Can any team achieve higher levels of performance? (LinkedIn)
Managing Director Lyn Bicker's response to this question on LinkedIn was rated Best Answer.
Sean Chapple asked: Do you believe that all teams have the potential to develop into real high performing teams providing they have the right leadership, development and resources provided? Or is it that some teams will out-perform and others just won't?
Lyn says yes, all teams do have the potential to become high-performing. But so many teams either
- aren't really teams, but a group of diverse participants
- don't have a sense of common purpose, which means that high performance has no common definition!
The team leader of course has a huge responsibility here - making clear what expectations they have; doing their utmost to get the best possible people on the team in the first place; role modelling the performance level they'd like to see; and being explicit about brilliant, good, mediocre or poor performance when experienced within the team.
A single day of team-building, using appropriate psychometrics and light-touch but strongly-focused facilitation, can make all the difference. Sometimes it's just about allowing individuals to understand each other a tad better. Team coaching, where regular 'development days' are focused on getting the team to an ever better performance level, has a proven impact.
So yes, the right leadership, development and resources can enable the creation of a silk purse out of a sow's ear!'.
Other comments and suggestions can be read on the LinkedIn website
