Great teamwork is important if you want high organisational performance and business success. But what are those factors that make a team really great? What behaviours and team ‘characteristics’ should be cultivated and encouraged to facilitate successful teamwork?

Here are just 5 pointers:

Strong leader

While everyone involved in the team needs to pull their weight and work equally, there needs to be a definite leader – the one who takes ultimate responsibility for the team’s delivery in the end. The leader should also provide guidance when it comes to defining team members’ roles, and decision-making.

Specific roles

Each person needs to know exactly what they are responsible for, as well as the responsibilities of their fellow team mates to ensure accountability across the whole team. It also helps to keep co-workers from stepping on others’ toes, or unknowingly working at cross-purposes.

Quantifiable goals

It goes without saying that SMART goals are the way to go. While goals should be realistic, it is also a good idea to set a few stretch goals for some extra motivation and encouragement. Where possible, longer term goals should be broken down into shorter term ‘pieces’ so that ‘small wins’ can be acknowledged and celebrated along the way.

Effective communication

Teams need to be able to communicate and collaborate easily, and working in close proximity is vital for optimizing team functioning. It is also interesting to note that it is often not the communication itself that is important – how team members communicate is the main predictor of success.

100% committed

The most successful teams are those whose members are completely committed to the team and their work, but not obsessively so. There is a healthy balance between working hard or overtime when it is required, but not sacrificing their family time on a regular basis. Finding the right balance is important for retaining consistency in a team’s performance.

In your organisation, you undoubtedly want to have great teams working at their highest potential in order to drive great performance and results. But it may be tricky to determine just what you need to do in order to create the right environment and atmosphere to facilitate this kind of performance.

With this in mind, the primary objective when it comes to teams is to determine what the team will be accomplishing – is the main purpose of the team implementation, or is it creation and innovation? The right approach needs to be found according to the team’s function. Samuel Bacharach explains this excellently in his article ‘Leading Teams: Find the Right Balance Between Hands-on and Hands-off’:

He then gives 4 great pieces of advice on how to find that balance, and help optimize team performance. Here’s a summary:

1. Encourage discussion and dialogue

This doesn’t mean having lots of structured meetings. It’s important to facilitate spontaneous communications among team members through optimizing their work environment.

2. Give autonomy, within bounds

People and teams need to have a degree of freedom in their work to help maintain motivation and create a sense of ownership of their work. But it is also important to set boundaries and very clear guidelines to ensure that teams don’t go off track.

3. Recognize both the team and the individual

Celebrating a team’s work is important for fostering team cohesion, but the individual mustn’t be forgotten. Everyone still needs recognition for their individual contributions, or motivation levels could diminish over time

4. Encourage debate

This is particularly important for teams that fall on the creative/innovative side of the spectrum. As it turns out, debate and constructive criticism stimulate ideas and creativity, rather than stifle them.

There are a number of different ways companies can encourage employees to be engaged and perform at the top of their game – and the infographic below, compiled by Mindflash, lists several factors employees say would improve their performance. Here are the top ones:

• Greater clarity about what the organisation needs me to do – 25%
• Development opportunities and training – 23%
• Regular, specific feedback about how I’m doing – 14%
• More resources – 14%

There is ample evidence to suggest that there are many better ways to motivate employees than through monetary incentives. This view seems to gain more and more support on a regular basis, and another example to add to the list is the view of co-founder and CEO of Axcient, Justin Moore. Jessica Stillman spoke to him for her article ‘Metrics Are More Motivating Than Bonuses’:

As the title of her article suggests, Moore is an advocate for establishing and measuring performance metrics and goals as a source of motivation. But he says there are a few key elements to remember for getting this right:

1. Emphasis must be put on making sure that the right metrics and goals are being measured, as “measuring the wrong thing is actually worse than not measuring anything at all”.

2. Metrics and goals must be checked and updated weekly, or monthly at most. But definitely not quarterly – this is not often enough!

3. Encouraging employees set their own metrics, with the help of their manager. For example, Moore sits down with his direct reports to openly discuss what should be measured to ensure they’re on track to achieve their goals. This collaborative process also helps foster a sense of ‘goal ownership’ and buy-in for employees.

4. Don’t overlook the importance of recognition to keep employees motivated. To use Moore’s words:

It’s well documented that employees, managers and HR pros believe that the annual performance review is a waste of time – they’re too generic and vague, not timely enough, and in the end they’re often simply seen as an admin task that doesn’t add any real value to either employees themselves, or the organisation as a whole.

In a recent article for HBR, Eric Mosley notes the problems with the current state of annual performance appraisals, and suggests a different model for performance management that is socially driven:

Of course, in this particular situation, ‘crowdsourcing’ simply refers to the idea of each employee gathering information and getting feedback from multiple people who they work with on a regular basis. These are the people who can really see how hard the employee is working and what they are achieving. In traditional performance management, where the review is conducted by the manager (or HR) alone, there is just a single, narrow view that the employee’s performance is being based on, and this can often be inaccurate.

But perhaps the main question is: how can this be done effectively from a practical perspective? There are many tools and applications available for tracking employee progress and performance, one of which is Engage, which specifically allows for the gathering of feedback in realtime, which is of course the key to continuous improvement for employees.

And it’s not only managers that have access to provide feedback – anyone can be asked to provide feedback, from team mates, to colleagues in a separate department, to customers and clients, so the idea of ‘crowdsourcing’ performance management is covered.

