The ability of an organization's employees to collaborate effectively will provide superlative performance for the organization.
Have you wondered how some teams of Top Performers deliver extraordinary performance, and some deliver barely adequate performance?
I have been thinking on this for a long while now. It started with football (soccer) where I watched a team of stars being shut out by an team of fairly decent players. This was when Greece won the Euro Cup in 2004 by defeating a much stronger Portugal in the finals. This was surprising since Greece was not expected to be in the finals in the first place, because they're not a team that's really well known for highly talented football players. As you may be aware, such cases in sports are deeply analyzed and dissected in order to find out what went right or wrong during said match. Lots is written about how they won, and why they won, and I won't repeat any of that.
I was also reminded of time when I was playing carrom (click for the rules if you're interested) in college with an extremely accomplished partner. We were both considered to be among the best players in college. Whenever we played as partners, we initially lost more often than we won. We soon realized that these losses were because we waited for each other to pocket the pieces and attempted difficult shots, rather than do it ourselves. Once we realized this, we quickly ensured that we took care of what was within our range instead of leaving coins for each other to pocket. It made a tremendous difference to the number of games we won as a team. We reached second place in our college championships.
Both these examples helped me realize that top performers can get in their own way of achieving success, despite executing well-intentioned efforts.
More recently, I came across this video (which blew my mind) on YouTube where a few top rock guitar players did a cover of the Game of Thrones theme song, and actually made me think about writing this article. Here's the original theme for comparison.
In the corporate world as an HR professional, performance management and people development are of key interest to me. I often wondered why someone did well for a few months, and then was fairly average, sometimes mediocre during others, and bounced back. I realized that in organizations, there is rarely one single right answer to questions of performance or non-performance. While we tend to laud the individual performer, s/he would be nowhere (or extremely burned out) without a set of teams with whom he collaborates. For eg. even the sales performer needs a team from marketing, operations, finance and HR to help him / her deliver both his / her goals and theirs. There are also external indirect teams of vendors and franchises that help drive success. All of them may or may not be top performers
From the examples above, I have tried to dissect what it is that top performers do when they collaborate together so that they create something magical. Here's what I came up with (I know this formula can work in the corporate world too):
What should a leader do to get their top performers to collaborate?
If you want to improve the effectiveness of your team's ability to collaborate or manage conflict, let me know by writing to me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or calling at +919820155778 to set up a meeting / call.
Have you wondered how some teams of Top Performers deliver extraordinary performance, and some deliver barely adequate performance?
I have been thinking on this for a long while now. It started with football (soccer) where I watched a team of stars being shut out by an team of fairly decent players. This was when Greece won the Euro Cup in 2004 by defeating a much stronger Portugal in the finals. This was surprising since Greece was not expected to be in the finals in the first place, because they're not a team that's really well known for highly talented football players. As you may be aware, such cases in sports are deeply analyzed and dissected in order to find out what went right or wrong during said match. Lots is written about how they won, and why they won, and I won't repeat any of that.
I was also reminded of time when I was playing carrom (click for the rules if you're interested) in college with an extremely accomplished partner. We were both considered to be among the best players in college. Whenever we played as partners, we initially lost more often than we won. We soon realized that these losses were because we waited for each other to pocket the pieces and attempted difficult shots, rather than do it ourselves. Once we realized this, we quickly ensured that we took care of what was within our range instead of leaving coins for each other to pocket. It made a tremendous difference to the number of games we won as a team. We reached second place in our college championships.
Both these examples helped me realize that top performers can get in their own way of achieving success, despite executing well-intentioned efforts.
More recently, I came across this video (which blew my mind) on YouTube where a few top rock guitar players did a cover of the Game of Thrones theme song, and actually made me think about writing this article. Here's the original theme for comparison.
In the corporate world as an HR professional, performance management and people development are of key interest to me. I often wondered why someone did well for a few months, and then was fairly average, sometimes mediocre during others, and bounced back. I realized that in organizations, there is rarely one single right answer to questions of performance or non-performance. While we tend to laud the individual performer, s/he would be nowhere (or extremely burned out) without a set of teams with whom he collaborates. For eg. even the sales performer needs a team from marketing, operations, finance and HR to help him / her deliver both his / her goals and theirs. There are also external indirect teams of vendors and franchises that help drive success. All of them may or may not be top performers
From the examples above, I have tried to dissect what it is that top performers do when they collaborate together so that they create something magical. Here's what I came up with (I know this formula can work in the corporate world too):
- They bring their A game to the fore. They lead with their strengths.
- They do their homework, and practice regularly (Deliberate Practice).
- They listen to each other so deeply, that the handover from one person to another is seamless, effortless and hardly noticed by onlookers.
- They keep newcomers briefed on their purpose as a group and what they expect as a contribution from the newcomer, without telling them what to do, allowing them to improvise and be creative.
- They keep track of what each other is doing so that they pitch in, adding their own style, and making the entire track sound much better.
- They are able to do all of this because they know what each one is capable of, what their styles are and are willing to allow each other to shine. Simply put, they know each others' strengths and weaknesses, because they have shared these things with each other.
What should a leader do to get their top performers to collaborate?
- Give them a clear brief on outcomes and timelines.
- Give them necessary resources and listen to their requests.
- Get out of their way.When you combine employees' strengths with a performance system based on OKRs (Objectives and Key Results), the levels of collaboration will accelerate and you will find quality output.
If you want to improve the effectiveness of your team's ability to collaborate or manage conflict, let me know by writing to me at ryanbbarretto@hotmail.com or calling at +919820155778 to set up a meeting / call.
