When we think about improving performance at the individual and team levels, we often focus on whether or not things are getting done. This approach defines the world of teamwork into three categories, namely inputs, processes, and outcomes.
The standard inputs are the team leader, the team members, the way the team works as a whole, and the environment within which the team operates. The processes all relate to team and individual based actions, and the outcomes are threefold, namely the team performance, the individual performance, and the overall team experience.
While I recognize that this is one way to define performance improvement, the upshot of this framework is that it all boils done to a binary definition, namely done vs. not done. And in most cases, we do not focus on the team experience as an outcome.
Having done this work for many decades, I have come to the conclusion that organizational culture becomes real at the team level. As Marcus Buckingham wrote years ago, “all work is teamwork” because they “help us to see where to focus and what to do.”
During these challenging times, many leaders are focused on getting more things done with less resources. We forget that people really care about which team they are on. People genuinely want to be on a team that works well and works in a professional manner through the normal challenges that surface when two or more people come together to accomplish a challenging project or goal.
Marcus Buckingham and Ashley Goodall in their book, Nine Lies About Work: A Freethinking Leader’s Guide to the Real World (Harvard Business Review Press, 2019), note that there are two categories of experience, namely we experiences and me experiences. As they write, “… what distinguishes the best team leaders from the rest is their ability to meet these two categories of needs for the people on their teams. What we, as team members, want from you, our team leader, is firstly that you make us feel part of something bigger, that you show us how what we are doing together is important and meaningful; and secondly that you make us feel you can see us, and connect to us, and care about us, and challenge us, in a way that recognizes who we are as individuals.”
They also explain that “… local experiences… are significantly more important than company ones.” These “local experiences” come in two versions, namely local individual experiences and local collective experiences. The combination of the two is what makes the company culture become real or just an abstract notion and fancy poster on some wall near the senior level of the organization.
So, what is the desired individual and group experience we seek as leaders?
The answer can be found in Verse 17 of the Tao Te Ching written by Lao Tzu, in 400 BC. As he explained,
“Leaders are best when people scarcely know they exist
Not so good when people obey and acclaim them,
Worst when people despise them.
Fail to honor people, they fail to honor you.
But of good leaders who talk little,
When the work is done, the task fulfilled
People will all say: ‘We have done this ourselves!’”
The desired outcome is actually a desired feeling, namely “We have done this ourselves!” It is the moment when confidence, clarity, competence and connection with others becomes one. It is the feeling of being respected, understood and cared for by the team and by the team leader.
As you prepare for the coming eighteen months, focus on how to create more moments when people will say “We have done this ourselves!” This will result in many successful outcomes over time.
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