In her latest Inside Construction contribution, Dr Gretchen Gagel explores three more fundamentals of high-performing teams.
By Dr Gretchen Gagel.
In the last edition I shared my thoughts on the first three critical elements of creating high-performing teams – defining purpose, goals and objectives; building organisational culture and values; and executing strategies and tactics. Be they construction project teams or the internal teams that are the engines of our industry’s success, these three elements are critical, as detailed in the fifth part of my book, Building Women Leaders: A Blueprint for Women Thriving in Construction.
Three additional elements are fundamental to creating high-performing teams – hiring the right talent, developing team norms and social contracts, and remaining nimble in the face of ever-changing business conditions.
Hiring the right talent
Many opinions exist about how to find the “right” talent, including tests and profiles to assess fit and skills. These are the main factors I consider important:
1. Culture fit comes first – you can train people to do a job, but if they are not a great cultural fit, if their values do not align with the values of the organisation, that is difficult to influence. If you do happen to hire someone who is not a great cultural fit, and you have coached them on the behaviours that need to change without success, that person needs to leave. I am reminded of a podcast I recorded with Bill Boyar, founding shareholder of Houston law firm BoyarMiller. Bill made the bold decision of letting go of one of the firm’s top-billing attorneys because his behaviour did not align with the values of the organisation. If you let these people stay, it sends a signal that you are not serious about the values that are important to the organisation.
2. Skills come second – having a detailed inventory of the skills necessary to fulfil the role you are hiring or promoting for is critical. This allows you to match the skills of your talent to what author and advisor Jim Collins calls “the right seat on the bus”. People fail in positions for a multitude of reasons – not having the right capabilities, not having the right resources, and at times feeling unable to ask for help. Matching the skills of your people and hiring candidates to the skills required for the position and providing upskilling to enable the success of members of your team is essential. It starts with a thorough understanding of what those skills are for that position.
Building team norms
I am a big fan of Tuchman’s “Forming, Storming, Norming and Performing” model of team development, in part because of the emphasis on the development of team norms to bridge the inevitable storming that teams experience with the desired level of team performance. Team norms are the behaviours we agree to within our “tribe” – things like “disagree in the room and agree outside the room”, “listen to understand”, and “have each other’s backs”. When a team takes the time to document these team norms in a social contract, it provides guidance on what is acceptable behaviour and what is not. It also allows you to hold team members accountable to these behavioural guidelines.
I am often asked by young leaders about how to deal with “difficult people”. I ask, “What is it that makes them difficult?” and typically it is a specific behaviour that is disruptive. A team’s ability to graciously call out poor behaviour is highly dependent upon defining acceptable behaviour up front.
Creating team agility
Along with studying leadership and organisational culture during my PhD studies, I focused my attention on how to create agile teams and organisations. The business context we are operating within is continuing to morph at an ever-increasing pace. Equipping your teams with the ability to quickly evolve is important, and here are two key strategies:
1. Think of change as a muscle that needs to be exercised – author, academic and advisor Chris Worley first introduced me to this concept. Teams can build change management as a capability, and it starts with an acceptance that change is inevitable and can even be fun. For three decades I have used the DiSC profile to help me understand who on the team is likely to embrace change, and who might be more hesitant. Helping the latter members of the team feel secure and empowered during change by involving them in the design process is critical.
2. Build team capabilities around testing new ideas – this is also a concept shared by Worley and his associates in their book, The Agility Factor. Of the four agile routines described in the book, the ability to effectively test new business concepts consistently ranks lowest. Common mistakes include under-resourcing the testing of new ideas (let’s give a busy person something new to try) and not taking the time up front to understand what you are testing, why you are testing it, and to sufficiently debrief on what was learned during the test. The advancement of technologies such as artificial intelligence will drive an even higher need to effectively test and implement new ideas.
Teams are the engines of our work, and investing in their development to achieve the highest levels of performance is critical. Extensive research exists on what makes great teams tick, and I have covered some of the highlights here. Taking the time to invest in your teams, and in the leaders of those teams, can pay big dividends.
Dr Gretchen Gagel, GAICD, is the former chair of Brinkman Construction (US) and a member of the Risk Committee for GHD Engineering, the National Academy of Construction (US), the Construction Industry Culture Taskforce (AUS), and the Associated General Contractors (AGC) of America National Diversity and Inclusion Committee. Gretchen is passionate about leading change in the construction industry and developing future leaders. You can hear more from Gretchen on her Spotify podcast, Greatness and her book, Building Women Leaders: A Blueprint for Women Thriving in Construction, is available now on Amazon. Find out more at gretchengagel.com