At the end of a quarter, it’s common to pause and assess organizational performance, accomplishments, and progress toward annual goals. As we approach the end of the first quarter of the year — an extraordinarily challenging and stressful time — it is still important to reflect on how the people on your teams or in your department are doing.
As your organization adapts to the the new realities of the coronavirus, have your teams engaged constructively? Has there been cohesion and mutual support as they acclimate to stay-at-home orders? Is your team staying focused, working together productively to achieve organizational objectives?
“Almost every aspect of success in an organization relies on team performance,” said Maren Perry, executive coach and president of Arden Coaching.”We know what great teams feel like — and we all hate being on teams that aren’t functioning well.”
To successfully improve team performance, Perry and Arden Coaching employ Patrick Lencioni’s Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ framework. The Five Behaviors process builds effective high performance teams based on a hierarchical model of vulnerability-based trust, engaging in healthy conflict, team commitment, accountability, and focusing on collective results.
“When they recognize that their teams are not performing well, great leaders take action sooner rather than later,” noted Perry. “With the chaos, stress, and uncertainty caused by coronavirus, this end-of-quarter is an especially important time to review your teams’ performance and make needed course corrections.”
Beyond a checklist of tasks and activities accomplished, it’s vital to ask yourself if your teams are functioning together at the highest levels possible. Not only will your team’s overall performance impact its ability to accomplish the work it’s been assigned — team performance will also strongly influence the value and caliber of their work.
“While it’s important to make sure your team is on track to accomplish its goals, that’s not enough,” says Perry. “Is the work the best the team can do? Are they fully considering their options and making the best decisions possible? Are they all-in with their recommendations and focused on the right results?”
Dysfunctional teams often compromise the quality of their work. Team members may not trust each other, handle disagreements and differing points of view poorly, or refuse to be accountable to each other. “Dysfunctional teams often go through the motions — they check the boxes off and appear to deliver on their assigned work,” explains Perry. “If someone is on a bad team, they just want to get it over with. As a result, dysfunctional teams often do terrible work. Their analysis, recommendations, and decisions are crippled by their inability to work together at a high level.”
If you detect poor performance in some of your teams, or anywhere in your organization — especially now — engaging in a Five Behaviors program can turn things around, helping you achieve your goals — and producing the best decisions possible.
To learn more about how the Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team™ can help you build high performance teams, contact Arden Coaching at [email protected] or 646.684.3777.