Stuck in a Rut?

Are you and your team stuck in a rut?

As a team leader you may be blind to the fact that you a sliding down a slippery path that will adversely impact your results because your team is ‘stuck’ in some way.

Because you are in amongst ‘the soup’ – the daily activities and energy of your team and work life you may not easily spot some of the clues, so here are some tips on what to look out for.

Hopefully they will help you spot the ‘rot’ and take action before it’s too late.

Lack of Energy

You may notice a lack of enthusiasm or lethargy a in the team or in certain individuals; or hear phrases like:

• ‘There’s nothing anyone can do… ‘
• ‘What a waste of time…’
• ‘Is it really worth it’

Energy is contagious. If you allow this to continue it will very soon be the overriding energy and mood of the team and not the most productive energy to deliver results!!

Cynicism

Cynicism and mistrust may be harder to spot. It could be you that isn’t trusted and therefore not so visible.

Look at how team meetings are working. Is the agenda is more important than the outcome?  Is it all show and tell for the boss? Are there unconstructive and one-sided discussions without candour – nobody wants to talk about what is really going on?

Another tell tale sign could be an apathy in the way challenges or obstacles are viewed in that they are owned by one individual rather than a team approach:

‘I knew this teamwork stuff was a load of @*@*’

Blame

You can pick this up by the comments people make either in meetings or in corridor chats and can come across as a lack of personal responsibility… it’s always someone else’s fault or, down to someone else to take action. 

Phrases or behaviour you may hear or see are:

•  ‘We have no clue as to what this is about…’
• Meetings in which interpersonal attacks made behind peoples backs and to outsiders – ‘x has never pulled his own weight and never will’
• A sense of helplessness and lots of finger pointing at top management and/or the rest of the organisation – ‘if this effort is so important why don’t they give us more resources.’
• ‘We can’t make this happen on our own and no-one else is interested’ 

Possible solutions to becoming unstuck

It’s never too late to do something about a ‘stuck team’, although the longer you leave it the more challenging it may be to reverse the trend.

Here are some things you can do:

1. Revisit the basics. Is each team member clear about the purpose, vision, goals and ground rules for the team?
2. If there is a lot to be achieved over a long time frame go for small wins – one step at a time. Help everyone recognise how far they have come rather than how much is left to do!
3. Inject new information relevant to the work they are doing e.g. feedback from other teams on the work they are doing, benchmarks to show how much progress has been made or, to inspire a new level of thinking and action case studies and best practices.
4. Change the leadership or team membership. Sometimes you have to change the people in the team to create the energy you need to move forward.
5. Invest time and energy yourself and hire a facilitator/coach who can help with different approaches. This way you can be part of the team and solution. It can be hard as a leader to try and facilitate the team and be part of it.

What ideas do you have?

Have you ever been in a stuck/underperforming team?

What worked for you?

I’d love to hear about your ideas and experiences, simply leave a message below.

“Teams do not go physically flat, they go mentally stale.”

Vincent Lombardi

3 areas to focus when leading teams

As a leader you have to take people with you to deliver your vision, goals and objectives.

The individuals who will help you achieve this the most is your team. Yet how much training or development have you had to lead a team?

True teams are dynamic, constantly evolving and adapting to their environment.  Developing a team to this level takes time and attention, and the truth is no one teaches us how to build and develop teams. We’re magically supposed to know what to do when you are given a team.

I recently delivered a module of a leadership programme on leading teams and I shared one of the first models of team leadership I came across and found really useful.

It’s simple – which is why I like it, although like all things simple they aren’t always easy to apply. However I think this is an exception!

The model I’m referring to is John Adair’s Action Centred Leadership model.

There are 3 elements for this model and according to Adair each require attention in any leadership situation:

Task

Team

Individual

The degree to which they need attention will depend on what’s going on in each area along side any external influences. It is the role of the leader to balance the needs of all three areas.

Task

This may be the completion of something practical and tangible or something less tangible.

• What is the task in hand?
• What is the goal or outcome you are trying to achieve?
• What is your strategy to accomplish this?
• Is everyone in the team clear about this?

Team

The task can only be achieved if all the team are working together with the same aim in mind. Therefore, the team as an entity needs to be understood in it’s own right.

