The Ten Characteristics of Effective Team Members Celebrate Accomplishments

EFFECTIVE EXECUTIVE AUG.2009

Building High Performance Teams

The Ten Characteristics of Effective Team Members Celebrate Accomplishments

-- Dr Harvey A Robbins

The best teams operate on short-term, continuously high priority goals and objectives. Once a goal is achieved, they celebrate in some fashion. It doesn't have to be big celebrations; going out to lunch as a group, handing out items to be put on their desks or bookshelves as a reminder of the success, whatever.

In general, the most effective teams operate under a culture which is outcome driven, process oriented, and feedback rich. These are like the three legs of a three-legged stool. Miss one of these legs and teamwork gets a bit shaky.

The following ten characteristics of high performance teams deal with both team members and team leaders.

Committed to Goals

Human motivation is driven by the need to have successful outcomes. It's a raison d'etrea reason to exist. That's why many people create `To Do' lists; it keeps them on track and records their successful outcomes.

Teams are no different. Members of teams are motivated by the successful completion of goals/objectives. The problem happens, however, when the definition of success gets blurry. If the team doesn't take the time necessary to clearly define what success looks like, then some members of the team will not be able to commit to the outcome. Like moths to a flame, team members are drawn towards successnot just process that's just too boring. So, defining `success' helps team members commit to the team's goals.

Expresses Interest in Others

There was a research report a few years back that said that as much as 40% of a person's time on the job is spent in social conversations with othersrather than on work. This is actually a good thing for teams. You can use this as a diagnostic sign to see how effective your teams are.

If you listen in on these informal conversations you can tell if your team is working well together or not. On good teams, you will hear a lot of checking on each other's well-being. Conversations like, "I understand your wife has been ill. Is she OK?" or "I heard that your son just got into college congratulations." They are checking to see if every member of the team is personally fine if their families are fine.

If you don't hear a lot of this checking on well-being, then you can anticipate some team problems down the road.

Confronting Conflict

Many of you already know that good teams deal effectively with conflict. But, that knowledge does not go far enough. You have learned that if you have an issue/conflict with another member of your team, that you should go nose-to-nose with that person and try to resolve your differences. Or, if you cannot, then have a third person facilitate your discussion.

But effective teams go one step further. Suppose two people on your team are in conflict with each other; you're not involved. You cannot be considered a good team member unless you jump into the middle and help resolve the issue. You cannot turn your back on conflict between others on your team and be considered a good team member.

Listening Empathetically

I'm sure that many of you have attended bunches of training on teamwork and leadership. And you learn about empathetic listening. In terms of teamwork, however, empathetic listening translates into checking for receptivity.

How many of you, for example, have wanted to communicate something to someone else on your team? You walk into their office and notice them working. As soon as they look up and make eye contact with you, you just start talking, doing a mind-dump. Did you bother to check to see if they were receptive at that moment, or were you too interested in getting you idea off your mind and laying on theirs? Or, you called someone up on the phone. When they answered and said "hello", you just started talking and doing the mind-dump thing again.

How many of you have ever bothered to check for receptivity first? "Have you got a minute to talk about how we're going to implement that new strategy, or is there a better time we can schedule so we can spend focused time on it?" You ought to try it sometime. It will have an immensely positive effect on your relationship with your teammates.

Dr Harvey A Robbins is a licensed psychologist, whose critically acclaimed book Why Teams Don't Work (Peterson's Pacesetters Books), co-authored with Michael Finley, won the Financial Times/Booz Allen & Hamilton Global Business Book Award. Robbins is an important voice in today's increasingly diverse business environment specializing in team and leadership/executive development (including succession planning), change management, performance feedback systems, and creating collaborative environments. He brings his wide-ranging experience with America's major corporations to international readers in his books, which inform, challenge and entertain. Since 1974, Robbins has consulted with numerous companies and federal/state/local agencies, including ATF, American Express, Allied Signal, FMC, General Dynamics, AT&T, 3M, Honeywell, IRS, International Multifoods, Johnson & Johnson, Mayo Clinic, Nabisco, Southern Company, Target Stores, Toro, US West, the US Customs and the US Secret Service, and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Division of the US Navy. The author/co-author of seven books, Dr. Robbins recently completed The Accidental Leader (Jossey-Bass). Among his other books are Turf Wars (Scott Forman), How To Speak and Listen Effectively (AMACOM), the highly acclaimed Why Change Doesn't Work (Peterson), TransCompetition (McGraw-Hill), and The New Why Teams Don't Work (published in October of 2000 by Barrett Kohler and Texere). He is currently working on another book titled The Art of Dangerous Coaching with colleagues in England and France. Robbins' career path includes work as a personnel research psychologist for the US government (CIA) and executive leadership positions with Burlington Northern and Honeywell. Since 1982, he has been president of Robbins & Robbins providing business psychology consulting, executive coaching, and training worldwide. He is a Fellow at the Executive Development Center at the Carlson School of Management of the University of Minnesota and a popular speaker at both national and international conferences.

Including Others in Decisions

Suppose we have divided up our roles/responsibilities. I have a decision to make; it falls on my shoulders. Before I pull the trigger on this decision, I run my straw horse decision (temporary decision) by my team membersfor two reasons. One, you never know when their input may make your final decision better, and so there are no surprises when you finally do make your decision.

Good teams operate under the banner of no surprises. If someone on my team is surprised by my decision, I've not been a good team member. I've not taken the time to make sure they know the direction I've been planning on going with my decision prior to making any final decision.

Valuing Differences

The best teams are made up of people with the biggest diversity of background, experience, expertise, personalities, etc who first try to understand, value, and use these differences to help the team succeed.

