How To Get The Most Out Of Your Team

One of the core goals of any leader is to get the most out of his or her team. The ability to create team cohesion and a culture that elevates the talents of individuals as you pursue objectives is really what separates great leaders from the merely good.

Great leaders have the ability to make the output of a team more than just the sum of its parts.

They have the ability to take the team to a level of performance that they didn’t even know that they were capable of. That’s an idea just about every leader knows. However, how to turn that idea into actions that actually elevate the team is a lot less known.

So, in this article, we’ll cover practical actions you can take to get the most out of your team.

Set Objectives Together

The first action you can take to get the most out of your team is to set objectives together. There’s a growing body of research suggesting that when people are involved in the process of setting goals, they put forth more effort toward achieving those goals. 

It’s also common sense. 

If you feel included in goal-setting, then you’re more likely to see those goals as worthwhile and attainable, and so you’re more likely to go after them. But even today, in many large organizations, tasks are assigned or quotas set with barely any influence from the team or the individuals responsible for achieving them.

If you work in one of those organizations, you may not be able to set big objectives like quarterly goals or annual targets together, but you can still incorporate the team into the process of setting smaller objectives. 

Call a meeting and point out the big goal, then lead a discussion about what the path toward achievement looks like and how the team should track progress. The larger objective will remain untouched, but the smaller goals will have the unmistakable fingerprints of your team on them.

Work Out Loud

The second action you can take to get the most out of your team is to “work out loud.” Once the team has set up their objectives—or broken down larger assignments into co-created goals—then comes the regular habit of keeping everyone collaborating as they work on their small piece of a larger whole. 

“Working out loud” refers to this collaboration. It means that in addition to doing the work, team members are communicating what they’re working on in real-time, or at least regularly.

This could be through something like the daily standup meeting from the world of Agile software development. In a daily standup or “scrum,” team members circle up briefly and answer three questions: What did I just finish? What am I working on next? What’s blocking my progress?

You may not need to meet in real-time, and you may not need to meet daily but consider the impact it would have on your team if each individual sent out a quick Monday morning email with exactly these answers not just to you but to the whole team. 

You’d start every week on the same page, and you’d know exactly what you need to do to move to the next page together.

Turn Conflict Into Collaboration

The next action you can take to get the most out of your team is to turn conflict into collaboration. And this isn’t a one-time action. Instead, it’s probably a series of actions you need to teach the whole team.

We know from research that task-focused conflict can help us work better. It can push people’s thinking and result in more creative ideas and more innovative ways to complete a project. But many of us struggle to keep task-focused conflict task-focused. 

It’s hard not to take criticism personally and even harder to give constructive comments in a way that makes sure the receiver doesn’t. But there are little actions we can take to keep the discussion on task even when there’s disagreement.

Chief among them is probably to teach your team not to criticize people or ideas. Instead, question assumptions. Don’t express judgment on an idea right away. Don’t push back and argue they’re wrong or their idea won’t work. Instead, ask them more questions about the assumptions they made that led them to their conclusion and then offer to help discover if those assumptions are true. 

You’re still introducing conflict, but you’re doing it in the service of collaborating on the idea. That makes all the difference.

Find Uncommon Commonalities

Another action you can take to get the most out of your team is to help them find uncommon commonalities. Uncommon commonalities are those things two people on a team or in a group have in common that the rest do not share. It could be as significant as the same training and experience or as insignificant as liking the same sports team (although, depending on the person, that one might be the most significant thing about them). 

Uncommon commonalities between two people are the beginnings of more conversations, more connections, and, eventually, more friendships on the team.

A host of research suggests that having friends at work and on your team makes you more productive.

The best way to help the team find uncommon commonalities is by creating opportunities for self-disclosure. This could be unstructured, like scheduling shared meals or “water cooler” time into the team’s work week. It could also be structured through meaningful ice-breakers during meetings like “3 Snaps,” where, at the start of the meeting, one person from the team shares three meaningful pictures from their smartphone camera roll and talks about each. 

In either case, when people disclose more about themselves than just work, they make it much more likely to find new work friends, even if it’s on a team they’ve been with for a long time.

While these four actions may seem like an eclectic collection, they all have in common, which is that they focus on the team’s culture. They’re not about installing new project management software or training on a new productivity system. 

Those might move the needle a little bit, but they won’t make nearly as much impact as working to change the team’s culture into something more collaborative and supportive. When you build that culture, you get the most out of your team, and everyone on the team is doing their best work ever.

Promote Psychological Safety

Another great strategy to adopt to get the highest performance out of your team is to create an environment of psychological safety. It is a concept pioneered by Harvard Business School professor Amy Edmondson.

Psychological safety is a belief that individuals can talk, share ideas, and take risks without fearing punishment or humiliation. 

How do you create such a culture? There are three steps to it:

1. Model Vulnerability

The first thing leaders must do is actively accept their mistakes and uncertainties. This shows that it is okay to make a mistake and take risks. 

If leaders are more open to embracing their imperfections, employees will likely model the same behavior. They are more likely to become confident, accept and acknowledge their mistakes, and be more accepting of change and risk.

2. Listen Actively

Next, make sure that each and every member of the team is actively heard and feels at ease in participating and responding in meetings. 

They should be open to participating and confident that their concerns, suggestions, and opinions are being heard and considered by the management

So, let everyone have a word in brainstorming sessions and during meetings and put those suggestions into action.

3. Avoid Blame

The last and most important thing is to accept mistakes. In case of adversity, the leaders should avoid blaming circumstances or other people on the team; instead, even when the management or leaders make mistakes, they should take them as learning opportunities rather than failures.

Again, leaders need to model this behavior so that others will follow. Only then will employees feel more confident about taking risks and experimenting with ideas and strategies.

Celebrate Big and Small Wins

Recognizing and celebrating employee achievement is more than just a workplace activity. Appreciated employees are more likely to be engaged, productive, and loyal to the organization. Little celebrations or small words of appreciation can go a long way in building the team’s confidence.

It will let them know that their efforts are recognized and appreciated, resulting in a positive change in workplace behaviors. 

It’s quite easy to celebrate these wins. You don’t have to go for a grand gesture!

There are simple ways you can incorporate appreciation in daily work activities. You can highlight simple accomplishments during team meetings or through internal communication like email or memos. You can also recognize the individuals and send them personalized thank you notes or small gifts or offer other flexibilities like time of extra time off, etc. 

Other ways to celebrate the same are via team outings, shared meals, or extended coffee breaks.

Develop Your Team

Invest in the professional growth of employees. According to a learning report, 86% of employees say they are likely to stay longer in a company that invests in their learning and development. 

What are the key areas you need to work on?

First, you need to help the employees develop certain skills. You can do that by providing them with the right training programs, certifications, or workshops to enhance their technical and soft skills.

Then, you can pair the new team members with experienced team members who will act as mentors and facilitate career development, knowledge sharing, and learning. You can also use cross-functional learning, where the team members interact with each other in different roles and learn about each other.

Wrap Up

Getting the most out of your team doesn’t take much. You don’t have to set rigid policies or stringently supervise the employees. In fact, you can achieve much more by creating a supportive and collaborative culture.

Remember, leadership is not just about assigning tasks; it’s about inspiring your team to achieve much more than they strive for.

HOME_AboutDavidBurkus

About the author

David Burkus is an organizational psychologist, keynote speaker, and bestselling author of five books on leadership and teamwork.

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