• What are the working relationships like in the team?
• How are people relating to each other?
• Are they playing to each other’s strengths?
• Do they support and challenge each other?
• Are they clear about each other’s roles and responsibilities?

Individual

Whilst the team will develop it’s own form the individuals in the team also need to be understood.  Their needs must continue to be met if their motivation and team performance is to be maintained.

• Do you know what motivates each individual?
• What is important to them about the work they do?
• What are their aspirations and strengths?
• Where is their next growth edge?

Bringing it to life

The question for you to consider right now is; where do you spend most of your time?

AND I wouldn’t be surprised if you said task. In my experience it’s where most people spend their time!

As a leader your role is to set direction and take people with you so the 2 most important areas of this model are the team and the individuals. If you harness these two, the team will take care of the task and your job is then to monitor all three areas and support, redirect ‘get stuck in’ where needed to keep things moving forward. 

It needs constant tweaking and adjusting to stay on track  - think of it as you steering a sailing boat.  You constantly have to keep an eye on where you are going and pay attention to what is going on in your environment.

• Are you being blown off track by the elements – what adjustment do you need to make?
• Do you have to pull into harbour and take stock, refuel?
• Do you need to be patient until the right conditions appear to make the journey as efficient as possible?
• Are the crew fully occupied and playing to their strengths?
• Do you notice someone who is de-motivated? 

If you have any tips on effectively leading teams I’d love to hear them - leave a comment below.

“Only three things happen naturally in organizations: friction, confusion and underperformance. Everything else requires leadership.”

Peter Drucker

3 signs that you are in a group not a team

Think about the last time you were part of a group, where someone proposed an idea that you thought was quite poor. However, everyone else in the group agreed with the person who suggested the idea and the group seemed set on pursuing that course of action.

When you see this happening it’s a pretty good indicator that groupthink is occurring and preventing creative thinking, effective decision making, efficient problem solving and goals being met.

What is Groupthink?

It is a psychological phenomenon in which people strive for consensus within a group. In many cases, people will set aside their own personal beliefs or adopt the opinion of the rest of the group.

People who are opposed to the decisions or overriding opinion of the group as a whole frequently remain quiet, preferring to keep the peace rather than disrupt the uniformity of the crowd.

Why does groupthink occur?

In many cases, people end up engaging in groupthink when they fear that their objections might disrupt the harmony of the group or suspect that their ideas might cause other members to reject them. Members place emphasis on everyone agreeing and want to be on good terms with the group no matter what the cost.

Situations where the group is placed under extreme stress or where moral dilemmas exist also increase the occurrence of groupthink, as does a strong persuasive charismatic leader.

Symptoms of groupthink

These fall into 3 broad categories:

Over confidence in the groups power
Limited thinking about a problem
Pressure to comply within the group

Over confidence in the groups power

You will see the group become overly optimistic and take big risks believing they are invincible. Alternatively you see members of the group rationalize thoughts or suggestions that challenge what the majority is thinking.  This causes them to ignore warning signs.

Limited thinking about a problem

There is a belief that whatever the group does it will be right as they all know the difference between right and wrong. This leads members to ignore possible moral problems and ignore consequences of individual and group actions.

You may also get members stereotyping. This leads members of the in-group to ignore or even demonize other group members who may oppose or challenge the group’s ideas.

Pressure to comply

The majority directly threaten the person who questions decisions by telling them that they can always leave the group if they don’t want to agree. Direct pressure to conform is often placed on members who pose questions, and those who question the group are often seen as disloyal or traitorous.

Alternatively, members of the group take it upon themselves to discourage different ideas from being expressed in the group. These "Mindguards" act as self-appointed censors to hide problematic information from the group.

This can result in people who have doubts to hiding their fears or misgivings.

