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.

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’:

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’.

What it is that makes a good leader? Robyn Benincasa (author of ‘How Winning Works: 8 Essential Leadership Lessons from the Toughest Teams on Earth’) sums it up nicely in her article for FastCompany, ‘6 Leadership Styles, And When You Should Use Them’:

But on top of this, she says it’s important to recognize that different situations will require different leadership styles – it’s not a ‘one size fits all’. She cites a study done by Daniel Goleman and his team, which involved studying 3000 managers over the course of 3 years:

Benincasa then goes on to discuss the leadership styles Goleman and his team pinpointed through their research, as well as how each of them impact on corporate climate in different ways:

• The pacesetting leader
• The authoritative leader
• The affiliative leader
• The coaching leader
• The coercive leader
• The democratic leader

Ideally, companies should strive to have leaders that vary across each leadership style in influential positions. Or, even better, find people who are able to subtly shift their leadership style, depending on what the situation requires. Great leaders are those who can intuitively assess what’s going on around them, and then know the best way forward in addressing each situation.

There are a number of problems a company (and it’s employees!) will face when micromanagement prevails. For a start, employees who are subjected to micromanagement for any length of time are more likely to become incapable of making their own decisions – they will have to ask their manager to approve anything and everything they do. Surely this is not conducive to career growth, personal development and building  positive self-esteem in employees?

According to business writer Kenneth Fracaro, other consequences will be:

Employees stop making suggestions and fail to come up with ideas – because they realise that their manager doesn’t listen to them anyway.

Disengagement – employees feel apathetic and no longer put effort into their work, as they feel they don’t have power over how they choose to work, or over the outcomes.  They lose interest.

Employees have resentment for their micromanaging manager – which of course creates negative vibes in the workplace.

In addition to discussing these negative consequences, his article suggests ways that managers who have identified themselves as micromanagers can improve, and give their subordinates more autonomy.

But the problem is that, often, micromanagers will not see themselves in this light – or if they do, they may be unwilling to do anything about it or change their behaviour.

With this in mind, Amy Gallo has written a fantastic article that includes great suggestions from the other perspective – how subordinates can better deal with their micromanaging managers:

1. Don’t fight back – this may make the manager see you as difficult and untrustworthy, causing them to get even more involved.

2. Increase trust – identify key areas the manager seems to be most anxious about and make sure you succeed in those areas.

3. Make upfront agreements – at the start of a project about how much the manager will be involved in each aspect of the project.

4. Keep the manager in the loop – give them regular progress updates, as well as notes or emails that share information, without being asked to do so.

5. Give feedback to the manager on how they are perceived – only IF it is appropriate and you think they will be open to hearing you.

Read Amy’s full article ‘Stop Being Micromanaged’ for more on these tips, and to see a couple interesting case studies on the topic.

This post was originally published on 28 September, 2011.

Read Ron Ashkenas’s HBR article from 15 November, 2011 to gain a better understanding of why managers micromanage in the first place – perhaps it will help you if you need to approach your micromanaging manager for a chat

How do you move from being a manager to being a leader? While there are many qualities of both management and leadership that overlap, there are certainly facets of great leadership that may be a little harder to pinpoint, as they are more subtle or ‘soft’.

Dana Theus, the President and CEO of InPower Consulting, has posted an excellent three part video series on ‘Managing to Leading’.

In the first video, ‘Managing to Leading: Getting Out Of The Weeds’, she notes that leadership is not something that ‘shows up on your resume’, but is part of what she refers to as ‘your invisible resume’. It is about what other people experience when they work with you. The example she discusses in this video looks at the importance of having a global outlook, having a strategic perspective, and being able to understand the broader picture of your industry, the environment and how it affects your company’s success.

The second video, ‘Managing to Leading: Your Leadership Presence’, focuses on the fact that leadership is not only about what you do, but about whether the people around you feel inspired, successful, motivated and confident. You need to pay attention to how others behave when they’re around you.  She also gives the suggestion of learning how to ‘reframe problems into possibilities’, and gives a personal example of how she did this.

In the final video, ‘Managing to Leading: Your Authentic Leadership Style’, she discusses the importance of developing your own authentic leadership style, and how to do it.  Sometimes, you may invest in a big way by getting a coach to help you develop certain skills. However, she says not to underestimate the power of making small changes and improvements that can often have a big impact on your interactions with others – watch the video to hear the example she shares:

Brent Schlender, a journalist who conducted multiple interviews with Steve Jobs over the course of more than two decades, has recently come out with some highlights from those conversations.

