Many factors determine a group’s potential for becoming a “high-performing team.” In this article, we will explore how leadership can create an environment that instills a desire in individuals to be committed to the team’s success and how team members can hold each other accountable.
Before we can delve into how individuals become vested in and committed to their team’s success, we must first understand some basics about the human drive for individual survival. Mentally healthy individuals have a drive to live through any given day. To that end, we all engage in a daily battle to achieve sufficient caloric intake and avoid situations that put our health and well-being at risk. Those two things are the bare minimum standard for an individual’s survival.
Committed
However, once we become relatively secure and confident in our survival, we want more. We long for a sense of belonging, a purpose, and to experience the things that make life worth living—we want to thrive. Thriving is much more likely to occur for individuals when they are reaping the benefits of cooperative environments or they are part of a team. A high-performing team is a group of individuals focused on and dedicated to a highly cooperative effort to achieve a common goal.
The challenge for the team’s leadership is to create an environment where the benefits of group success are both observable and intrinsically experienced by individual team members. This allows individuals to cognitively justify investing in the group’s success and genuinely “feel” connected to it in a way that drives commitment to the team, often against their core drive for individual success. They need to believe that the team’s success is in their best interest, such as providing them with a greater sense of personal security, fulfillment, or purpose for living.
Most teams are average at best; they are satisfied with getting the job done and accept small failures under extraordinary circumstances as just the way things are. In those situations, leadership will usually hold a press conference to announce, “We’re going to seize this learning opportunity and move forward,” absolving themselves of any responsibility. In those teams, individuals put forth an effort without intentionality, without personal sacrifice, and waiver when the going gets tough. But in a high-performing team, there is accountability, and performance even under extraordinary circumstances is the expectation. The good news is there are actions you can take, both as a leader and as a team member, to instill in individuals the desire for team success so they can reap the benefits of being part of a high-performing team.
Individuals seek a sense of belongingness. We feel safer when we can leverage the security provided by a group, and the protection of the group increases as you make yourself more valuable to the group. As an individual is dedicated to the team, the other team members become increasingly dedicated to them. We all want a situation where “We have each other’s backs.”
Leaders create a sense of belongingness by creating uniformity in behaviors and values as part of the culture. A good starting place is to provide your team with functional, comfortable, and professional uniforms, and insist that all team members adhere to a uniform standard, which promotes group identity and a sense of acceptance. Uniforms are not just clothing; it is how we present ourselves to the other team members and the world. Having a committee of team members participate in uniform selection creates ownership for the team. Making sure that all equipment is in good repair helps to remove barriers between effort and success. In a 911 center, chairs being past their prime destroys morale and can even lead to injuries.
Provide recognition for jobs well done and for regular jobs done over long periods. I know they are getting paid to do their jobs, but if you want a next level high-performing team, you must look past their work as merely a transaction. If one of your team members makes “a save,” such as talking a citizen through CPR, special recognition should be given to the specific team member who acted that day.
Make it a point to also acknowledge the efforts of everyone who supports them, such as their training officer who helped them gain competence, the people who maintained the hardware and software systems that function 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and the administrative professional staff doing the mundane tasks of “keeping the essential papers” moving, etc. High-performing teams include many levels of team members, and their performance is interconnected.
Another way to help individuals connect with the team’s purpose is to create opportunities for individuals to connect emotionally with the team’s efforts. Emotions are greatly influenced by the world around us. They are how our bodies react to the world, and it happens without conscious thought, initially. Then we become aware of how our bodies are reacting to our emotions, and our conscious mind must make sense of why our bodies are reacting that way.
One way to make the emotional connection is a continuation of the previously discussed efforts to acknowledge the team member who talked a citizen through giving CPR. Bring in the survivor during the recognition of the team member. Getting to meet the life that was saved allows them to experience the purpose behind the work they do. Seeing high performance recognized causes others to want to perform at a level worthy of recognition. Witnessing the human impact of success touches people at an emotional level. So address the power emotion has in driving high-performance behaviors.
Accountable
Let’s move on to team members holding each other accountable. I was a member of a bomb squad in a large southern California (USA) law enforcement agency. We did that job every day, and the jurisdiction was busy with calls for the bomb squad. The stakes of the job were high; not only were life and death very literally at play daily, but also criminal investigations accompanied most of our calls. Failure by any one team member to be prepared and execute their duties at the highest level put at risk the criminal prosecutions, the reputation of the entire unit, and the safety of the public and the other team members.
Not only did this team answer the call every time, but we did so in a way that allowed us to enjoy a stellar reputation in law enforcement and the entire professional bomb technician community. How did we do this? It certainly was not by accident. It happened with intentionality. All the team members bought into the importance of the team’s goals, and we held each other accountable. The truth is, no leader can hold an entire team accountable to the degree necessary. It takes peer accountability to elevate a team.
What does peer accountability look like? There are rules to it. Team members speak truthfully to each other about their preparation, performance, and behaviors, all with consideration of time, manner, and place that lends itself to a productive conversation. It is part of a high-performance culture. The conversation is respectful of the person as an individual, and no personal character statements are made.
What does that look like in a 911 center? Suppose you witnessed, on more than one occasion, one of your team members not verifying addresses. This crucial step helps get assistance promptly where it is needed, plays into responder safety, and protects the center from undue liability. Leadership might not be aware of the failure to verify and is unlikely to become aware unless it results in a tragedy. Does your team member’s failure to perform impact you? The answer is a resounding “yes it does” on multiple levels. However, in most cultures, the peer remains silent.
But in a high-performing team, the peer engages. It might look and sound like this: A private location is selected, permission to speak about a work issue is requested and granted, and the peer says something like, “I recently noticed on more than one occasion that you did not verify addresses. This puts the field responders at risk, could cause assistance to go to the wrong location, and exposes the center to liability.” The peer does not accuse the team member of not caring, doesn’t make any references to personal attitudes, and doesn’t offer any rationalizations as to why the failure could be acceptable on occasion. After, a pause is given to allow the team member to process. Some people react poorly to criticism; however, this should not excuse them from receiving constructive criticism. Once they respond, the conversation is over.
In a high-performing team, the team members do not need to be happy with each other continuously. It is OK for someone to be unhappy with you for a while. People should not feel good about their performance when their performance is low and they are not making an effort to improve it. As a peer, focus on modeling the correct behavior. When they correct their behavior, there is no need to bring it up again. Peer accountability conversations are extremely uncomfortable for those who are inexperienced in having them. However, with practice and experience, these conversations will become more effective and part of the culture.
Conclusion
Both concepts—instilling a desire for team success and peers holding each other accountable—are components of a high-performing culture. This kind of culture can only be created and maintained with intentionality. Average or underperforming cultures are created or allowed to exist by neglect.
The beauty of being part of a high-performing team is that it is a choice, just like being part of an average or underperforming culture is a choice. The power of social influence is real, and we all have degrees of influence among our peers, our subordinates, and even our superiors. There are no innocent bystanders. Whether you’re a part of leadership or a line-level team member, you have the power to engage for change.