How to Prevent or Minimise Groupthink

There are steps that you can take to minimize this problem when you see it occurring or prevent it from happening:

• Breaking up members into smaller independent teams can be helpful.
• As the leader of the group avoid stating your opinions or preferences when assigning tasks. Give people time to come up with their own ideas first.
• Discuss the group’s ideas with an outside member in order to get impartial opinions.
• Encourage group members to remain critical. Don't discourage dissent or challenges to the prevailing opinion. Encourage alternative views and challenging of ideas.
• As the leader be absent from many group meetings to avoid overly influencing decisions.
• Have a process in place for checking the fundamental assumptions behind important decisions, for validating the decision-making process.
• Utilise group techniques like brainstorming and six thinking hats when exploring a problem. 

It would be great to hear your stories on where you have overcome groupthink, so please share them. We can all learn from your success.

"The important thing about groupthink is that it works not so much by censoring dissent as by making dissent seem somehow improbable."

James Surowiecki

The single most common mistake of team development

The most common mistake I have come across is people saying they are part of a team when in fact they are really a working group and the difference between the two is palpable. You’ll understand this if you’ve ever been part of a high performing team!

When you are on a true team there is an energy and enthusiasm that can be felt, they are clear about their purpose and there is a commitment to deliver individual as well as collective results. 

Katzenbach and Smith define a team as a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves accountable.

• Do you consider yourself to be part of a team?
• If yes, do you ever spend time reflecting on how you are performing, or how you can make significant performance improvements?
• Do you hold yourself individually accountable and mutually accountable with your team mates? 

If you don’t consider yourself to be part of a team you’re likely to be a member of a working group where you interact with team members primarily to share information, best practices and make decisions to help each individual perform within his or her area of responsibility.  There is no common purpose that binds people together or joint work products that call for a team approach or mutual accountability.

So What?

All teams start out as a working group, an array of individuals coming together to get a job done. As a leader it’s important to recognise this as the development journey from working group to high performing team takes time and effort not just from you, but from every member in the team.

The question is do you want to harness the collective energy, skills and experience you have to deliver outstanding results? If you do then the journey is worth taking.

There is no one best place to start, or one best thing to do. What I would say is hire an experienced facilitator or team coach to support you and the team to get there.

As the team leader you need to be seen as part of the team which is why using an external facilitator is worth it – it also demonstrates that you are prepared to be led which signals to the team that any one of them can take the lead when necessary

Indicators of High Performing Teams

So where are you and your team on the scale from work group to high performing team?

Use these indicators as a starting point and use a 1 to 10 scale where 1 is low and 10 is high. It will hopefully give you some idea of where to start if you want to enhance performance.

1. Trust – the team trust one another to get things done
2. Healthy Challenge – the team are prepared to challenge each other to achieve the optimum result possible and accept this as an essential way of operating
3. Commit to action – when a decision is made they all commit to delivering and deliver what is needed when it’s required
4. Accountable - they hold each other accountable and are ready and willing to give each other honest feedback on contributions made
5. Focus on Results – they focus on what collectively has been agreed

If you know there is work to be done and you are not quite sure where to start email me and we can explore options to move forward.

 “When a gifted team dedicates itself to unselfish trust and combines instinct with boldness and effort, it is ready to climb.”

Patanjali

What is the Predominant Mood of your Team?

Moods are contagious and understanding the predominant mood in your team will be an indication of the level of engagement, commitment and productivity.

What do I mean by mood?

Well, think of it as an emotional state that has some longevity such as; optimism, intensity, dour, calm, resentment, resignation, bold, gratitude….  Think of it as a longer-term attitude.

As you think of the moods I mentioned above I’m sure you can imagine what they feel like when you are with someone in this ‘mood’.

How often have you walked into a room where the mood is uplifting? You actually feel it as you walk in. Compare that to walking into a room where there is a pensive mood. You feel it, and it’s very different to the previous mood of uplifting.

Moods envelope you. You automatically adapt to the environment. They have an impact on how you relate to others and how you move through the world and take action– humans are emotional beings.

• What is your predominant mood?
• How does this affect your team, or meetings you are in?
• What is the predominant mood of your team?
• Is it effective?
• If not what can you do to begin to shift it?
• Do you drive the mood of your team?

There is likely to be a dominant ‘player’, so who is it?

Exercise: At the beginning and end of every day take a moment to notice your mood – write it down and reflect on how it’s affecting your outlook – your thoughts, your actions, your ability to listen. Just raising your awareness will provide you with new choices.

