Building a High Performing Team: Weak team = poor results

Welcome to the No Bullshit Leadership Podcast. In a world where knowledge has become a commodity, this podcast is designed to give you something more. Access to the experience of a successful CEO who has already walked the path. So join your host, Martin Moore, who will unlock and bring to life your own leadership experiences and accelerate your journey to leadership excellence. Welcome to episode two of the No Bullshit Leadership Podcast, building a high-performing team. A.K.A., weak team equals poor results. If you want to be successful as a senior leader, you first have to have the right people on your team. This doesn't happen by accident. In this episode we focus on building capability at the individual level and we'll save how to build a team culture and dynamic for another episode. We'll cover off on what actually is a high-performing team. I'm then going to talk about what I believe are the seven characteristics of a high-performing team. There's no doubt that high-performing teams start with the individuals that make up that team. And if you as a leader don't commit personally to doing what it takes to get the best people on board, by definition you simply can't have a high-performing team. So let's get into it. I would love a dollar for every resume I've read or every interview I've held where a person claims to have built a high-performing team. So what is it that defines a high-performing team? Well as soon as you're asked to drill down, people find it really difficult to articulate what a high-performing team actually is. Nor can they describe what they did to build it. For most, as a generalisation, it seems to come down to my team with all happy campers and got on well with each other. So how would you know if you had a high-performing team? And what do the individual performance and behavioural standards look like in a team like that? What's the team dynamic? I once invited Bonita Willis to talk to my leadership team about what it actually takes to be world class. Now the term world class is bandied around so often that it's become virtually meaningless. Bonita, for those of you who don't know her, is undoubtedly the finest distance runner ever to represent Australia. She knows what it takes to be world class because she actually was. And the bottom line that she left with us was, you don't just stumble upon world class performance. It takes an enormous amount of sacrifice, dedication and courage to get there. So what would leadership performance be any different? So just to make sure we're all on the same page and all speaking the same language, what I've done is to develop what I call the seven characteristics of a high-performing team. These are the things that through my observation over the years, I've realised set teams apart. So the high-performing teams actually have these characteristics and other teams simply don't. The first characteristic of a high-performing team is that they get results. And that's regardless of the obstacles and challenges they're in their way, they find a way to make it all work. These are teams that are driven by value, not just driven by activity. And of course this is another podcast episode in itself. The second characteristic of a high-performing team is that it actually stands out from other teams in the organisation. So it's very, very clear to everyone around that there's something different about this team, something different about the way it's led and something different about the way it functions. The third characteristic of a high-performing team is that they are never happy with the status quo. They're continually looking for opportunities to be better and to achieve more and to stretch themselves further. Number four is that high-performing teams stand up really well to the scrutiny of external benchmarking. First and foremost, they actually invite comparison because they want to be the best amongst their peers. Not only that, but they select an ambitious peer group. So for example, if an organisation is a manufacturer of aerosol cans in Western Sydney, they don't compare themselves to other manufacturers of aerosol cans within their geographical reach. But rather, they want to compare themselves to the global benchmarks for manufacturers in related industries. They certainly wouldn't be comfortable boasting about being the world's tallest dwarf. The fifth characteristic is that they challenge themselves to be better first and foremost. That challenge is then transferred by Osmosis to other teams they interact with. They don't sit there bitching and moaning about what other teams aren't doing, they just get on with it. And behind them, as they move forward at pace, they create a vacuum that's then filled by other teams in your organisation that haven't been performing as well. Characteristic number six, high-performing teams exude confidence because they're on their game, they're kicking goals and they're making the scoreboard tick over. And finally, number seven, high-performing teams don't make excuses and they don't avoid challenges, they actually relish them. Now you might argue that toss on one or two of those characteristics but really it's just so that we get a clear idea in our heads of what a high-performing team looks like. And I think that really gives us a basis for comparison between those teams that are really delivering and those that aren't. But once again we've got to be pretty honest with ourselves about what characteristics are there that we're observing and whether or not we truly have a high-performing team because trust me, there are not that many of them around. So how would you actually create a high-performing team? Well the very first thing that you have to do is to get the right individuals in place because high-performing teams cannot be high-performing unless each of the individuals in that team is observing and reaching a certain standard. Jim Collins in his seminal work "Good to Great" which I'm sure many of you have read talks about first getting the right people on the bus. And this is critical in building a high-performing team and a high-performing organisation that's going to deliver results over time. In his chapter first who then what? Jim says this and I quote, "I don't really know where we should take this bus but I know this much. If we get the right people on the bus, the right people in the right seats and the wrong people off the bus then we'll figure out how to take it someplace great." As a leader you really have to embrace this advice and it's extremely rare that you're going to get to build a team from scratch at any point in your career. Even if you did though, hiring is an imprecise art and so you've got to be constantly vigilant to make sure that you have the right people on the bus in the right seats and that you don't have any of the wrong people hanging on. Many leaders actually feel constrained by what's there when they turn up in a leadership role. And there are some complexities in this, there's no doubt about it. So for example, if your promotion is the result of your boss being promoted and you still report to her, then that's the team that she built that you're now having to lead. So she may not want to hear from you that certain team members need to be changed out because they're not up to the job. This can affect herself images a leader and certainly won't do you any favours in your relationship with your new boss. But you can never have nor can you claim to have a high performing team until you're first 100% satisfied that you've actually done this work. So as a leader, if you're serious about building a high performing team, then you've got to commit personally to doing what it takes to get the best people on board. And for some of you, this is really going to go against your grain. If we just think about episode one of the No Bullshit Leadership Podcasts, we spoke about respect before popularity and the need to be liked. And if you don't get this under control, it's very, very unlikely that you're going to do the hard work of building the right leadership team with the right individuals in it. But as humans, we can find a thousand ways to rationalize why we shouldn't do something that's hard and