The problem occurs in teams who use these same differences as 10 foot poles to hold themselves apart from each other or to beat each other up either due to misunderstandings or incompatibility (toxic personalities). Understanding the strengths and weaknesses of each team member will help the team divide up roles/responsibilities better-taking advantage of individual strengths, personality matches, skills, etc...and avoiding the pitfalls of incompetencein order to get the best results.

Contributing Ideas Freely

This is a very simple concept. If you keep your mouth shut your opinions to yourself you're not a very good team member. Good team members express their opinions openly for discussion.

This is a cultural issue, though. Since, depending on what country/culture you are from, you may not feel comfortable speaking up in groups (on teams). In Minnesota, for example, because of its basic Scandinavian ethnic background, people feel uncomfortable speaking up on teams. So, I have to use what I call the nominal group technique. I ask a question and have everyone write down their answers on a piece of paper. Then I go around the room and have each person read what they have just written down.

It really doesn't matter if there is a lot of duplication in the answers. That might even be a positive thing since then people are on the same wave length. But, it gives people a chance to express their opinions and concerns. People on teams need to know what other team members are thinking even if it's just to confirm what's on other people's minds.

In New York, for example, this is not a big problem since people are always talking over each other and shouting at each other. But, at least everyone knows what's on each other's minds.

Provides Feedback

I've had many request over the years to look at their client company's performance feedback/management processes. My problem with them tends to revolve not so much around the feedback forms as much as around the poor processes utilized to give feedback. But, that's a frustration for another time. Regardless of what kind of formalized feedback process you currently useor what forms you use with that process, effective teams create their own continuous feedback process that overlays the system currently in use. They don't substitute their own system, they just add to the existing less frequent process with one that provides almost daily feedback.

The feedback that is provided is constructive in form and designed to keep team members on track towards successful outcomes. Four frequently used questions in this regular feedback process are:

1. What do I want more of from you?

2. What do I want less of from you?

3. What do I want you to keep doing the way you've been doing it?

4. What have you done really great lately?

What this system does is to allow team members to give each other continuous feedback around needswhat each team member needs from every other team member. This feedback may take place as often as desired once a week, once a month, the second Tuesday after the new moon on the lunar calendar, or even daily. It gives an opportunity to tell others both what you want from themor notand an opportunity to give them positive feedback frequently.

Celebrates Accomplishments

Sometimes I get called by clients to do a culture audit. Perhaps they want to move towards a more `teaming' environment. The first question I usually ask is, "when was the last time you had a party?" Now, I'm not a party person. I ask that question for a diagnostic reason. If you tell me that you haven't had a party lately, I tell myself that they are going to have an uphill battle to get teamwork going. The reason is that the best teams operate on short-term, continuously high priority goals and objectives. Once a goal is achieved, they celebrate in some fashion. It doesn't have to be big celebrations; going out to lunch as a group, handing out items to be put on their desks or bookshelves as a reminder of the success, whatever.

The point is that if you tell me that you haven't had a party lately, it tells me that you haven't had an excuse to celebratethat your goals/objectives are too long-termand you will have a hard time reaching maximum team effectiveness.

Builds Trust

As a prerequisite for building trust, team leaders and team members must:

• Have clear, consistent goals

I've said this before – that a clear, acknowledged sense of where the team is going is essential not only in giving a clear sense of direction, but as a foundation for trust. If you don't know where you're going, that's probably exactly where you'll end up.

• Be open, fair, and willing to listen

The more open, fair, and willing to listen individuals are, the more they are likely to receive the trust of others (both on and off the team). Fairness must be built into the conversation. People need to hear the word `fair' come out of your mouth.

• Be decisive

Nothing sucks the air out of a team faster than having outcomes that need to be achieved when no one is making any decisions to draw nearer to those outcomes, particularly the person or persons `supposed' to be making those decisions. Are you a fan of frightening truisms? Try this on for size: when it comes to building trust, even a bad decision is better than no decision.

• Support all other team members

Loyalty is the linchpin of building team trust. You back each other up, especially in a fight. Internal fighting sometimes happens. When it does, you don't broadcast your dirty laundry to others. You protect team members from becoming victims of non-team member abuse. You stick together.

• Take responsibility for team actions

This is a hard one for some team members to get. If something goes wrong, you don't point fingers; you take personal responsibility for the actions of the team as a whole. Blamestorming (finger-pointing) destroys the very fiber of the team.

• Give Credit to Other Team Members

Albert Einstein offered this piece of wisdom: "Nothing is yours until you give it away." This means that if it's acknowledgment you want, be generous with what you have done.

• Be Sensitive to the Needs of Other Team Members

Work is hard; it can be tiring, frustrating, often painful. So we appreciate it when teammates indicate that they understand the pressures, and sympathize. This also means eliminating the cute little barbs that we like to throw at one another in jest. It isn't all that funny when you're under pressure.

• Respect the Opinions of Others

Not everyone sees the world the same way; in fact, no one does. Other team members may come up with ideas that you think are the craziest things you've ever heard uttered by another human being. That doesn't make them crazy or deserving of disrespect because their opinion differs from yours. The best teams are made up of people with the biggest diversity of perceptions, who first learn to understand and value the opinions and views of others.

• Empower Team Members to Act

Team members cannot be empowered to act; they must empower themselves. As a team member, however, you can help create an atmosphere in which other team members feel free to take risks, and to take action toward the completion of tasks.

Have more to add to the list? Go ahead – good idea, add your own strategies. We need to keep thinking about this building of trust.