Managing your mood is a key task of leadership and will affect the impact you have.

"Don’t let people; places and things determine your moods. Take charge of how you feel each and every day."

Michael Barbarulo

Team Alignment – A 4 Part Health Check

I recently read some research that looked at the winning leadership behaviours that lead to outstanding team performance, particularly when under pressure. One of the top three was alignment, (The other 2 were capability and autonomy).

So, I’ve put together some simple questions to assist you in conducting a quick health check and determining where you may need to put some focus:

How would you describe the alignment of your team?

Are you?

1. Fully functioning, running like a ‘well oiled machine’ where balls are rarely dropped.
2. Managing to get along and just about hit deliverables but it’s all a bit like hard work and you feel as though you have to constantly chase people.
3. You’ve had to re-adjust several timescales and deadlines to accommodate the team. Things just never run smoothly and lots of mistakes are made.

Hopefully you are somewhere between 1) and 2) and if you are 3) what I have to say will still be of value, although it’s probably going to take a little longer to get fully aligned!!

Wherever you are right now these 4 questions will help you determine what needs ‘fixing’. I would recommend you address them in this sequence, as they will also help you prioritise action. The questions are:

1)   Why do we exist?

2)   Where are we heading?

3)   Who does what?

4)   How do we behave?

Why do we exist? The foundation

What is the team there to do? What is their role in the company? Is everyone clear about this?

It sounds obvious, but if you are a team who’s role is to develop new products and there are members of the team who think you are there to develop existing products this can cause some friction albeit subtle.

Ensuring every single member of the team understands what you are there to do can bring great clarity in determining where to focus efforts and what to say no to.

For me it’s the ‘why are we here’? Your teams mission statement and the foundation piece to alignment.

Where are we heading? The guiding system or sat nav

 

Does everyone know in what direction you are heading? It helps if you are all pointing North. How you get there can be varied but if you are all pointing in different directions it’s going to be a longer and potentially exhausting journey.

Your direction may be your strategic goals, your operational objectives, or your company vision – the key is clarity and simplicity. Do your team know what you are going to deliver and the difference it will make? Can you describe it in a couple of sentences? If you find you are rambling, or trying to cover every eventuality you’ll find your team will make their own interpretation, leaving room for missed opportunities, inefficiencies and conflicting priorities.

You may find you have to repeat this several times to make sure it’s fully understood. It will be worth it in the long run!

Who does what? The resources

This is being clear about roles. Who is doing what? Do the roles in your structure allow you to deliver what you are meant to deliver? Where does accountability for delivery sit? How do the roles interrelate? What’s required for the team to run smoothly around the tasks/projects you are delivering?

Is everyone in the right role? Having people fully equipped not only ensures great teamwork it will also increase individual engagement and as a result greater performance.

Are people playing to their strengths? When people play to their strengths there is a sense of ease as well as enjoyment.

How do we behave? The driving path to get you there

What’s the culture you want in your team? How do you want your team meetings to run? How will you make decisions? How do you want it to feel? How will team members communicate with each other? How will problems be resolved?

How often will you review collectively how you are doing? Are you prepared to have a degree of candour so the real conversations take place when they need to and not in the corridor with the people who aren’t involved?

Even the best teams need to stop to reassess.

These questions will allow you as a leader and to quickly review where you are, and be used as a review with the team to identify any areas of realignment.

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”

Michael Jordan

4 Steps to Identifying the Culture of a Team

It is rare that you have the opportunity to create a team from scratch and select every member yourself. It has only happened to me once. More often we join an organisation or new division and have a ‘ready made’ team in place for us.

 All too often in these situations we focus on getting things done and talking to individuals about what has to be or is being done. Very rarely do I hear of anyone giving some attention to the How of the team - How it operates.

Yet today more leaders are having to:

• ·       Take on newly created positions
• ·       Are asked to achieve more and have broader objectives
• ·       Have frequent shifts in job responsibility
• ·       Must deliver results faster

Personal agility is obviously important in managing these changes. Harnessing the energies of your team sooner rather than later will also help. Therefore, being able to quickly read the culture of a team when you join it, is a great skill to have.

Here are some ideas on where to look so you can see the ‘wood from the trees’.

