitments

How good does it feel when you trust someone will get something done?

How much do we love a strong Say Do ratio?  People doing what they said, saying what they'll do.

Delivering on commitments is execution.  But it's more than that.

Execution breeds trust.  It speaks to alignment.  It creates camaraderie in pursuing (and succeeding) against a plan and a goal.

How do you get there?

Think about the ingredients for effective execution:

• Are goals clear, achievable, and believed to be attainable?

• Are systems and processes set up to support execution?

• Is there psychological safety to ask for help?

• Are there accountability loops set up?

And finally, these:

• Are you holding a high enough standard for your people?

• When a commitment is missed, how are you ensuring future commitments aren't?

Team Understands How To Work Together

This is the biggest gap for most teams.

They know it's important and they don't feel its presence.

It's on the leader to help facilitate folks learning who, when, why, and how to leverage their team members.

→ Who is the data wizard on your team?  Does the rest of your team know when and how to lean on them?

→ Who loves brainstorming?  Does the team know they love this and are available to help others think through challenges?

Some things I think about here:

• Roundtable sharing in a team meeting - what they're currently energized and drained by.

• Strategically pairing people up - when someone approaches you in a 1:1 with a challenge, and you know another team member excels in the area, connect them.

• Peer to peer recognition - kicking off a team meeting with each person sharing recognition for a peer.

2 questions I invite you to ponder:

1. What can I do to facilitate my people better knowing HOW to work together?

2. What am I doing to model how I work with other leaders and teams?

Team Proactively Supports Others In The Business

The spirit of this is simple: be a team that is easy to work with.  And when you give, you get.

Think about stakeholders and the broader ecosystem.

• Does the team give support to others?

• Does the team receive support from others?

Some characteristics of teams that do this well:

• Follow through on commitments with stakeholders

• Willing (and generous) with their time, support, and resources

• Take ownership in building meaningful relationships within the business

• Proactively collaborate and communicate well with cross functional partners

• Have a “we” mentality with other teams/departments, very little usage of “they” or finger pointing

Here's a common rub: a team feels they support every other team/org, and feel no one supports them.  

That math doesn't add up!  Something's gotta change in that case.  

Two places I'd look first:

1. Alignment - are our teams aligned on business priorities?  Are we pulling in the same direction or competing directions?  What's the extent to which we're putting our own team's interests above the interests of the business?

2. Relationship - what's the relationship between the leaders of these teams?  What would it take to reset those dynamics to be mutually beneficial?
    

–

What's standing out to you?

What's an opportunity you have to improve your team's performance further?

Comment below and let me know what's on your mind!

—

Interested in exploring a prescriptive and data-driven approach to strengthen your team’s performance? Email katie@enduranceboss.com to explore.