Click through to read Eric’s full article, ‘Crowdsource Your Performance Reviews‘, where he also discusses several business and managerial benefits of gathering recognition and feedback from multiple sources.

Morten Hansen is a management professor at UC Berkeley, and co-author of the book ‘Great By Choice’. Through his extensive research, he has established three key traits that great leaders share – especially when it comes to thriving in times of uncertainty:

1. Productive paranoia

Essentially, this is being ‘hyper vigilant’ about things that can go wrong, and channelling those things into actions that prepare the company for the challenges that may arise. As an example, Morten refers to Bill Gates and his ‘nightmare memo’.

2. Fanatic discipline

These leaders are not just disciplined, but are fanatical about their commitment to their company and their work.

3. Empirical creativity

They are not just creative and innovative – they  do not take unnecessary risks or ‘bet big’ on things if there is too much uncertainty surrounding whether or not they will work. Their ideas and products are rooted in real observations and data, and go through an ‘extended period of validation’ to make sure they will really work before any ‘risk’ is taken.

In his interview with Sarah Green of HBR, Morten also discusses ways in which these leaders ‘make their own luck’:

When it comes time to conduct performance reviews, do you feel you have the knowledge and data about your employees to allow you to give a thorough evaluation of their true performance? Or are you, and the employee, not really sure what you are measuring their performance against, leading the review to be vague, focused only on the last couple of weeks, and generally unhelpful?

To overcome this, one must acknowledge that an effective performance management process takes work.  Managers and employees alike need to be prepared when it comes to performance reviews, and these 5 steps will help in getting there:

Set targets

Set clear, objective, SMART goals for employees to work toward.

Include employees in setting targets

Get employees’ input, making the goal setting collaborative. When people have a say in what their goals are, they will take ‘ownership’ and responsibility for the achievement of those goals.

Track progress

Do this as regularly as possible, and take action if there is anything out of an employee’s control that is hindering their performance. Also make sure that they have all the resources necessary to achieve their goals.

Give feedback

This should also be done as regularly as possible. Realtime feedback allows employees to modify and improve their behaviour immediately, rather than waiting until their performance review or next big meeting for constructive feedback on what they should be doing differently.

Have employees rate themselves

Asking employees to do this requires them to be proactive about their achievements and performance, and to think honestly about how they can improve. The idea behind this is that employees should be accountable for their own development and their own careers, with the help and support of their managers.

Take the time to read more on these steps in the article ‘6 Steps to Move from Perception Management to Performance Management’ by Mehul Mehta and Lawrence Polsky.

This post was originally published on 17 August, 2011.

In order for your organisation to be successful and truly progress, there needs to be a high degree of clarity in your overall strategic goals – what is it, exactly, that you are wanting to achieve? But equally important is communicating those goals to the entire workforce.

Each employee’s goals should be set in such a way that allows them to see how their work and role contributes to the company goals, or ‘the bigger picture’. Doing this creates a sense of purpose for employees, as they know that what they are doing really matters and has significance.

But how can this be done from a practical perspective?

In her article for TLNT, Jacque Vilet talks about how ‘goal cascading’ can be used to address the situation:

She goes on to describe a real example of a goal cascading initiative she was involved with, and the amazing impact the process had:

Goal cascading may be something that your company intends to do, but even with that intention the process often hits a barrier at the middle management level. But as Jacque describes in her article, the effort and time involved in taking goal cascading to the lowest level will be well worth the benefits that come from pushing through and completing the process.

Most companies – the larger ones in particular – exist and function through a variety of systems, processes, formalities and rules. This certainly can make them efficient, but as Tim Leberecht points out in this article for FastCo.Design, it can also make them profoundly ‘unhuman’.

In his article ‘5 Keys To Building A Business That Doesn’t Bury The Humans At Its Core’, he makes the argument for making business ‘humanist’, as in the end, it is humans that drive the functioning and success of an organisation, not it’s systems and processes.

Here are the 5 distinctly ‘human’ qualities that Tim says companies should foster in order to be more productive, and to flourish:

Empathy

There needs to be an understanding of the sentiments, dreams, and ambitions behind each person within an organisation. Instead of focussing on the numbers and ‘data’, the intuition of an organisation should be refined. As discussed previously on our blog, a manager who possesses empathy is sure to have a positive effect on their team.

Culture

Your organisation’s culture is key for facilitating successful collaboration, but it’s even more than that – it should also be seen as a source of competitive advantage, as is the case with Zappos who ‘competes on culture’.

Morality

Operating on the basis of good morals and integrity is of the utmost importance now, given the fact that each aspect of your business can be so easily scrutinized due to this age of ‘hyper-connectivity’, transparency and social media. Customers and consumers can easily see the ‘behaviour’ of your business, and watch how you are operating and conducting yourself; hence the need for constant and unfailing integrity.

Creativity

Tim describes a few different organisations’ creative endeavours to explain how creativity can help to build connections and relationships, not only amongst people within your organisation, but with customers and consumers too. There are a couple of things these businesses have in common:

Aspiration

People need goals, hopes and dreams to aspire too, both as individuals and collectively. Successful and aspirational businesses are those that allow people the freedom and autonomy to be change-makers, or ‘entrepreneurs’, in their own right who are inspired to make a difference and be part of something meaningful.

Tim sums up his philosophy nicely in his concluding paragraph:

The above is just a snippet of the wisdom offered in the article – take the time to click over and read ‘5 Keys To Building A Business That Doesn’t Bury The Humans At Its Core’.

When you don’t have Engage: