How much do you love your children? Who is your favourite world leader and why? Which manager or mentor contributed most to your success at work? What did you learn from them?
These are big questions which most people can answer without too much thought. And the answers don’t include too many metrics. You would be surprised if someone told you they loved their children because they got good grades at school or because they recently got a promotion at work. And I would be surprised if you picked a favourite leader because s/he knows how to balance the national budget, or a mentor who taught you the value of being on time.
Most of the things we truly value in life cannot be measured or counted or weighed.
We sometimes lose sight of this because, from day to day, we do need to measure. On a long drive you must have enough petrol to get you to the next town. Your company must have sufficient cash to meet all its obligations, and customers expect you to deliver exactly what they ordered at the time you agreed; and it is important that your children apply themselves to passing exams and go on to live independent lives.
At work we seek objective measures to assign tasks and gauge the performance of teams as well as individuals. “Who does what by when and to what standard?”, is a set of planning questions managers live by. They are used to set SMART objectives (which are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time bound.) It is also important to ensure that team members are appropriately skilled and have the resources and support they need to get the job done. Then, appropriately resourced, and with clear marching orders, we expect the team to go out and perform.
It usually works – at least to some extent. And yet all managers know that teams do not perform equally. Some get more done with fewer resources, and some teams are packed with highly skilled members but somehow just never quite meet expectations.
This implies that something more is required than just SMART objectives and well-resourced teams.
This “something” is in fact many things or (better still) many qualities. They are intangible, and therefore don’t fit the SMART model, and are too often ignored because they can’t be nailed down and measured in the same way as we can measure a 5% increase in sales volume by September. They are the qualities that we find when we seek to understand exceptional performance of teams such as Banyana Banyana.
BANYANA BANYANA’S
SPECIAL PERFORMANCE
The SA women’s football team is made up of amateurs and part time professionals. They battled for decent pay at the World Cup and were expected (and refused) to play a warmup game on a sub-standard field.
There is no professional league in South Africa so many of the players are starved of competition and the opportunity to hone their skills.
Yet they came achingly close to taking points off Sweden (now the world’s top ranked team) and made it through to the final 16 despite being ranked 54th in the world.
It’s a familiar and well-loved story: teams that beat the odds. It is also a reminder that effective teams have certain intangible qualities that allow them to outperform. We ignore this at our peril.
If SMART objectives are the “what” of team performance, then these intangibles are the “how”. They include questions like:
- How is the team coached and inspired?
- How are decisions taken in the moment when things change?
- How do team members support each other when things get tough?
- How do team members ensure that others shine?
- Is everyone’s voice heard?
- How creative is the team in meeting its objectives?
- How is conflict identified and dealt with?
The answers to these questions do not fit easily into a spreadsheet, so they do not often get discussed. Yet it takes no more than a moment to see that they are obvious ingredients in the recipe of successful teams. Just look at the list and ask yourself how any team can function sustainably if these questions do not have good answers.
The point is not to neglect the “what” and focus on the “how”. It is to keep them in balance and recognise that they are equally important – and to decide which is more important at different times. Teams work best when they know exactly what they need to do (the SMART objectives) AND pay careful attention to how team members work together. It’s like being sure that both wheels of a bicycle are pumped up and aligned and running smoothly – the front wheel shows the way, and the back wheel keeps you grounded.
These intangible qualities cannot be measured with a ruler or weighed on a scale. But it is still possible to assess their presence and their effect on team functioning. And it is also possible to hold discussions within teams to focus on them, and to agree how to bring them to life.
If you have teams full of well trained, highly competent staff who never seem to quite seem to “get there” then think about asking the “how” questions suggested above. Thornhill has the tools to help you assess and improve team effectiveness and performance.
How do you as team leader assess and improve team performance in your organisation?
For information on Thornhill’s Team Performance Review and Team Effectiveness Survey, as well as other products and services, please contact us on admin@thornhill.co.za.