Do you know that feeling? When you can’t quite figure out what’s wrong? When you wonder why your team isn’t functioning? You might even say to yourself and perhaps to others, “Help, my team isn’t performing well!” There’s grumbling, people talk about each other instead of with each other, many things go wrong, and there seems to be confusion. But how do you find out what exactly is wrong?
These 4 factors will lead you to a functioning team
Last month, I received a call from a manager of a team of professionals within a large corporation. He told me that he had tried everything to motivate the team. And it wasn’t working. He was looking for ways to turn his team members into a cohesive team. The team members were not working well together and didn’t understand each other. I could tell that he was starting to doubt himself as well. He wasn’t looking for a lengthy training session but initially wanted a short intervention. I said, “Give me half a day, and we’ll see where we stand with the team.”
Working on 4 factors and potential solutions
We set a date, and before that day, I sent all the team members a survey to measure their team, a so-called baseline measurement. The great thing was that everyone sent their results back to me by email and took the opportunity to indicate where they thought the pain points were.
In the survey, I measured 4 factors:
- Goals
- Structure
- Norms and Rules
- Involvement
A well-functioning team is composed based on these 4 factors, and each factor corresponds to a certain behavior. The survey results were visually presented to the team. The team could also see where the pain points were. The next step was to address those pain points.
Below I explain the 4 factors in more detail.
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Goals
If the goals for the team members are clear and shared, it provides energy, motivation, and involvement. If they are absent or unclear, there is less reason to work together towards them.
Solution: Check whether and to what extent the common goals are clear and investigate how much everyone feels involved in achieving those goals.
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Structure
If the goals are clear, there is a need for structure. Without structure, employees can work very hard but not achieve the results they could. A clear structure can arise spontaneously or must be consciously arranged together. Structure leads to higher efficiency, more trust, and flexibility.
Solution: Check with your team members whether the division of tasks and mutual coordination of tasks are clear, or discuss it with them.
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Norms and Rules
I notice that team members immediately experience peace when it is clear how decisions are made within the team: by majority vote, by the team leader, or by consensus. And when it is clear how disagreements are handled: suppressed, smoothed over, or discussed. And very importantly: when team members know when they will “get the flowers,” i.e., what they are being evaluated on.
Solution: If you talk to your team members and create clarity about how decisions are made and how to handle disagreements, you will make progress. Clarity is key! My experience is that colleagues should also be able to address each other’s behavior. Check out my blog on ‘Giving Feedback in 5 Steps’. Does each team member know when they are doing well? What is expected of them at the end of a period?
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Involvement
Involvement may be the most difficult to influence because it has a lot to do with a feeling. It concerns the extent to which team members can put the success of team performance above their personal results. It concerns the team spirit.
Solution: You can significantly increase involvement if you have worked on the previous three factors with your team. This leads to more mutual cooperation, understanding, and trust.
Recognizing where your team stands is the first step of the PITPACK method. This method is described in my book “My best team ever! In 7 steps to Golden Leadership“.
Want to know more about how to work with your team? Contact me at 0343 – 476743 or leave your comments below this blog.
