Building High-Performing Teams

Building productive and healthy engineering teams is an art.

It entails a right mix of knowledge, technical expertise, assertiveness, courage, emotional intelligence and empathy. Obviously, teams are backbone of every modern organization, but most fall short to rich their potential. From my personal experience as a team lead in large and small companies, one of the main reasons for this unfortunate result is lack of communication. Effective communication is a key that unlocks the team members potential and bring best out of them.

In this post, I’d like to share my notes from the “ Building High-Performing Teams” MOOC by Penn university taught by Dr. Derek Newberry and Dr. Aviva Legatt — hope it will be useful for leaders who are looking for ways to sharpen their leadership skills.

Setting Team Foundations

The first module outlines how to get your team started off on the right foot with a process called team chartering. This is where you lay out the rules that your group will follow to give them the best chance for success. In particular, it details about how to create the right goals, team roles, and group norms to get the most out of each person.

Example of a team charter: https://www.coursera.org/learn/high-performing-teams/supplement/Sjgft/example-of-a-charter

The three foundations of high-performing teams:

Source: http://dialoguereview.com/stop-good-teams-failing/

1. Collective and individual goals
2. Clear, interdependent roles
3. A few key norms

The free-step process to boost performance:

1. Commit to the rules
2. Check alignment
3. Close the saying-doing gap

In Praise of Small Data: 3 Guidelines for High-Performing Teams

Source: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/278945

1. Be your own observer: the best team leaders adopt an “observer’s mindset” by working hard to avoid two common cognitive biases: overvalued positive outcomes and motivated blindness. Even when your team enjoys a success, take a moment to reflect on what could have gone wrong. Always seek out evidence that disconfirms basic assumptions about how a problem should be solved.
2. Have one-on-ones: Once you’ve noticed issues bubbling up in your team, the best strategy to create an environment of open communication is focusing on one conversation at a time. How? Individual sit-downs are the most effective way to hear people out before a big group decision. These low-pressure conversations allow everyone to feel heard and also reduce the risk of being surprised by objections or criticisms. Remember a few key tips for these conversations: show humility, respect differing interpersonal styles, and listen and inquire without judging what you hear.
3. Take small steps: As an outcome of these conversations, aim for incremental, manageable adjustments to your team’s behavior rather than drastic changes. Research on behavioral change shows it works best when you focus on small changes that matter. Highlighting simple, specific changes is more likely to work than launching major reforms, and you’ll also benefit from meaningful interaction with your people

In Times Of Change, “What’s In It For Me?” Is The Question You Need To Answer

Source: https://www.fastcompany.com/3001250/times-change-whats-it-me-question-you-need-answer

Every change begins with an ending. People look at the present and try to compare it to the future by asking countless questions: What am I losing? Where are we headed? What will the new place look like? How will it be different from what I have now? What about the work flow? Who will be my teammates? What will be the expectations for my contribution? What performance metrics will be used?

In other words, what’s in it for me (WIIFM)?

In defining the future, and the transition(s) required to get there, six steps are especially critical:

1. Take Off The Blinders
2. Tend To The CAST Of Characters (Champions, Agents, Sponsors, Targets)
3. Remember Context
4. Use SMART Goals
5. Keep it simple
6. Answer the What, Why, And What If Questions

Diagnosing Team Problems

This module focuses on why good teams go bad. It digs into the different problems that can derail your group from its goals. Since it can be hard to really pinpoint team problems and even harder to talk about them, it provides some methods that will help you do both.

Misalignments Checklist

Taking the Team Temperature

Team Culture Types

1. Hierarchical & Individualistic => Troops
2. Hierarchical & Cohesive => Believers
3. Flat & Individualistic => Virtuosos
4. Flat & Cohesive => Friends

The Five Biggest Teamwork Ills

Source: https://www.qualitydigest.com/inside/management-column/030716-five-biggest-teamwork-ills.html

1. Overemphasizing abstract goals
2. Underemphasizing roles
3. Making too many rules
4. Ignoring reflection
5. Failing to sell the change

Foster psychological safety

Source: https://rework.withgoogle.com/guides/understanding-team-effectiveness/steps/foster-psychological-safety/

The Google researchers found that individuals on teams with higher psychological safety are less likely to leave Google, they’re more likely to harness the power of diverse ideas from their teammates, they bring in more revenue, and they’re rated as effective twice as often by executives.

Organizational behavioral scientist Amy Edmondson of Harvard first introduced the construct of “team psychological safety” and defined it as “a shared belief held by members of a team that the team is safe for interpersonal risk taking.”

To measure a team’s level of psychological safety, you may ask your team member how strongly they agreed or disagreed with these statements:

1. If you make a mistake on this team, it is often held against you.
2. Members of this team are able to bring up problems and tough issues.
3. People on this team sometimes reject others for being different.
4. It is safe to take a risk on this team.
5. It is difficult to ask other members of this team for help.
6. No one on this team would deliberately act in a way that undermines my efforts.
7. Working with members of this team, my unique skills and talents are valued and utilized.

Coaching Emotionally Intelligent Teams

After getting a sense of what is going wrong with your group, this module gives you tools for making effective behavioral changes so that you can close the gap between how your team says it wants to work together and what you actually do.

Stop Giving Feedback, Instead Give Feedforward

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kevinkruse/2012/07/19/feedforward-coaching-for-performance/#38a6fac6235d

There are four keys to the Feedforward Coaching Model:

1. Feedforward Coaching focuses on goals, not standards
2. Feedforward Coaching includes career guidance
3. Feedforward Coaching includes various data points, not just one manager’s opinion
4. Feedforward Coaching takes place throughout the year, not arbitrarily annually

Five Tips on Coaching for Emotional Intelligence

To be effective in coaching for emotional intelligence requires that you exhibit and master the following behaviors:

1. Continuous improvement of your own emotional intelligence

2. Personal mastery of vision and values

3. Strong personal relationships with your direct reports

4. Frequent spontaneous coaching

5. Structured conversations when spontaneous coaching doesn’t get the job done

How Emotional Intelligence Helps the Bottom Line

Source: https://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/how-emotional-intelligence-helps-the-bottom-line/

Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.