Everyone knows that a chain is only as strong as it's weakest link, and for a team to perform at their best each individual must work to their best ability within their role. We as humans have the highest levels of productivity when working together. H.E. Luccock explained this best when he said "“No one can whistle a symphony. It takes an orchestra to play it.” The recent success of Leicester city in the premiership is a fine example that even the 'strongest' of people can be overcome by the strength of teamwork. But what practices are taken to create a strong team?
For a start it is key that each team member has a clarity of their role and what is expected of them. But it is also necessary for each member to have a clear idea of the roles of their colleagues. By having this understanding each team member has a clear vision of the key measures of success for their role but also gives them an appreciation of the challenges their team mates face and how the success of the group is dependent on good performances by all team members.
Another important element to being successful as a team is to set goals. Goals are essential for for providing teams with motive, and to give something for individuals to work towards. Naturally these will be linked to the overall success of the team, and will all work towards a long-term aim. The overall aim could likely be 'to make the practice a more efficient, profitable business and a more pleasant working environment'. Each member or team will need more specific objectives in order to achieve this long term aim, an example of this may be ‘To reduce the number of missed or cancelled appointments by 20% by the end of the next quarter’. Theses objectives will need to be SMART to ensure targets are profitable.
S - Specific: ‘Reduce the number of cancelled appointments’
M - Measurable: ‘By 20%’
A - Actionable: There are ways of achieving this. If they can be assigned to one or more staff
R - Realistic: 100% perfection is unrealistic and would be demotivating for an individual to have such an expectation placed on them
T - Time-bound: ‘By the end of the next quarter’
In addition it can also be extremely beneficial to have a team that can all provide and receive feedback, and for individuals to be able to react appropriately and further develop. We are all human and no-one is perfect and unless staff are made aware of those areas where they can improve, they will never truly progress. However it is the way in which the feedback message is relayed and received that is crucial. There should be an appreciation that feedback is a positive process and designed to help individuals improve and progress in their careers. It should definitely not be seen as a means of raising grievances or ‘political points scoring’. A positive approach to feedback will help the recipient understand it is given to help them learn and improve and additionally it means that the deliverer of the feedback does not shy away from giving a difficult message if it is needed.
Soliciting feedback from all or many in the team, perhaps a concept of 360° feedback, can be very powerful, often consistent themes on both strengths and development points become apparent when sourced from more than one colleague.
Providing real-time feedback is equally important, as it is much more powerful when it is current. Whilst objective setting and/or formal appraisals may be annual processes, feedback on particular situations or challenges that arise should be given as soon as is possible. The more events are fresh in the memory, the more likely the feedback (both given and received) is to be of better quality. Also, if the intention of the feedback is to cause a change in behaviour of the recipient, then it is best to address matters in a timely fashion.
Despite building, training and developing teams to maximise their performance, inevitably there will always be times where things don't go quite to plan (that's life). When a team is challenged in this way it is crucial to analyse the way in which they handle the situation. Effective teams will take control of the situation, coming together to take corrective action and review their performance to ensure there are methods of prevention to reduce the likeliness of recurrence. It is necessary at this stage to ensure there is no’ finger pointing’ or ‘blame culture’. It is not the fact that things went wrong that is important. A mature and effective team will recognise things can go wrong, and their reaction will be to learn, improve and prevent repetition of the same mistakes.
Having a team that can work collaboratively is extremely important and will drastically improve overall effectiveness, but performance will not always be down to how cohesive individuals are when working in numbers. Without the necessary tools and systems there is inefficiency. For instance, you cannot expect a world class cyclist to win a race on a penny farthing when competing against hi-tech carbon bicycles. The tools the team use must be fit for purpose, and the next challenge is to ensure exactly that...
