The Workplace Coach

I was listening to a great podcast this morning about working with high performance sporting teams, and it got me thinking about leadership in any situation, including the workplace.  There was a discussion about the mechanics and the dynamics of the team and here is what I understood that to mean. 

The Mechanics

This is about the strategy, the goals, the KPIs, the SOPs, the systems, processes and procedures that apply to the whole team, governing what they do and how they do it.  This is about inputs leading to outputs, its about quality control, its about what the team is there to produce.  These are qualitative and quantitative aspects of the team, and a manager will manage these aspects of the team through monitoring the data and doing the analysis.  Then they might tweak the machine here or adjust it there towards getting improved results.   

The Dynamics

This is the people part of the equation.  Let’s say that you have 10 people in your team, and they all have the necessary experience and qualifications to do the job and be exceptional at it.  Except they aren’t all exceptional are they?  In fact, maybe 2 or 3 of them are exceptional, another 5 or 6 are okay, and 1 or 2 are really struggling to keep up.  What is this about?  They all have the same opportunity to be excellent, they all have the same resources, the same systems and processes, yet there is such a difference in their performance.  Why is this? 

A manager who is primarily a mechanic will start pulling levers and turning the screws to try and fix the issues.  This will be an exercise in frustration for both the manager and the team and could actually make things worse.  It’s a classic case of “when you only have a hammer in your toolkit, every problem gets treated like a nail”.

Now a people leader will take a very different approach.  A people leader understands that the team of 10 represents 10 very different individuals, all with very different backgrounds, experiences, mindsets, personal situations, challenges, fears, hopes, dreams and ambitions.  Each team member is unique, like a fingerprint, and needs to be led and managed as an individual rather than as a clone of the person next to them. 

A few things start to happen when a manager takes a leadership approach to managing the team.  The manager starts to get to know the team in a way that humanises each and every one of them, and the team starts to get to know the manager in a way that humanises them too.  Its that strange unquantifiable X factor that makes the difference between good teams and great teams.  Great teams are not about the mechanics, they are about the dynamics.  Great teams work together to support each other, to build each other up, to raise the performance of the whole team.  They know, like and trust each other.  They operate outside of personal ego and ambition. 

How does a leader grow a team like this?  Time, consistency and honest intentions, plus you will need to have a keen awareness and understanding of the behaviours of each person in the team.  Are you or your team operating in either a passive/defensive or aggressive/defensive style?  How many constructive behaviours are evident in your team?  

The Workplace Coach can help you shift the dynamics in your team. Developing leadership behaviours to help teams work well together is what we are all about.    

The Workplace Coach