How does one assemble, support and enrich a team of high performers all working together instead of against each other? How do you take an existing team and MAKE it perform in a more healthy and productive way? This presentation was delivered at the NorthEast Regional Computing Program (NERCOMP) in March 2016.
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Building a High Performing Team the Old Fashioned Way
1.
2. Discussion Points for Today
What is a high performing team?
Team vs. Culture
Recruitment
Taking care of your team!
Recognition
3. A Brief Introduction
Christina Huszcza
Associate Director
Service Delivery and Technology Services
Endpoint Support
Special Projects
Portfolio Management
Former Training Team
4. What Do You Think a High
Performing Team Looks Like?
Cohesive
Common Purpose
Trust
Roles and Responsibilities
Emotionally intelligent – and value diversity
The have a powerful leader
7. “It’s said that Culture Eats
Strategy for Lunch”
Onion Diagram of organizational culture by Geert Hofstedeanges
8. “Rebooting” the Team
Clarify the vision
Set new performance standards
Reassign staff to the right teams
Deal with performance problems head on
Refocus the team on priorities and expectations, with
attainable goals.
9. Staffing Profiles
Who do you need - Fill team gaps: competencies, skills
and personal dynamics
Talk with the team about their wants in a colleague
What “type” of person is needed?
Describe your organization and your team to draw the
right person
10. Writing To Recruit - Before
The right candidate will have a bachelor’s degree in Economics,
Business, Marketing, Engineering, Math, Statistics or technology-
related discipline. Must have experience working in a high volume
data/transaction environment, database marketing or similar
role. Additionally, we are seeking someone with a systematic approach
to problem solving who can work under minimum supervision and meet
tight deadlines. The requirements include: experience in data analysis,
data analytics, predictive modeling and data reporting. Must be
proficient in MS Office and SQL and have knowledge of Tableau, R and
Salesforce software.
11. Writing to Recruit - After
Are you a numbers person, with a quick eye for detail? Great under
pressure and thrive in a fast-paced environment? Are you a whiz with
Tableau and Salesforce, and can you work with MS office in your sleep?
Join our staff of passionate professionals at Company X. We take data
and use it to tell a story, or to solve a problem. Your experience with
database marketing and with big data will add to our high energy, high
output team. A degree in Economics, Business, Marketing, Math and/or
Statistics would be a terrific foundation for this position.
14. All Aboard!
Day one activities
Good to do
Better to do
Best to do
Employee loyalty begins with employer loyalty. Your employees should know
that if they do the job they were hired to do with a reasonable amount of
competence and efficiency, you will support them.
- Harvey Mackay, author and syndicated columnist with Universal Uclick
15. Constant Learning and
Improvement
Keep Current and Share Articles by Thought Leaders
Book clubs build relationships and allow for peer to peer
coaching and discussion
Internal training guides
Share info from training and conferences
16. Proper Care and Feeding of a
High-Performing Team
Wall of Excellence
Calling out appreciation at recurring meetings
Positive vibes
Random acts of appreciation
Seasonal team-building activities
Meet with purpose
Place recognition where it belongs
17. Know Your Team
Generational Differences
http://inclusivedbq.org/dispelling-stereotypes-how-mercy-medical-center-turned-generational-challenges-into-celebrations/
18. Baby Boomers
Ambitious and hardworking
Make a difference with their work
Communicators
Teaming and owning
How to Recognize:
Public recognition
Valued
Increased flexibility
19. Generation X
Original geeks
Independent
Adapt to change
Multitaskers
How to Recognize:
Work/Family Balance
Casual work environment
Freedom
20. Millennials/Generation Y
Ambitious, prefer to work 2-4 years at each job
Takes direction and help
Adapt to change
Appreciates globalism
Consumer minded
How to Recognize:
Training and development
Extra attention
Freedom/flex time
Job sharing
21. Finally - Inspire Resiliency
Risk tolerance
Sharing information
Coaching
Talking careers
Giving credit and noting accomplishments
Leading by example
22. Questions/Comments?
References:
“Leadership Techniques for Building High Performing Teams” by Phil Harkins
Generational Differences Chart:
http://www.wmfc.org/uploads/GenerationalDifferencesChart.pdf
An Organizational Cultural Perspective by Professor Geert Hofstede
http://geert-hofstede.com/tl_files/art%20organisational%20culture%20perspective.pdf
Multiple Generations at Work
http://inclusivedbq.org/dispelling-stereotypes-how-mercy-medical-center-turned-
generational-challenges-into-celebrations/
Christina Huszcza: csh@gwu.edu
23. Suggested Resources
Books:
Fierce Leadership – Susan Scott
Good to Great by Jim Collins
Tipping Point/Outliers – Malcolm Gladwell
Five Dysfunctions of a Team – Patrick Lencioni
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t – Simon Sinek
Periodicals/Web:
Harvard Business Review
Forbes
Inc.
Fast Company
CIO Magazine
Websites:
https://www.td.org/
http://www.ccl.org/Leadership/index.aspx
https://www.cebglobal.com/
https://www.psychologytoday.com/
Notas del editor
Today we are here to discuss the notion of “what is a high-performing team?
How do the dynamics of a service driven team differ from other groups?
We’ll chat about what comes first, the team or the culture, and which of these is more “changeable”
We will them shift to recruiting for your team – finding the “right” individual to fill an important seat from creating the staffing profile to interviewing
Finally, we will discuss what it means to build, train and lead a multi-generational, high performing team.
Cohesive – part of a team – not strictly individual contributors. accountable to their fellow team members
Common Purpose – if you asked each member of your team “why are we here”, would they answer the question in similar ways?
Trust – Sounds so simple. Yet trust eludes many teams in the workplace and can be the main reason why your team doesn’t gel.
Trust is eroded when individuals hold back information, when communication is not authentic and transparent.
Roles and Responsibilities – your team members KNOW their roles and responsibilities and they OWN them.
Emotionally intelligent – and value diversity. They don’t shut other people down.
They don’t pre-judge and make assumptions. They are in inclusive team, not an exclusive team.
The have a powerful leader You do all of the above, and you pay attention. You represent this team well. You own their errors and you celebrate their success by giving them credit. Your individuals know their roles, because you’ve communicated these clearly, you’ve established goals and you manage to them. You are engaged.
This is a great visual of the high-water marks of a high performing. A team that is hitting these benchmarks is by definition a high-performing team.
We’ve all heard the “life stages of a team” right? Forming. Storming, norming….Not all teams make it to performing. Or they do and fizzle because of an unclear mission, or corrupted culture, poor communication – or ineffective leadership.
High performing teams are formed, led, inspired and or anchored by great leadership.
Fierce Leadership - leaders confront “worst behaviors cloaked as best practices” Using that “squid eye” to notice things that other don’t see.
Leaders take great pains to get the right people on the team. Jim Collins wrote about this in Good to Great, and spoke about it as a keynote speaker at Educause a few years ago.
A good leader knows when they need to get someone OFF the team to save the team – takes managerial courage, hard conversations and it is time intensive. But doing something difficult that provides relief and improvement to your team will by leaps and bounds inspire trust in you as a leader. It is also gratifying to see someone grow and flourish.
.
Ever heard this phrase?
There are hundreds of visual depictions of culture in the workplace but I think this simple and straightforward depiction nails it – this depiction goes to the DNA of an organization. When people come and go from the organization, the culture can slowly morph BUT – change is slow – almost unclear to the naked eye. Forcible change to culture makes people very uncomfortable- because it is not organic.
All teams, high performing or not have their own local behavior norms and accepted culture. This is why its so hard to take an existing team and “reinvent” them to be high performing. Culture is like a swimming pool. If you remove a gallon of water. What happens?
So I lost three people. If you are in a similar situation, you could have turnover, or you’ll have some people who will not take well to your changes, and will dig in for the long haul. Perhaps over time they will see value in your vision – but decide how long you are willing to abide by the situation. Make sure everyone understands the vision.
