Leading People through COVID-19 (Part 6) – How well positioned is your team to thrive in the current climate?

10 practical things a manager can do to build the team

One of the positives from the last few months has been the renewed focus managers have placed on keeping the team united, and how they have integrated team building into the daily routines.  Activities like participating in a team quiz, creating a more inclusive environment by people opening more of their whole life and encouraging a virtual drink, have played a key role in keeping people together. The latest foresight suggests social distancing will remain in place, anything that can be done at home will be, and there will be a diminished value placed on proximity. Moving forward in this environment, and as we begin to switch our primary focus from safety and well-being to ramping up performance, how well prepared are our teams to function effectively?

Let us explore this by going back to fundamentals. A primary role of a manager is to fuel their people’s performance and development. John Adair, all those years ago with Action Centred Leadership, advocated that managers divide their focus between the task in hand, the individual and the team. However, the reality for most is that they are ‘player managers’ which results in a need to focus even more on delivery and task execution. The consequent need (and, if we are honest, a desire for many of us) to get stuck in means team building gets less prominence, and instead there is a sporadic focus – a team building session here, strategy day there or an occasional meal or social activity. In short how do we build our teams in a socially distanced world where the need to be together is greater than ever.

Even the most positive of thinkers accept that the road ahead for many businesses will be hugely demanding and ask big questions of us, and to meet this challenge we need to foster an environment in which people feel supported. At the same time the need for people to be part of a highly functioning team has never been so great. Whilst there are many components to leading a team, if the direction is clear and everyone is aligned, and relationships are healthy and positive, in most cases we will be winning! Reflecting on those great teams we have been part of during our careers, the tangible benefits of heightened performance often speak for themselves yet the less concrete pluses in terms of feeling supported, psychologically safe, being able to share concerns, asking for help and laughing together, all serve to support our mental health and be more resilient.  If we look at positive psychology and satisfying our human needs, then mutually satisfying relationships, having a meaningful job and playing to our strengths all figure high up on the priority list. These are all benefits which we derive when we find ourselves part of a great team at work. For most of us we might only experience this a handful of times in our career; now would be a good time!

10 practical actions to get the team match fit

1. Invite a member of the senior team to join a team meeting to provide context and sanity check your thinking – many senior people will be looking for meaningful opportunities to engage without interfering. A constant for successful teams is having all team members ‘pointing North’ and ensuring alignment with the overall organisation’s purpose and direction. Over the last few months many organisations have adopted, quite rightly, a more command and control style. In parallel, employees have got used to the increased virtual visibility of senior managers.
2. Run a short interactive session which helps the team to re-purpose. In the session answer the following: why this team exists, what is unique and different, who does it serve and what makes our role important to the overall company.
3. Open up a conversation about what is realistically achievable for the remainder of the year, agree short-term priorities and monthly and weekly goals. With the revised goals and expectations in place you will have a stronger platform and more opportunities to genuinely recognise good behaviours and performance
4. Look ahead as a team and as the manager change the conversation. How about allocating 90 minutes each month to look ahead, discuss a longer-term opportunity or challenge? It will provide a welcome distraction from the daily effort, it will give people hope and it will provide a sense of the ‘old normal’ when we had one eye on the future as well as day to day operations. In one way or another the last 3 months have been unusually intense for most of us – certainly emotionally! This will be replaced by the concentration on returning to work safely and picking up performance.
5. Create your team’s ground rules so everybody is clear about how they should approach the new normal. Use the organisation’s values or a definition of a high-performing team to ignite a brainstorm on the behaviours team members need to adopt. One characteristic of a high-performance team is members being committed to a common approach.
6. Get each team member to do more of what they are good at. Get them to look at their role and responsibilities through 4 lenses: their signature strengths or ‘flow’ activities, what they excel at, are competent in and less competent at. This allows the team and individual team members to reflect on the % time they spend in each area; does the split give each of them the best opportunity to add value?  The research from studies by Gallup and Deloitte powerfully advocates the link between team performance and individuals playing to their strengths. For many employees, already feeling insecure and vulnerable, they are also handling an adjustment in responsibilities. Never has there been a better time to ensure your people are best positioned to play to their strengths. Why not use this shift as an opportunity to get the team members to do more of what they are good at?
7. Provide a forum, framework and common language for airing differences. In 1965 Bruce Tuckman started this ‘teambuilding thing’ in business with his 4-stage model: Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing. The basic premise being the best teams are prepared to sort out their differences e.g. differences in direction, who does what, personality differences etc. With greater economic uncertainty, deeper emotions to work through, and no obvious way of getting people together, the need to sort out these differences becomes even more relevant.
8. Agree how feedback will be delivered to one another, its frequency and the balance between positive and constructive feedback. Most of us are less confident and skilled in providing feedback virtually. For most of our careers we have been advised how essential it is to do so in person. In parallel with the degree of emotional adjustment required, and the change in expectation, feedback is critical. An absence of feedback has the potential to leave people confused and anxious.
9. The positivity habits that have been advocated and embraced over the last few months are a great starting platform for a team having fun. e.g. acts of kindness, exercise and being grateful. The research on team performance is clear. The most high-performing teams work and play together. Over the last 10 weeks we have found new and different ways of building those relationships. The challenge is how do we continue this when most of us don’t really have another quiz in us!
10. Investing in the above suite of activities will go some way to shaping an inclusive environment and ensuring all team members feel heard and have a voice in how the team is performing and working together.

See how fit for purpose your team is with the Team Health Check by completing a short online questionnaire.

If you need any resources or want to chat things through don’t hesitate to drop me an email; mike@pilkingtonleadership.co.uk