Teamership: Underperformance is hiding in plain sight
If you are not considering the challenges you face through a team performance lens, you will miss them or fix them superficially rather than systemically. Photo by Joppe Spaa on Unsplash
When I talk to leaders, friends or anyone about the things that are challenging them at work, they rarely say “our ways of working as a team aren’t where they need to be”.
What they do say, are things that imply that their teams aren’t doing well, like…
“I wish that more people would take accountability”
“I keep having to step in and fix problems that the team should be able to”
“We’re all so busy getting stuff done that we don’t get to connect”
“We’re operating in silos”
In their own way, each of these (and many other comments that you will hear), point to underperformance in teams.
The bias that I have is that I look at many challenges through the lens of team performance and so there is a risk that I am seeing team performance issues where they are not. I think that the opposite is also possible and likely.
If you are not considering the challenges you face through a team performance lens, you will miss them or fix them superficially rather than systemically. It leads to short term remedies at best, but doesn’t lead to long term results.
For example:
Trying to improve accountability by increasing checks and balances makes more work for leaders and tends to lead to team members being compliant rather than committed
Jumping on the tools solves short term problems and ends up causing bottlenecks or single points of failure in teams
Focusing just on individual work is a great way to solve predictable problems with known solutions, but not complex ones.
Forcing people together in frustration or crisis to “break down silos” doesn’t work in the long run as people go back into their silos when the crisis is over.
Each of these problems can be remedied and more sustainable performance can be achieved by looking systemically, but only if you recognise them as problems in the small, dynamic human systems that are your teams.
Here are some questions to consider this week:
What are some of the big challenges at work?
Might some of the challenges you face at work be symptoms of underperformance in your teams?
How can you think about your challenges more systemically?