Fitting and Flourishing
With the first ball of the 2014 AFL football season already bounced, there’s no doubt that every team is assessing the strength of their bench. For teams that failed to secure a start in last year’s Grand Final, their coaches, boards and playing groups will all be hunting down ways to secure that all-important trophy come September.
As a Collingwood fan, I was interested in the Club’s choice not to renew contracts for several star players; players who were a vital part of Collingwood’s 2010 premiership win. While these contract cessations are often disappointing for supporters, they are sometimes a necessary evil in building future capability. In these instances, Collingwood’s coaches have stepped up, and made the hard decisions, selecting their 2014 list by addressing one key consideration: retaining and developing the players that will still be at Collingwood when the team is next capable of playing in a premiership.
Making these hard decisions for your business can sometimes seem impossible.
But, if you take a step back and think objectively about your own team, and the strategic challenges and opportunities ahead of your business, how do you feel? Do you have the right people, playing in the right positions, doing the right things? Does your team play to win? Is your team effective?
If your team is not effective, why is this so? Do they lack cultural fit or capability? If it’s capability, could you close the gap via up-skilling?
To help you quickly determine what it is that’s holding your team back, I’ve come up with a few handy tips for assessing team effectiveness.
So, What Makes a Team Effective?
Team effectiveness is critical to the success of every business, regardless of size, industry or strategic goals. Teams, and teamwork, have an enormous impact on the day-to-day performance of every business, as well as the long-term health and probability of the business.
If you’re not sure what an effective team looks like, defining factors include:
- Every team (whether it’s a Board of Directors or the Social Committee) should include a wide variety of personalities, each of whom contribute in a different way, complementing one another’s strengths and weaknesses. A team comprised solely of planners would not cope with ever-changing deadlines whilst a team comprised only of high-level, big-picture thinkers might never get organised to deliver an outcome.
- Effective teams have clear objectives and priorities. Every team member understands those priorities and objectives and is fully committed and accountable for achieving them
- Team members also understand the broader business objectives, and how they fit into the over-arching strategic direction of the business.
- Team members have clearly articulated, clearly defined roles and responsibilities. All other team members are fully aware of those roles and responsibilities. And all team members support and help one another to deliver on their responsibilities.
- The team is focused equally on outcomes (what we need to do) and processes (how we achieve the outcome).
- Generally, the team environment is supportive – they trust each other. Therefore, team members feel secure enough to take risks, be innovative and communicate their honest opinions.
- Through a shared ideology of purpose and values, backed by an aligned strategy, team members feel like a valued part of the broader company and get personal satisfaction from their contribution. Because of the basis of trust, , the team is comfortable with friendly, professional disagreement. The team is able to easily resolve disagreements without pandering to individual egos. Decisions are made on a ‘best for business’ basis.
- The team learns from, and builds on, previous projects and jobs, implementing improvements and innovations . Accordingly they don’t suffer the debilitating malaise of most organisations that perpetuate their mistakes.
Conversely then, ineffective teams are comprised of indifferent, bored or scared team members. Ideas are dismissed, ridiculed or ignored. Arguments are frequent, and often unresolved. Deadlines are regularly missed because team members are unhappy and therefore unproductive. There is a lack of clarity around individual roles and responsibilities, and team members neither trust nor help one another.
If this sounds like your business, or your team, then it is time to act. Continuing with an ineffective team could be stunting the growth of your business, limiting profits and draining the time and spirit of the CEO/owner.
Our complimentary Four Decisions Assessment from Gazelles International objectively examines the health of your business, identifying challenges (including an ineffective team), and enabling you to build evidence-based plans to grow your business.
To complete the free Four Decisions Assessment, contact us today.
Team effectiveness is critical to the success of every business, regardless of size, industry or strategic goals. Teams, and teamwork, have an enormous impact on the day-to-day performance of every business, as well as the long-term health and probability of the business.
Published September 15, 2017