We hear the above refrain in all organizations. There is a consensus that teamwork is the key to improving organizational performance. Similarly, 94 percent of leaders believe performance management drives business performance. There are seven implicit philosophies of teamwork which affect leadership effectiveness. Understanding them and applying some simple solutions creates an environment for outstanding teamwork.
Teamwork is significant if adequately implemented. Also, the research found that teamwork, esprit de corps, team trust and recognition and rewards has a significant positive effect on employee performance. Moreover, teamwork programs have a positive impact on employee performance. At the end of the day, they bring benefits in terms of higher productivity, better organizational performance, competitive advantage and increased product quality and quantity.
So, let us consider the following three questions:
- What exactly is “teamwork?”
- What do people have in mind when they talk about teamwork?
- Do the notions of teamwork that group members carry in their hearts and heads determine the effectiveness or the success of their leaders?
Teamwork means different things
“Human beings have an innate inner drive to be autonomous, self-determined, and connected to one another. And, when that drive is liberated, people achieve more and live richer lives.” — Dan Pink
Many people will be surprised that teamwork means different things to different people. Therefore, leadership effectiveness and success seem to depend not only on the personal qualifications of leaders. In summary, these qualities are knowledge, charisma, training, expertise, experience, and professionalism. However, also, on the implicit notions of teamwork that team members hold. Here are seven different notions that people often mean when they talk about teamwork.
Do it my way
This notion of teamwork is unquestioning obedience to orders from the boss or the leader. Generally speaking, the underlying assumption is that the leader knows best. Of course, this may be the case in those exceedingly rare situations where the leader “knows everything” (or is believed to know everything). Where group members know nothing (or are thought to know little or nothing)!
Win one for the home team
This notion of teamwork is personal sacrifice and self-denial that verges on martyrdom. Moreover, it is illustrating the circumstances where group members will pay any price, go any length, bear any loss, risk anything (time, convenience, health, family life, etc.) for the success of their organization.
You do your job, and I will do mine
This notion of teamwork is individual excellence. The underlying assumption is that if everybody does their job well, all the pieces will fit together to produce the desired result. As, individual team members tend to believe that if they discharge their responsibilities well, and the organization falls apart, they are not to blame. The tendency, therefore, is to concentrate on personal, sectional, departmental, or divisional excellence, rivalry; often, ignoring the overall institutional or corporate performance. It creates local optima.
Play like a team
This notion of teamwork is a unitary vision and synergistic action. The underlying assumption is that everybody has a specialty and responsibility. However, each must coordinate his/her performance with others to produce the desired results. Accordingly, the closest analogy for this type of teamwork is in team sports. Individual players help each other out and coordinate their efforts for a better overall result.
Do not rock the boat
This notion of teamwork is group cohesion and total submission to the group will. The underlying assumption is that the team is always right. The individual deviation is neither expected nor encouraged. Instead, the group sanctions the behaviour. Assumptions go unchallenged, even where they are producing disastrous results. The collective will assume the aura of dogma.
Let us co-create together
This notion of teamwork is collective wisdom and collaboration. For the most part, the team recognizes, encourages, and accepts individual differences. The underlying assumption is that you can only achieve the best results by pooling individuals’ unique perspectives and competencies. Moreover, the team uses the collective intelligence of the group.
The law of triviality
This notion of teamwork is a common pitfall for team effectiveness. As a rule, there is a tendency for teams to give a disproportionate amount of attention to trivial issues and details. Northcote Parkinson’s 1958 book, Parkinson’s Law: Or the Pursuit of Progress outlined the effect.
As the story goes, a finance committee has three investment decisions to make.
- First, it discusses a £10 million investment in a nuclear power project. They approve the expenditure in two-and-a-half minutes.
- Second, it must decide what colour to paint a bike shed—total cost about £350. A 45-minute discussion ensues to discuss the problem and pick a colour.
- Third, the committee addresses the need for a new coffee machine for staff, which will cost about £21. After an hour’s discussion, it decides to postpone the decision.
Parkinson called this phenomenon the law of triviality. Everyone is happy to proffer an opinion on something as simple as a bike shed or a coffee maker. However, when it comes to making a complex decision such as whether to invest in a nuclear reactor, the average person is out of his or her depth, has little to contribute, and will presume the experts know what they are doing.
Social Facts?
Many people view the above notions of teamwork as social facts. Two observations appear from the preceding analysis:
- First, the models of teamwork that are summarized here are neither exhaustive nor mutually exclusive. Considerable overlaps exist between them.
- Second, these notions are "social facts." They are for all practical purposes, “valid.” As valid as ideas, assumptions, beliefs, customs, and conventions can be.
Here are the implications for the leadership of cultural, contextual, and implicitly held notions of teamwork. Moreover, the concern is with alignment – the extent to which group members and their leaders share a collective understanding of teamwork.
Misalignment between group members and leaders
Because of their sociocultural upbringing, intellectual orientations, professional training, and so many other variables, team members and their leaders seldom share a collective understanding of teamwork. Moreover, to the extent that group members’ notions of teamwork are at variance with one another or with the leader’s understanding of the construct, explains much of today’s “leadership crisis.”
Stated simply, much of the ineffectiveness and inferior performance of many leaders today is not due to personal failings. These include incompetency, lack of knowledge, inadequate training/coaching, lack of charisma, gender, age, race, ethnicity, or any of the many convenient attributions. Many leadership problems that organizations are facing are rooted in misalignment or the conflicting notions of teamwork that are held by leaders and group members. Often these conflicts exist without conscious awareness.
Successful leadership includes congruence and alignment
Successful leadership is not solely a function of personal “qualifications.” It includes congruence and alignment. If today’s leaders are to effectively mobilize and engage group members in the vitally important task of transforming their organizations, it is essential that they:
- understand the ideas and models of teamwork that inform the actions (patterns and operational relationships) of the group members
- harmonize the implicit and, inevitably, conflicting models of teamwork that group members hold
Concluding Thoughts
Teamwork is used across many different organizations to increase performance, employee unity and company culture. Companies that must often develop innovative ideas or products assemble teams to diffuse responsibility and to increase the number and diversity of opinions. Team members use teamwork to bounce ideas off one another before deciding on a development path for a project.
The introduction of high-performance teams can be daunting to implement. Building a team remains as tricky as ever without the insight of analytics. Energetic, ambitious, and capable people are always a plus, but they often represent different functions, products, lines of business, or geographies. Moreover, they often vie for influence, resources, and promotion. Not surprisingly then, top-team performance is a timeless business preoccupation.
The benefits are far-reaching. You will see increases in
- team morale
- productivity
- employee retention
- profit
However, the organization must remove structural barriers for high-performance teams to excel. There is no avoiding the time and energy required to build a high-performing team. Research suggests that executives are five times more productive when working in a high-performance team than they are in an average one. CEOs and other senior executives should feel reassured, therefore, that the investment will be worth the effort. The business case for building a dream team is strong, and the techniques for creating one proven.
A high-performance team must become accustomed to non-hierarchical management, dealing with positive conflict, and always seeking the next challenge. On the whole, the structure for a high-performance decision-making team is slightly different.
We recommend the use of advanced behavioural analytics to set up all high-performance teams.
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