How to Help Your Team Reach Their Full Potential (in 9 Simple Steps)
Want to get the absolute most out of your team? Start doing these nine things today.
By Justin Bariso
A few years ago, a group of researchers and I were tasked with answering that question. In addition to identifying what makes a great team, we worked to isolate the skills needed to build and maintain such a team, and outline ways to develop those skills.
I recently shared these discoveries with members of the Lighthouse, my community for emotionally intelligent leaders, and the conversation revealed practical lessons for anyone who’s trying to get more out of their team. (Find value in this article? Consider signing up for my free weekly newsletter on emotional intelligence.)
Agree on your “norms”
One of the earliest things a team should do is establish norms for communication type and cadence. You should include specifics, like how long it should take to respond to a DM or email, how often you’ll meet, for what, and for how long.
You’d be surprised how many teams don’t do this.
Leverage the IKEA effect
The name “IKEA effect” comes from a research paper that showed people place a higher value on things they create. For example, participants in the original study placed more value on Ikea furniture they put together vs. Ikea furniture they just examined.
This applies to the workplace, too. For example, you can develop your team ground rules together. When tackling a problem, invite your teammates to brainstorm solutions together. And when change is inevitable, you can talk to team members early in the process and use their feedback to influence where, when, and even how the change takes place.
The lesson: The more your people collaborate on building the “how,” the more they’ll buy in to following it.
‘Interview’ team members
When building a new team (or welcoming new members to the team), take time to get to know their strengths, their passions, some of their best accomplishments. Then, you can try to align team members’ roles and responsibilities with work at which they will excel and enjoy.
One leader I worked with had a great technique for doing this. Ahead of each weekly meeting, he had one team member interview another and ask some of these questions. Then, the interviewer would “present” the interviewee to the rest of the team.
This technique reveals a great benefit: If the interviewee is very humble, they might feel uncomfortable drawing attention to themselves or speaking about their accomplishments. If they lack self-awareness, they might be too comfortable putting themselves in the spotlight, which could hurt team chemistry. By getting others to interview and present them, you solve both problems.
Follow the Dishwasher Rule
The Dishwasher Rule: Just as there’s more than one way to load the dishwasher—and another person’s way gets the job done (even if you feel their way isn’t as good as yours)—strive to give teammates complete autonomy when you can.
This is especially true for less important tasks, which you’re glad your teammates are taking off your plate, and the “how things are done” isn’t as important as getting them done.
The 10-80-10 Rule
Other times, you’ll be more particular about the tasks and project you delegate. When that’s the case, you need to invest a bit more time and effort, like so:
Spend about 10% of the time providing guidelines
Let them spend 80% of the time building; then,
Take another 10% of the time to fix/polish and to communicate what you’re changing and why.
Over time, you may be able to reduce the amount of time you need to polish as you and your teammate become more aligned. (For a case study in this technique, check out how Steve Jobs leveraged the 10-80-10 Rule well at Apple.)
Create symbols
I learned this one from Kevin Body, who served in various leadership roles over three decades in fire service and now mentors fire service leaders through his coaching business, Redline Leadership.
When Body became the battalion chief of a new team of firefighters, he designed a coin and had it manufactured. The coin had the department badge on one side and the name of the team (“D shift”) on the other side—along with some of the team’s values. Additionally, on the edge of the coin was each member’s unique badge number so that each coin was specific to the individual. The coins became a source of pride for what they represented: “The team.”
This experience can spark ideas for you and your team. What could you create: A coin? A certificate? Something else? The key is the symbol links each member of your team to the team as a whole.
Manage expectations
In the 1960s, American psychologist Bruce Tuckman developed a model of team development called Forming, Storming, Norming, Performing (FSNP).
The model describes the natural evolution a group goes through as they transform from a collection of strangers to a cohesive unit.
The original four stages are:
Forming: Getting started, high energy but low trust
Storming: Conflict emerges due to real selves coming out
Norming: Getting past conflict and getting into a regular routine of work
Performing: Increasing productivity and more effective collaboration built on trust
It’s worth mentioning that some teams get stuck in stage two or three and never make it to “Performing.” It’s also common for teams to transition back and forth between stages depending on new or leaving team members, changes in leadership, or similar factors.
Knowing Tuckman’s four stages of team development is helpful to manage expectations. For example, knowing about the “Storming” phase can help you prepare for it and navigate through it. It also gives you a tangible goal you can work towards—the “Performing” stage.
Learn to ‘dance’
To get to the “Performing” stage team members must learn to fill their roles well, to depend on their teammates to fill their roles, and to trust each other. Of course, this is easier said than done. But once you get there, it’s a great place to be.
When asked to name one of her favorite “team” experiences, marketing manager Beth Buczynski thought of her pre-corporate life, back to her time as a server in a popular restaurant. Buczynski said the most experienced servers and hosts would be called upon to work the busiest nights.
“We all knew and trusted each other,” Buczynski told me. “And we had gotten so good at our jobs that we reached this point where we could anticipate each other.”
Buczynski says she can distinctly remember moments where it felt like the group was dancing.
“It was like practiced choreography that had become second nature. The movements were fluid and we were actually enjoying what we were doing. It felt good.”
Don’t forget to celebrate
Good work deserves to be celebrated. Appropriate celebrations show appreciation for team members, provide a sense of closure or transition, and add joy to the workplace. Most importantly, celebrations strengthen bonds between team members.
Look for ways to celebrate major milestones, whether it be through a specially designated team meal, an informal meeting with some type of reward, or some other activity.
Remember, great teams aren’t born from nothing. They’re built with intention and effort, one step at a time.