In the clip below, Jobs talks about how the secret to his success was that he went to exceptional lengths to hire the best people – because, in software, he claims that the difference between an average programmer and a great programmer is at least 25:1 -

David Lee writes a great two part article series on increasing employee engagement – but rather than focusing solely on what activities companies can do to improve engagement, he puts a great deal of emphasis on what companies need to do before they can even begin to expect engagement from their employees.

An interesting point that Lee brings up is the idea that employees are often not engaged because they believe that their managers, and company, don’t really care about them – so why should they care about their company? But at the same time, it is often the case that managers don’t feel compelled to be engaged themselves, or help and support their employees, because they believe their employees don’t care.

So the questions is, who is the onus on to kick off the ‘cycle’ that will lead to all parties improving engagement?

The answer, in short:

Lee’s articles focus on the idea that, first and foremost, managers need to show employees that they care about them, and that their opinions are valued. Then, they need to be provided with the support and environment they need to do their jobs effectively. Employees first need to be ‘embraced’ and then ‘empowered’.

Here’s a quick summary of the advice he offers in his two articles: ‘Increasing Employee Engagement: You Must Give First, Then Receive’ and ‘Increasing Employee Engagement: Empower Them to Make a Difference’:

Truly listen to your employees – managers must recognise the importance of responding to, and doing something about, feedback and suggestions they receive from employees.  Asking employees for their opinions and then either ignoring or forgetting about those opinions will lead them to believe that they don’t actually have a say and that they don’t matter. But when employees know that their voice is heard, they will be more likely to give input and share and ideas in the future – they can see that their ideas are valued, and that they can make a difference, therefore they are more likely to care and be engaged.

Create a supportive and nurturing work environment – give employees what they need to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Lee shares some wisdom that Jerry Bannach gave him in an interview:

Finally, acknowledge that empowering your employees simply comes down to “trusting them to do their jobs”. Give people autonomy, rather than micromanaging and trying to control everything.

Lee ends off with a quote from Simon Sinek, author of ‘Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action’:

When you think of the people in leadership positions at your company, does your mind fill with positive or negative thoughts? And what is it about those people that make them good or poor leaders?

In her article ‘It’s the Leadership, Stupid’, Nilofer Merchant points out the kind of leaders we need, and why we need them:

So what are the personal factors that make a leader great? Here are 5 to consider:

Leading by example – Leaders must exert the same behaviour and values they wish to get out of their followers. If they always follow through on their word, and always meet their deadlines, followers will learn that if they fail to display similar qualities and behaviours, it will not be acceptable. Most importantly, they will truly ‘own’ and strive to adopt such behaviours because they see them exerted regularly by their leader.

Giving credit where it’s due – Good leaders know to give simple thanks and recognition to those who have done well or put in extra effort on a project. It goes without saying that such recognition will reinforce the positive behaviour and attitude of the follower, as their hard work and commitment do not go unnoticed.

Humility – Humble leaders are aware that their ‘elevated status’ does not make them any better or more special than others. Good leaders not only acknowledge this, but they also make an effort to lift those who are around them, facilitating mutual trust and respect in their team.

Openness – includes listening to the ideas of others, and giving them a voice, rather than making all decisions themselves. Such collaboration will serve to increase team cohesion, and also show followers that their opinions are significant, helping to increase their own self-esteem.

Integrity – which is closely linked to whether the leader is perceived as trustworthy. Followers need to be able to trust their leaders, and displaying integrity will make leaders more approachable to their followers. David Hakala describes the value of integrity excellently in his post, ‘The Top 10 Leadership Qualities’:

His post includes more details on all of the above factors, as well as other qualities – read the full article here.

This post was originally published on 5 September, 2011.

Compensation and other tangible rewards are seen as the most straightforward way to say ‘thank you’ to employees. But the power of some simple positive reinforcement – on an emotional level – is often overlooked in the workplace. From the article ‘3 Reasons “Managers” Do Not Get the Most out of Employees’:

Clearly, it is important to employees to receive this kind of positive feedback and reinforcement. But providing it may be quite subtle, and it may be challenging for many managers, especially those who are promoted to management mostly due to their technical expertise rather than their natural ability to manage people. The article suggests three very simple steps for approaching the provision of positive reinforcement:

1. Constantly look for any opportunity to acknowledge positive behaviours employees engage in.
2. Explain the positive effect and value that the employee will add by continuing with the particular behaviour.
3. Provide positive feedback and appreciation, and try to make it public wherever possible.