Leadership

The Culture of High-Performance Teams

By William F. Johnson, MDV, MA, PCM-CT, LOD-CT

In the past several years, the concepts of “team,” “leadership,” and “team building” have become drop phrases for leaders. There have been enough conferences, TED Talks, and YouTube videos produced that many leaders can quote the steps to building a strong team; however, when that team is objectively measured, it falls short of being “high performance”.           

Janet Goodall (2013) identified that, “… the clear factor which most influenced their selection of new members was the adherence of candidates to the ethos of the school” (p. 208). Recruitment, retention, and promotion of individuals who understand and hold to the vision and mission of an organization or department are the first steps in organizing and building high-performance teams. This is usually done from within the organization, as the individual already understands the vision.

Raineri and Valenzuela-Ibarra (2021) add, “Positive attitudes and motivation should result in more energy and efforts in the execution of tasks, a sense of identification and reciprocity with the organization, and the deployment of proactive and organizational citizenship behaviors at the workplace” (p. 3663). As leaders with the same values are recruited, the impact on the team will be one of proactive engagement. The engagement demonstrated comes from the recruited leader setting team goals that coincide with the goals of the department and organization.

In order for the team to be not just effective but high performing, the leader must provide the proper example. It is certainly important for a leader to discuss the importance of trust, communication, and other team values, but it is more important for the leader to live above the standard they set. Gail Binyamin (2020) identifies, “Leader normative expectations direct employees’ attention and efforts to achieve what is important for the organization to survive and thrive in its market. These expectations enable employees to channel personal energies and resources to focus on their work tasks” (p. 539).

High-performance teams need leaders who are transformational and not transactional. Ajanaku and Lubbe (2021) identify that transformational leadership is more effective by stating, “Transactional leaders develop followers’ needs and transact with them based on agreed goals or objectives. Transformational leaders are role models of organizational change with high expectations and support of the followers” (p. 17788).

Norena-Chavez and Thalassinos (2022) relate, “Leaders who are effective at transactional leadership understand the requirements for their followers to attain their goals and make those expectations very clear. Workplace efficiency and productivity could increase under such a leader, but these benefits would be superficial in comparison to what could be achieved under a really transformational leader” (Norena-Chavez and Thalassinos, 2022, para 2).

As a leader has identified what is expected and given clear guidelines as to how the team should function, the leader is able to step out of the way and watch the team do what they were created to do. Many times, the only thing standing in the way of a high-performing team is the leader themselves.

When considering high-performance teams and the need for transformational leaders, it is important to see the need for team cohesion, both within and without the department. A danger that many organizations and even departments face is “siloing” or working within a specific group which excludes others. Within a department, this is also referred to as “cliques.” These individual groups tend to work well together to accomplish individual or daily tasks, but when asked to participate on a broader scale, they are unable to do so. The failure of the groups to see the task through is based primarily on their inability to understand how the other groups work, as well as not knowing how to properly communicate within the larger group. Soetanto et al. (2024) explain, “Team cohesion describes the extent to which team members feel confident as a team and desire to remain in the team … Strong cohesion leads to commitment to the task and the presence of a team spirit” (p. 2855).

High-performing teams start at the top with recruiting the right leader, setting the right goal and vision, and creating the framework for unit cohesion.

References:

Ajanaku, O. J., & Lubbe, W. (2021). Applying Transformational Leadership in Nursing Through

the Lens of Kouzes and Posner Leadership Practices. Gender & Behaviour, 19(2), 17788-17794. https://go.openathens.net/redirector/liberty.edu?url=https://www.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/applying-transformational-leadership-nursing/docview/2649773178/se-2

Binyamin, G. (2020). Do leader expectations shape employee service performance? Enhancing

self-expectations and internalization in employee role identity. Journal of Management and Organization, 26(4), 536-554. https://doi.org/10.1017/jmo.2017.68

Goodall, J. (2013). Recruit for attitude, train for skills: Creating high performance teams.

Educational Management Administration & Leadership, 41(2) 199-213.

Norena-Chavez, D., & Thalassinos, E. I. (2022). Transactional Leadership and Innovative

Behavior as Factors Explaining Emotional Intelligence: A Mediating Effect. Journal of Risk and Financial Management, 15(12), 545. https://doi.org/10.3390/jrfm15120545

Raineri. A, & Valenzuela-Ibarra, S. (2022) The role of inter-team relational coordination in the

high-performance work systems–team performance linkage. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 33(18), 3662-3702, DOI: 10.1080/09585192.2021.1928729

Soetanto, D., Franco-Leal, N., & Larty, J. (2024). Strategic orientation and new product

development performance of academic spin-offs: The importance of team cohesion and team heterogeneity. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 71, 2853-2864. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2022.3199558