we are all human. And I know what's going through your head because I've been there myself. So here's some of the classic rationalizations we use that prevent us from doing this work. How about everyone deserves a chance? That's a great rationalization because it's true everyone does deserve a chance. But only if we put it in the context of very specific standards that are set for both behavior and performance. And that these standards have to be met within a reasonable time frame. Because in that context, you can actually give someone a chance in a disciplined way that lets them either perform or not perform and it's their choice. There have been times when I've had to say to someone, if you work really hard on your development, you're two to three years away from the performance that I need. But unfortunately, I can't wait two to three years. I need that performance right now and the team needs that performance right now. Here's another common rationalization that leaders have. Who am I to play God? If you're a good leader, you will have a personal connection with your people. You'll be friendly, but you won't be friends. But this means you'll know some things about them personally. You'll know their kids' names, you'll know where they live, you'll know something about their financial circumstances, and then it becomes really tough. But paradoxically, this thing that makes you a better leader by knowing something about your people and being personally connected with them also makes it much more difficult to make decisions that impact their lives. Now we'll have a future episode on whose accountability it is for performance, and that should help with this one. But just at the moment know that this is a rationalization that you're probably going to have to get over in your own head. Here's another one. This person has so many great qualities, and there's such a great person everyone really likes them. They're such a good fit for the team. Now this may be true, but this has never been a criterion for leaders to come. performance. And so whether this person has great qualities is a really decent person, is loved by the team doesn't really matter because at the end of the day you've got to get results. As Steve draw to one said to me, there's a lot of nice folk in this organisation but nice folk don't make a business perform. And remember the number one characteristic of a high performing team is that it gets results and it performs no matter what. Here's another rationalisation it's pretty common. I can make this person better. Now if you think about this it's the height of arrogance. When you say you can make someone better really can you? As a leader it's your job to set the tone the pace and the standard for your people and that's a very very important role. And you can even motivate and support people to bring out the very very best that they have but at the end of the day every individual chooses how they behave and perform. And we shouldn't be so arrogant as leaders as to think that we have that much impact and that much control over any other individual. And finally the last common rationalisation I want to cover is the concept that they're improving. And this is normally a sign of futility. Improvement is fine and improvement can be expected. It's a very very rare individual and a very rare leader that you actually see breakthrough improvements in. It's the exception rather than the rule in my experience. But our tendency and looking optimistically is to look for the tightest little green shoots of improvement that we can see and then to declare victory way too early. And what normally happens is an individual will improve a little and they'll improve under your direction fairly quickly because they realise that they have to do something different if they want to keep their jobs. But longer term improvements that get them up to the bar that you're setting for performance standards in a high performing team generally is very very difficult to do. And although I know this is going to be controversial it's always much much easier to buy in someone who already has those characteristics and performance standards than it is to try and grow someone and drag them kicking and screaming from a substandard level of performance to something that you're going to be satisfied with and something that's worthy of the team you're trying to build. So I think we can all agree that putting the individuals in place that are going to give you a chance of building a high performing team is not something that's easy to do. What you need to remember is that as a leader you have to eat your own dog food. If you don't do this and create a high performing team with the right individuals that meet the right standards of behaviour and performance no one below you will do it. And sometimes even when you do do it diligently some people below you still won't do it. And to give you a hint when you see those people they actually need to be off the bus. It took me five years to build the right team with CS Energy and four of those was just to get the right people on the bus and in the right seats. Of my five direct reports nine of them were turned over during that time so clearly in some roles more than one person. Two of those nine were excellent performers who left by their own choice because they wanted to move on and grow into other organisations. But seven left because of my choice. Now some of these seven were simply not up to the job and I had to take the actions I took. But some were actually good people who brought their part of the organisation as far as they could. I just recognised that we needed something different if we were going to improve and to keep moving forward. And the organisation needed to keep moving forward because we certainly weren't where we needed to be. And if a leader is an okay leader but they can't take your organisation beyond where it is now then you have to make a hard choice about it because that is what defines the basis for a high performing team. I also had a couple of excellent high performing people from the lay of below who acted in executive roles for lengthy periods of time. But I realised that as good as they were they simply weren't ready to be executive general managers. And they were some tough calls I had to make as well because they were really good people who one day are going to be extremely successful at the executive level. Now it would have been so easy for me to leave the team as it was and some might say that team was good enough but I knew that that wasn't the case. What I had to do was the hard work of building a high performing team that gave the rest of the organisation the leadership had deserved. Now it's easy in most organisations to actually avoid this work because most leaders aren't focusing on this first and foremost they're focusing on the myriad of other things that are coming their way through the wind tunnel. And that's okay don't do it it's your choice as a leader but if you don't do the work to build a high performing team with the right individuals just don't kid yourself that you've built a high performing team and don't believe your own bullshit. In most cases if you're not actively working to achieve this and constantly driving your team performance higher and making sure that you have the right people on the bus and in the ride seats the team will by definition be average to mediocre and you're just going to have to accept that. All right so that's the end of episode two. As a free downloadable from this episode I've put together the seven characteristics of a high performing team and just flesh that out a little so you can actually create that checklist for yourself and use it for your own organisation. If you want to download that you can get it at your ceo-mentor.com/episode2. Thanks very much for joining us and remember that your ceo-mentor our purpose is to improve the quality of leaders globally. So if you like this episode please share it with another leader who you think might benefit from it. I look forward to next week's episode where we're going to talk about excellence over perfection. AKA setting the groundwork for successful execution. Until then I know you'll take every opportunity you can to be a no bullshit leader.