When you are preparing for the reboot, think through what you will do. A reboot requires intentional and purposeful actions, and you should definitely consult your HR lead for guidance. . My suggestions for getting started are:
Clarify your vision – it can be new or just reinforced
Set new performance standards
Reassign staff to the right teams
Deal with performance problems head on
Refocus the team on priorities and expectations, establishing attainable goals. Individuals should have goals but also lay out a team goal – and have regular check-in to ensure the team is on the path to success
Look at your current and future operational portfolio and projects and map to team competencies
Do you have current talent who can be trained up? Opportunity
Do you need to pursue talent to fill knowledge and skill gap? Document what that gap in
Are you hiring a technician who can “do” excellent customer service?
Or are you looking for someone who is GREAT at customer service but who is also a technician.
Thinking through these things will help you to build a staffing profile. Use that profile to write a recruitment ad.
This your basic recruitment ad. It will read like many others and and you will get all types of personalities applying for this job. This listing says nothing at all about the company, the culture or the team. A computer could do this job
Don’t limit your must haves to software knowledge, programming skills or a degree. Project management experience can be a must-have. So can great communication skills. Let the candidate know what kind of company they are applying to – are you giving your team the right “curb appeal”.
You are interviewing the candidate – and they are interviewing your company.
With this ad for the same job, you are looking for a “person” rather than a skill set.
This exudes an engaged and high energy culture, and will draw like-minded people to apply.
Remember, if you have an amazing person apply for the job, know they are applying for other jobs.
Wrtie the ad with PURPOSE, be intentional
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Time to make a decision. You’ve interviewed several qualified candidates and have more than two people who COULD do the job.
Reference you evaluation sheet – so when memory fades a bit, you have a standard measure for each applicant
Pull together your recruitment team. Discuss each candidate in the context of how they would do the job, and how they would fit in the existing team
Ask for any impressions, positive or negative.- gut check
Reflect on the existing team, and see if there is an opportunity to fill a knowledge or skill gap.
Know what matters. Once again what is your team DNA - Are you a technical team that gets involved in customer service? Or are you a customer service team that works in the technology space. This will help you choose a like-minded individual.
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Consider opportunities to reinforce great individual and team behaviors. This include formal and informal recognition activities, small tokens of appreciation and office activities that are inclusive and promote a cohesive group.
Meet with purpose - every few meetings change up the topic:
What is hard about working here?
What barriers can I help remove?
Where do you want to be in 5 years?
Anything is possible
Involvement
Optimism
Personal Gratification
Team Oriented
Want to “make a difference”
Ability to handle a crisis
Good communication skills
Loyal to employers
Strong work ethic
Willing to take on responsibility
Recognition:
Want to hear that their work and their ideas matter.
Are motivated by their responsibilities to others
Responds well to attention and recognition, often displays awards, certificates and letters of appreciation for public view.
Gen X’ers were the orginal geeks, owning the first Commodore and Apple computers, playing the first video games. The first generation to be affected and addicted to “screen time”.
Independence is a core characteristic of this generation. As a leader of a team, you’ll have to work to keep these folks engaged, as they are very compfortable working independently. Gen X’ers embrace technology on every level, especially if it means staying connected AND working independently.
Adapt well to change
Direct communicators
Receiving direction is fine but not intrusive supervision.
Highly educated and multitaskers
Not intimidated by authority Thrive on flexibility Value “information”
Recognition:
Care less about advancement than about work/life balance
Let them influence the terms and conditions of the job
Work/family balance is important to them
Like a casual work environment
Looking for meaningful work and innovation
Prefer diversity, technology, informality and fun
Want to get in, get the work done and move on to the next thing.
Not enamored by public recognition.
Ambitious but not entirely focused. Looks for workplace for direction and to help them achieve their goals.
At ease in teams, attached to their gadgets AND parents. Have not lived without computers and internet
Eager to spend – consumer minded
Scheduled, structured lives 9-5
Appreciate Globalism (Global way of thinking)
Innovative-think out of the box - seek responsibility early on in their roles
Loyal to peers and sociable – makes workplace friends Strong sense of entitlement
Want to please others, hope to make life contributions to world and patriotic (shaped by 9/11)
Recognition: Flex time, job sharing, and sabbatical, training is a big deal