Foundations of High-Performing Teams

Why Do We Crave Teams—Yet Struggle to Build Them?

 We have social brains, yes —even us introverts have a craving for social interaction. We love being part of a team, something that works toward a common goal. If that is the case, why is it so hard to build cohesive teams that operate beyond what’s in it for me? Work teams are especially difficult because not many of us get to pick the teams we are assigned to or work with. We join teams with all kinds of biases and predispositions as to what people will be like. We don’t automatically trust our team members. In fact, neuroscience says if the team doesn’t look like us, we are apt to distrust them immediately. I don’t know about you, but I've rarely worked on teams where everyone looked like me.

Lessons from Experience: From Chaos to Unity

I remember when I started my first leadership job. I walked into a small company on the path to becoming a major player in the third-party administration business.  This team was tiny. The work was not organized; no one could find the documents they needed; one person was late 52 times that year; and another person kept calling out and had missed well over the allotted time per the handbook. No one cared. They didn’t care because they didn't share a common goal. 

Fast forward 11 years, and the work is very well defined. The common goal of being a difference maker is instilled in everyone who works with us. There is unity in helping people recover from workplace injuries. The receptionist who takes in the mail and uploads it to the correct file understands that their accuracy affects the timeliness of the adjuster's review of the documents to approve the treatment the injured worker needs. The receptionist doesn’t quickly upload just to upload; that is boring. They do it to help someone get well, to make a difference.

The adjusters know that they can count on the receptionist to get the work uploaded in a timely manner, and they know that the people on the front end share their passion for helping people. They can count on them to be present nearly every day, unless time is planned off. They both know that failure of timely care causes an injured worker to suffer. They want to help.

The supervisor of the departments understands that accountability to making a difference matters. They help keep the work flowing, not because that is what they are paid to do, but they do it because they know if the roadblocks are removed from the adjusters' work, they can get back to the business of getting people back to work and giving the injured employee the certainty that we are there to help them.

The Power of a Shared Goal

Building teams with common goals is essential to building high-performing teams.  The goal can’t be arbitrary; it has to mean something to everyone. Everyone has to be rewarded for working towards that goal. No one department can be seen as more important than the other.

When this happens, you have extremely high-performing teams. Teams where individuals are respected, have status, feel secure, know their place, are empowered to do their jobs well, belong, and are treated with fairness.

The Secret Sauce- Trust

When this happens, you get trust.  When trust is present, the biases we hold are suppressed for the greater good of the team.  We are then able to accomplish great things.

The SCARF Model for Creating Trust

What are you doing to create an environment where people can thrive? They apply the SCARF (Status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness) model, which Dr. David Rock calls the five pillars that influence human behavior. 

Ready to build your own high-performing team? Start by fostering trust, unity, and a shared sense of purpose. Reach out if you want to bounce some ideas back and forth.