First let’s be clear about what we mean by culture. It’s the how things get done around here. The ideas, customs and social behaviour of the group e.g. how decisions get made, the look and feel of the space, how ideas are generated and developed.

So here are some simple, but not easy steps to take:

Step One: Identify the Essence of the team

Approach this as if you are an archaeologist uncovering the origins of the team and how it came about, or a historian uncovering the story and folklore about it. In some ways this is the hardest part as the aim is to get a handle on the intangible ‘stuff’.

Questions you might want the answers to are:

·    How and why was this team/department originally created? Was it to create change? Was it to bring about some structure and stability? Was it to grow the market? Create new products?...

·    How was it positioned at the time?

·    What was going on in the broader organisational culture at the time? Was it going through a merger? Was it growing? Was it in crisis?

·    How have customers related to it over the years?

·    How do they relate to it now?

·    What makes it stand out?

·    If there were a documentary or film about it what would it be called?

Step Two: Searching for Substance

In this step you are continuing your ‘dig’ or research and looking at what is in place to substantiate what you may have discovered in step one.

Questions you might ask here are:

·       What is the basis of its relationships customers? Is it to solve their problems? To make them feel better? To make their life easier?

·     What policies and processes are in place? Are they formal or informal?

·     What is the product/service the team produces?

·     What does this look and feel like?

·     How do the team interact? Do they socialise together? Is there a lot of laughter and joking? Do they seem very closely knit? Are they very respectful?

·     What value does the team bring to the organisation?

·     How do people in the team dress?

Step Three: What’s not Working

Here you are looking at what is missing or what isn’t working. This can also give you clues to the culture of a team; for example I worked with a function where team meetings didn’t happen, or if they did they were inconsistent. It helps you in identifying what the culture isn’t rather than what it is and if you are struggling with the steps above it can really shed some light on the situation.

Some questions you might ask here are:

·     What confuses or mystifies you?

·     What values, approaches or topics cannot be talked about? For example can people talk about mistakes, new ways of doing things, success, poor performance?

·     What do people complain about?

·     Are people distorting or failing to see reality clearly?

Step Four: Reflection and Analysis

This is where you get to put all the pieces together to see what picture develops. What is the predominant orientation of the team? It’s important at this stage you identify what is actually happening rather than what you think it should be. When I do this I take a balanced scorecard approach, it’s one way of keeping it simple. So here it is:

Areas to Consider	Which Category Best Fits your Analysis?
Structure and Process	1.    Structures and processes are built around the needs of customers (either internal or external) 2.    Structures and processes are there to bring stability, control or efficiency 3.    Structures and processes are there to support innovation and learning
Results	1.    Results are achieved by being goal focussed, driven and working as a team 2.    Results are driven by vision and inspiring people 3.    Results are based on breaking rules, continually improving being non conformist
Relationships	1.    Relationships are based on us all being equal and banding together 2.    Relationships are based on having fun and being playful 3.    Relationships are based on community and closeness – best friends
Learning & Innovation	1.    Learning and innovation is based on loyalty, job security and not rocking the boat 2.    Learning and innovation is slow based on research, analysis, planning and learning as you go 3.    Learning and innovation is more about employee autonomy and a pioneering approach

Now, you may well be reading this and saying well teams do all of these things! In truth, and in my experience that is very rare. True they may do a number of these things, however, the skill I talked about earlier is to identify which ‘style’ in each quadrant is the most dominant and there is usually 1.

The trick with this is to not spend weeks analysing it. You can do this in the first week or 2 and often the first team meeting (if you have one) will give you lots of clues.

A cautionary note

It helps if you know your own preferences. This way you can remain objective. If you find you are having an adverse reaction to how things are done, they are likely to be operating in a way that is not to your preference.  This may be good or bad news, depending on why you have been brought in.

 For those of you who are task focused you may be asking why bother?  There are 3 clear benefits.  You will:

1. Be able to harness the strengths of the team quicker 
2. Be able to see where team effectiveness can be improved 
3. Be able to integrate new members to the team quickly

All of which will enable you to deliver better results.

"Your present circumstances don't determine where you can go; they merely determine where you start." 

 Nido Qubein