Mistakes that Prevent High Team Performance

Results, commitment, processes, communication and trust are the five characteristics of high team performance. 

There are some common mistakes, however, that managers often make which can prevent high team performance from occurring: 

1. Unclear Goals or Results—Many times, managers assume that employees understand the overall goal of the team, but that’s not always true. So it’s really important for managers to spend a little bit of time asking employees to describe, in their own words, what they think the goal means and what it looks like.
   
   This will help verify that everyone is on the same page, because if everyone is going in different directions, it will be frustrating and chaotic, and the team won’t accomplish the results it needs to.
   
   
2. Not Fully Communicating—A manager needs to communicate completely with his/her team members. For example, a manager might not share enough information with the team, which could affect the team’s ability to get the desired results.
   
   For example, the work the team is doing may be dependent on what another team is doing. If communication isn’t clear—if the manager doesn’t keep employees up-to-date on, say, changes in processes—team members may start going down the wrong path, leading to frustration, rework or missed deadlines.
   
   Team managers are often privy to higher-level organizational information—changes in timelines, changes in deadlines or priorities—and so it’s really important for team managers to share this information with the team members in appropriate ways.
   
   
3. Punishing Team Members for Mistakes—Sometimes managers “punish” employees on their team when they make a mistake, rather than making sure up-front that the team has their ground rules and processes in place and that goals are clearly understood. Doing so can eliminate a lot of mistakes before they’re even made, or it could reduce the magnitude of the mistakes.
   
   Rather than punishing mistakes, look at them as an opportunity to coach for improvement in the way the team operates or, even better, involve the team in problem-solving. Ask, “How are we, as a team, going to prevent this or minimize the likelihood of it happening in the future?”
   
   
4. Not Providing Support—For example, not providing the resources the team needs, such as access to other people or access to a piece of software that will help get the job done. It could be making sure that people on the team are connected to other subject-matter experts. It could be backing up your team members by offering emotional, attitudinal or motivational support. Or it could be actual physical support in terms of taking on some task to enabling a team member to take on other tasks.
   
   
5. Breaking Trust—Trust can be broken when managers don’t follow through on promises and commitments. For example, saying, “I’ll get that for you,” or “I’ll make sure so-and-so knows about this,” or “Yes, I’ll make that call,” or “Yes, I’ll get you on my agenda.” But then not actually making those things happen. 

These mistakes can stop teams from performing at their highest level. 

In my next Insight, I’ll give an example of a time I helped a team achieve high performance. 

There are some common mistakes that managers often make which can prevent high team performance from occurring.