High-performing teams can be cultivated, tuned and motivated by the environment created for them to work within. This changes the focus from leaders requiring complete control over performance to instead obsessing over the parameters that enable talent to thrive.    

For me, performance starts with expectation management, and clearly defined roles,  responsibilities and accountabilities. You cannot expect an individual to perform at any level without these in place. This is made easier with a clear team hierarchy. Flat team structures can weaken the ability to gain consensus and assign meaningful accountability. In contrast, deep structures can weaken decision-making and communication lines. Both affect performance. It’s a fine balance between the two - depending on the size and complexity of your project. But it’s important to seek the right balance appropriate for the stage and type of project that you are leading. 

AND, even when you do manage to get this balance right, team performance can still boil down to the dynamics between key individuals. Sometimes you can have a team of high-energy achievers who relentlessly pursue their career and project goals with their blinkers on and little regard for those around them. Other times you may have a group of low-energy creatives (who are more quietly ambitious) who just want to work autonomously, creating something amazing in their own corner. They are sometimes referred to as ‘plants’ who need this quiet time to generate ideas and grow. 

Both extremes can be valuable high-performers in their own right, but they do need to be effectively managed if they are to work together as a high-performing team. 

This is where the environment that you create as a leader becomes so important. Similarly, managing expectations for collaboration and quiet time, doing more with less, and always looking for smart ways of operating as a team and improving the day-to-day communications and outputs.  

What do high-performing teams actually look and feel like?

They all have:

• leaders in tune with the needs of their team and consistently seek high levels of engagement
• clearly defined hierarchy, roles and responsibilities
• appropriate accountability and constructive feedback loops in place (to match accountability)
• curious and respectful communication and collaboration within the team
• clarity and broad ownership of a project vision 
• healthy competition between team members
• relentlessly pursuing innovation by accepting fast failure along the way 

If this is what good looks and feels like, what are the early signs of poor performance?

 Some of the key ones to watch out for are: 

• meetings for the sake of meetings
• relentless late-night treadmill
• too quiet or too noisy team environments
• siloed teams within teams
• over-reliance on email communication
• flip-flopping or slow decision-making

 What role do critical voices and constructive feedback loops play in this?

There’s no denying that some people believe that collaboration is idealistic and that critical voices should be shunned. But if we stop to consider how we have evolved as a human species, we have done so by cooperating with each other to progress and to grow stronger and more resilient. 

Group dynamics dictate that not everyone will agree. This is a good thing. A difference of opinion may focus on the quality of design, or the perceived lack of resources or financial awareness, or more broadly about project expectations, milestones and a myriad of other things. Some or all of these may cause tensions to arise. But usually, they also cause action to be taken.

Action is a key metric for high-performing teams.

Critical voices can also help to lift you out of the detail of an urgent issue or to hold a magnifying glass to something that you may have otherwise missed from your bird’s eye view. In both cases, they strengthen your ability to sharpen your messaging and your focus. 

You may have heard me say this before.

The aim is to create an environment where your greatest critics can praise you and your best cheerleaders can alert you to trouble.

I’m deliberately switching the traditional attitudes here because when we create a professional environment where our critics can praise us we have first built a relationship that can become more respectful. Likewise, when our best cheerleaders can pull us aside and talk to us straight about something that isn’t going well, we again, have first established a relationship founded on respect.

Relationships do take time to develop and may evolve and mature in different directions. But if respect is the ultimate goal, you will be in a good place to receive praise and criticism and for it to be constructive and reciprocated. 

Last but by no means least, leaders absolutely must develop and nurture talent in their teams if performance is to be optimised over the long term.   

So how should leaders do this effectively?

A few simple things to adopt:

• know your team and its limits
• create a safe space for fast failure
• be a role model for your own self-development
• initiate exposure to the decision-making process
• recognise and challenge people’s strong zones
• be open to criticism and learn to say no
• champion quieter and more diverse voices

Optimising performance is a key proponent of effective teams and it should ideally coexist with constructive feedback loops which ensure that communication lines remain open, and checks and balances are in place to offer up support when required.  

Key prompts for optimising performance are to: 

• tune in to the needs of the team, but never lose sight of the big picture
• understand that leadership is curatorial and an enabler role
• lead by example: by nurturing yourself you demonstrate the importance to others
• relentlessly communicate the vision and share its ownership
• develop a healthy relationship with failing fast in order to progress
• create a safe space for diverse and critical voices

I am keen to spark conversations for leaders within the built environment so that they can share their experiences and lighten their load. I have written a book that is intended as a pragmatic blueprint to support courageous leaders in pursuit of high-quality project outcomes.

Our industry has some amazing opportunities and challenges ahead, that can use collective wisdom. You can check out my new book BUILD SUCCESS or follow me with the links below. 

Enabling your success!