Is your team currently working at a ‘good’ level? What if you could transform this ‘good’ to ‘great?’
Chances are you are so used to the ‘good’ you believe it is ‘great’ because you have never really experienced the full potential your team can work too.
The highly regarded leadership researcher and author, Jim Collins says in his book ‘Good to Great’ that “Good is the enemy of great, and that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that become great”.
In the business world there is a genuine naivety about what really constitutes great teamwork. We settle for good teamwork because we don’t know how great things can be.
Here’s a short story on my experience as a kid going from ‘good to great’.
As a child growing up in the 1960’s I can recall watching my favourite television shows from the comfort of my lounge room on a very small black and white television. Shows like The Flintstones, Hogan’s Heroes and Gilligan’s Island were a few of the old personal favourites!
Black and White TV was GREAT as far as I was concerned! That all changed though as a 15 year old boy when I took a stroll up to the local Balmain shops to run some errands and came across a crowd of people standing around the electrical store shop front window. I squeezed my way through to see what all the fuss was about, only to discover a TV set… broadcasting in colour! The first ever colour television set I’d seen and I was amazed!
I later returned home to watch an episode of “Voyage to the bottom of the sea” and of course after experiencing colour at the store, my impression of monochrome TV was quite bland and never as appealing as it once was! I had just experienced something that replaced my existing ‘good’ with something ‘great!’
Why is this story relevant? For most people in the business world, teamwork is similar to that of my TV experience.
The vast majority of businesses are experiencing OK teamwork, but because most bosses have never seen or felt what great teamwork in the business world looks like, they don’t know what they’re missing out on. They settle for the good but not great monochrome experience.
Most people evolve into management roles with little or no training on how to lead or develop great teams meaning there is a huge potential for massive productivity gains if business were to invest in educating leaders on creating high performance teams.
So, how can you turn your team from good to great and maximise performance?
Reflect on the following questions then ask yourself – can I afford not to invest in the opportunity to educate myself and the team on creating peak performance in the workplace?
Is teamwork an important element of your business?
Can you name the core ingredients of what makes a great team?
Are you aware of how to develop the teamwork in your business?
How much time do you and your people spend practicing teamwork?
If, as the team leader you haven’t resolved the above affirmatively, then I’m thinking there is plenty of productivity upside just waiting to be explored if you take off the manager’s cap and put on the team leader’s hat!
Wayne
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