How To Build Teams Who Love Coming To Work

The teams that outperform others by large margins are teams who have little fear, are more relaxed and where members support each other. This is how to create such a team. 23-3

Jan 3

“I love what I do. I enjoy who I do it with. I’m excited about why we do it. And I’m proud of what we achieve.” This is how people feel in teams that achieve more than is expected of them.

So, how do you create a team whose members give such feedback?

Relaxation is the lubrication for excellence

It’s true. When we’re relaxed we perform at our best. The success secret of TV game show hosts and celebrity interviewers is their ability to relax their guests.

The opposite is also true, fear and tension kill creativity and performance. Look at the teams at the bottom of any sport’s league tables. They get stuck in the doldrums because they’re stressed, worried, and tense about their situation. This tension is counter-productive it stops the players from expressing themselves, and from performing as they need to perform to escape from the danger zone.

In the workplace bosses who micromanage and constantly interfere piss off their workers and performance suffers. But bosses who create a relaxed atmosphere get the best out of their teams.

The difference between a dinner table and a conference table

Have you ever noticed how a group sitting around a dinner table effortlessly solves the problems of the world?

Conversely, a group sitting around a conference table struggles to decide whether to drink coffee or tea.

The difference is the dynamics.

The dinner party group is having fun, and they all feel relaxed. There is no hierarchy to worry about, and no points to be scored. Perhaps even more importantly they don’t really care about the outcome of their suggestions. And because they don’t care about the outcome they let their creative juices flow.

That last point matters, when you’re creating solutions you shouldn’t judge the ideas that come up. The time for judgment is later when you have to decide what you’re actually going to do.

The lesson is that at work there is often a tendency to make judgment calls too early before ideas have had time to develop. People get tensed up about targets, earnings, wastage, and all sorts of matters that are important but should not be raised until it’s decision time.

It’s the implication of threat that makes targets tense people up. And that tension is the exact opposite of the way you want people to feel if you want optimum performance.

A team with a mission will outperform a team with a goal

I’ve read and indeed written, a lot about team visions and team goals, but I believe that a team’s mission is the most important element in team success. A mission tells a team why they’re doing what they’re doing.

From my studies of successful teams, I’ve learned that it is not necessary for everyone in a team to get on, or even to like each other. But what is always essential is that the whole team is trying to achieve something in which they all believe - note the word “believe”.

These successful teams also have a method - every member of the team supports every other member, without exception.

In these teams individual members may consider themselves more important than other members; some may even consider themselves more talented, but they each have the humility to recognize that they need each of their fellow team members if the team is to get over the finish line.

In other words, each member believes that team success is more important than individual success and they are prepared to support their fellow members to make the team successful.

Eliminate fear

Fear is the single biggest inhibitor of good performance. Fear tightens people up. It makes them look constantly over their shoulder. It stops people from taking risks. Fear creates an atmosphere in which people do not wish to communicate openly. When fear stalks through a team their performance will be inhibited.

So the question is, “how does a good leader eliminate fear?”

The first part of the answer is to treat mistakes as learning opportunities. In her book, The Fearless Organisation, Harvard professor Amy Edmondson shows how fearless teams support team members who make mistakes. Professor Edmondson’s research tells us that in fearless teams the whole team gathers around the one who makes a mistake and supports that team member.

The advantage of the whole team supporting the mistake maker is that each member then knows that if they mess up in the future they too will be supported rather than blamed and castigated. It feels good to know that you don’t have to be afraid.

This mutual support creates an environment in which people are prepared to take risks and try new ideas.

Creating a mission is a whole team meeting

What you’re after here is the feeling of being proud to be a member of your team. To achieve this you have to own a team ethos in which the whole team believes.

Observe a small child when it creates something, maybe a painting or a Lego model, as soon as the creation is complete the child rushes up to an adult to show off its creation. It feels joyous and proud of its creation. Humans never lose that pride in creating something all on their own.

Teams feel proud of their creations when the creations are their own. So, when you want a team to pull together towards a common objective let them create that objective themselves. Get the whole team together suggest you want to create a mission of having a mutually supportive, high-energy team and ask the team to come up with ideas as to how they can create a team ethos in which they all believe.

It may take several meetings to agree on a mission, but those meetings will be time very well spent.

How to create a team that loves coming to work

Your team will love coming to work when they:

are excited about what they’re trying to achieve.
Feel relaxed so they can produce their optimum performance.
Feel fearless so they can express themselves without fear of making mistakes.
Want to support their teammates.
Feel supported by their teammates.