The theme for next quarter’s Amplifiers™ is Leading Performance: High Performing Teams. When I ask leaders what makes a high performing team, they usually tag trust. Trust is a feature of high performing teams, but it’s a by-product, not a key driver.
For high performance, three elements shape outcomes:
Relationships: appreciation elevates effort
Systems: boundaries create clarity
Habits: the right actions yield the greatest return.
In this article, we examine HABITS in greater detail.
When it comes to habits, most teams fall into practices by default, often to their detriment. We need to craft habits deliberately.
Habits keep leadership effective, even under pressure.
The first habit is MEETING.
Meetings are the beating heart of high team performance. Yet too many leaders do not put enough thought and effort into shaping meetings that deliver outcomes.
The first rule of meetings is one purpose for one meeting. Do not try and jam too many outcomes into one meeting.
Before you gather, choose the purpose of your meeting:
Divergent: generating ideas
Convergent: making decisions
Friction: troubleshooting issues
Flow: celebrating successes.
Each of these meetings requires different facilitation strategies and brain focus. They also each generate different neurochemicals in the brain. By keeping them separate, you will be able to leverage the best of your people by harnessing one specific brain state at a time, without wearing them out.
Meetings are a habit because we need to do them regularly. We need to plan a regular pattern for each type of meeting, each with its own agenda. How often is subject to the requirements of each organisation. Just make sure that each type actually happens, no less than once per quarter.
Communication is a key leadership skill: how good is yours?
The second habit is COMMUNICATION.
I love Japanese food. Every time we enter a Japanese restaurant, the entire staff sing out, “Irasshaimase!”
It is pronounced: "ee-ra-shy-ma-say"
It more or less means, “Welcome, please come in.”
It’s a habit that reinforces the expectations of both parties, and sets the tone for the experience.
As leaders, we need regular communications habits. This is what we should be communicating regularly:
Greetings: how we greet others sets the tone
Gratitude: how we thank others builds rapport
Progress: when we review how far we’ve come, we boost confidence
Problems: when we showcase problems, we can find solutions
Unknowns: when we share what we do not know, we stay humble and open to learning.
On the whole, leaders need to prioritise communication, especially when we think we’ve communicated enough. There's no such thing as too much communication when it comes to leadership. People will always be happy to hear from us.
Reflection is a leadership framework we should never ignore.
The third habit is REFLECTION.
In reflection, we need to focus on the external world, as well as the internal world of our leadership.
In the external world, we review:
Goals
Results
Systems
Relationships
Habits.
These are the nuts and bolts of high performance.
In the internal world, we review:
Values: what we cherish is what we prioritise
Beliefs: what we believe drives decisions
Emotions: how we feel begets behaviour.
If we are going to expand perspective, the only way is to check how we are seeing. Much like cleaning the lenses of our glasses, we need to review the filters through which we are looking. Values, beliefs and emotions are the shades that colour our experience. Sometimes these are helpful, sometimes they are not. Only through reflection can we choose something better.
Which habits do you need to fine tune: meetings, communication, or reflection? Choose one and then experiment. Some action is better than none!
***
Related Articles:
Leadership skills for dealing with change fatigue
Team development strategies to lift productivity
Three habits of boundless leadership
***
About the author, Canberra leadership expert Zoë Routh:
Canberra based leadership expert, Zoë Routh, shares essential habits for high performing teams.
Zoë Routh is one of Australia’s leading experts on people stuff - the stuff that gets in our way of producing results, and the stuff that lights us up. She works with the growers, makers, builders to make people stuff fun and practical.
Zoë is the author of four books: Composure - How centered leaders make the biggest impact, Moments - Leadership when it matters most, Loyalty - Stop unwanted staff turnover, boost engagement, and build lifelong advocates, and People Stuff - Beyond Personalities: An advanced handbook for leadership. People Stuff was awarded Book of the Year 2020 by the Smart WFM Australian Business Book Awards.
Zoë is also the producer of The Zoë Routh Leadership Podcast.