Great Teams Help Build Great Cultures

"An organizational culture is a collection of deeply held attitudes, entrenched habits, repeated behaviors, latent emotions, and collective perceptions of the world. Culture is the shared set of assumptions we all bring when we work together—our unspoken expectations of one another."   --John Katzenberg, author of "The Critical Few"

So, what does it mean to have a “great” culture? A great culture is your organization’s brand. It helps your organization attract and retain top talent. It nurtures employees so that they are more engaged and productive. And, it helps make the entire organization be more capable of achieving its business imperatives.

How do teams fit in? Great teams are built on personal bonds. And, it’s personal bonds that increase each team member’s engagement within the organization. When you cultivate great teams that work together and collaborate with other teams, you have the building blocks you need to create a great company culture.

A Deloitte study says: “It’s a more effective model for operating in the dynamic, unpredictable business environment typically seen today. In the long term, we believe there will be no leading organization that does not work primarily based on teams.”

Having your employees share the work in a team based on their strengths increases productivity, morale and ultimately business results. According to this paper, groups outperform individuals in situations where neither have any expertise on the task they’ve been asked to do. This is called the “effect of synergy”.

Many managers mistakenly assume that if you have streamlined work processes and have skilled people that will be enough to achieve superior results. Process and skill are important, but they are not enough to attain and sustain top performance.

In the 2004 Olympics, the USA basketball team was the strongest in terms of individual skills and reputation. Yet, Argentina won the gold medal, and Italy won the silver medal. All three teams had streamlined processes (plays) that they all practiced prior to throughout the competition. 

So, what was the difference between these three teams if it wasn’t skill and streamlined processes? 

Performance execution. 

Improving skills and streamlining processes are only a part of how teams win and why teams practice. They practice to improve their performance execution as a team, which ultimately is the most important factor in winning ballgames.

They practice to refine how they function as a team. Even the best ballplayers on the best teams must improve their linkage with each other. This involves improving their communication, fine-tuning their coordination, and adjusting their timing in order to develop the highest performance possible. Ultimately, their execution is what determines how effectively they score and avoid being scored against.

Leaders often streamline their technical and business processes but not their team processes. Leaders neglect to assess the linkage and accountability among Employees and functions. This lack of focus on performance execution results in rework, the duplication of resources, the breakdown of projects and the existence of conflicting priorities between employees.

Here are two steps you can take to get your teams to a point where they can have a powerful impact on your company’s culture:

1) Assess your team’s strengths and development opportunities. Growth as a team requires ongoing reflection as well as development.  As you and/or your team uncover needs you can move to step 2.

       Click on the following link to download the SMART TEAM Assessment.

    2) Select a team development topic from the following menu of coaching modules.

        Click on the following link to download the SMART TEAM Menu Of Modules.

Developing your employees as a team encourages teamwork, increases productivity, creates positive relationships and produces greater results.

There’s no doubt about the fact you stand stronger together and ultimately can do more as a team than an individual in the workplace.

To your greater success and fulfillment,

Peter Mclees, Leadership Coach, Trainer and Performance Consultant

SMART DEVELOPMENT

Take the Next Step... 

Interested in learning how to develop your teams' effectiveness, strengthen your culture and elevate your leadership capability? We begin with a collaborative discovery process identifying your unique needs and business issues. To request an interview with Peter Mclees please contact: 

Email: petercmclees@gmail.com  or  Mobile:323-854-1713

Smart Development has an exceptional track record helping service providers, ports, sales teams, restaurants, stores, wealth management services, real estate services, distribution centers, food production facilities, nonprofits, government agencies and other businesses create a strong culture, leadership bench strength, coaching skills and the teamwork necessary for growth. 

Having worked with several companies throughout their growth cycle, we have valuable insights and strategies that would help any late stage startup, small or medium sized company achieve sustained growth and prosperity.