Building High Performing Teams
Are your teams achieving amazing results and collaborating seamlessly when needed, or do you find them disruptive and unproductive?
A high performing team can make a huge diference to the success of your company – imagine teams quickly solving issues ensuring that customers feel the impact.
Troublesome teams however, whether departmental or cross-company, can hinder your competitive advantage and render processes ineffective.
Why aren’t all teams successful?
Often, it’s because the team hasn’t been set up for success. Dominating personalities can drown out others’ voices, leading to a sense of being unheard. Unclear team goals lead to confusion and conversations going around in circles with few actions being set. And this can be made worse in cross-departmental or matrix organizations where a lack of a clear goal can cause issues with reporting lines and responsibilities
The key to fostering high performing teams is helping them set clear and achievable goals. Understanding what the team aims to accomplish and defining what success is is paramount. Additionally, establishing a set of rules that all team members agree to abide by ensures active participation from everyone.
At The Pathway Communication Company, we offer expert guidance in both setting up new teams for success and helping teams in crisis overcome challenges. Through thoughtful questioning, active listening, and by providing valuable insights from observation of the team working, we help teams discover the underlying issues and equip them with powerful tools to move forward.
Team Coaching for success
In a matrix organisation, it is often hard to set up a new team. Each person works for a different manager and the new manager has a dotted line between them and their team. I was asked to attend the kick-off meeting of a new team and help them lay a good foundation for how they would work in the future. We started with an introduction from each team member and then introduced the concept of team norms (rules that everyone in the team agrees to abide by). Over the period of two hours, I facilitated a conversation gradually bringing out into the open all the different topics that I felt the team needed to discuss. These ranged from electronic device etiquette to timekeeping as well as working across cultures and time zones. At the end of the meeting, a robust set of norms were in place and all of the team were in agreement that they would work within them.
This all happened a few years ago and in conversation with one of the team recently they cited this meeting as the fundamental cause of the team being able to hit the ground running and start delivering on their goals straight away. The clear norms meant that they could all work together effectively quickly and effectively with no ambiguity.
Unlock the True Potential of your organisation
Over a number of years, Jacqui has gained experience in team coaching in her role in the engineering industry. From virtual, cross-department teams to specific project teams Jacqui has experience in working with teams to ensure that they perform to the best of their ability. By gaining the respect of the team members Jacqui is able to ensure that problems are identified and dealt with by all members of the team.