In this week's episode of Inside the Director's Circle, I continue my discussion from episode one about high performing teams. In the previous episode my guests and I discussed how to hire a high performing team, listen back if you missed that episode. However, in episode two my guests and I discuss how you can continue to help your team members work together to enable your team to be highly productive in the long term.
I am joined once again by our knowledge circle expert Jo Keeler, managing director of Belbin Team Roles, alongside our community members, Matt Jones, Founder of Oxbridge, and Naeem Alvi-Assinder, Founder of Notepad.
Jo Keeler pointed out that building a high-performance team isn't a tick list. Jo said, "it's something you have to constantly keep working at because everything changes; goals change, objectives change, people change. What you had six months ago may not be what you have now". Jo went on to say that teams should foster disagreement however, that is only possible if people feel psychologically safe. It was interesting that Jo mentioned psychological safety because I've observed that most ordinary people in teams are frightened that if they share a disagreement they will get shot down and told to get back in their box. People can only be truly effective if they feel safe within a team.
Naeem shared his challenges in making his team highly productive within the creative agency business model. He said he struggled because the work that his team undertakes requires everyone to be constantly problem-solving and always changes.
Matt identified that showing your team that making mistakes is ok makes them feel empowered to do their job more effectively. He said "I don't run a nuclear power station so if someone makes a mistake it's not going to be that bad", he goes on to say that he makes mistakes all day every day and that he empowers his employees to do the same so they feel safe and ultimately become more productive.
This episode is the last episode to cover high performing teams.
