The 3 attributes that set great teams apart

I often ask people this question about the performance of the team they work on: Rate out of 10 (1 being low, 10 being high) how well your team is performing relative to what is possible with the resources you have available today.

The point of the question is to gauge current performance against what is possible without adding more resources. The answer is quite sobering. Most good teams rate themselves 6 or 7, noting they could perform better. Poor-performing teams rate themselves 5 or lower. Very few teams rate themselves 8 or better. Sadly, fewer than half the respondents I’ve interacted with have ever experienced working on a team that rated 8 or higher.

The point of the exercise is not to dwell on the score, but to move quickly to identify the most important things that need to happen to improve performance. That’s the conversation that follows.

Having that conversation over many years with many teams, I’ve learned that most impediments to better performance are about how a team works together and have little to do with the domain or industry they work in.

I’ve also learned that the team leader’s character and behavior have a very significant influence on where issues in a team originate and how quickly they can be resolved. Here are three important attributes I’ve observed that define a great team.

They have a team leader who helps people be their best

Self-aware leaders with an open mindset and genuine care for the people around them are the leaders people want to work with and those most likely to build a strong team. These leaders demonstrate they care by helping, listening to, encouraging, and inviting others to speak up and challenge them.

If you are a team leader, it is important to understand and appreciate that sustained success comes through the people who support you. Helping others to be the best they can be is a vital part of what leading a great team is all about.

I recommend leaders of teams spend time understanding how their life journey has shaped their character, as a strong sense of self-awareness is incredibly important on any leadership journey. Regularly seeking feedback from those you work with is another important way to get to know yourself and your impact on others.

They are clear, aligned, and performance-focused

Great teams know that executing strategy is understanding what they need to do today to create the future they desire. Without a focus on action today, strategy is no more than a pipe dream. Without long-term aspiration, the actions you take today lack alignment with a clear future.

To execute well, a team must seek clarity of purpose and priorities. Nothing is ever 100% clear, but doing your best to provide clarity is a foundation of success. Good teams are conscious about what is uncertain and look for signals that confirm that they are on the right track, or need to course correct.

Strong execution requires alignment of resources (people, money, technology) with priorities. Too often misalignment exists between the aspirations of an organization or team and the reality of team members at the front line. This lack of alignment can seriously hinder execution. Good teams are aligned teams.

Finally, teams that execute well have the right scorecard and meetings focused on performance, including diagnostic tools that assess how well they work together.

They have difficult conversations

Being clear, aligned, and performance-focused is a function of the quality of conversations a team will have, in particular, difficult conversations about purpose, priorities, people, and performance.

A good team will have a safe environment for individuals to speak up and have the courage to overcome their fear of how other team members perceive them. I have been on teams where people were reluctant to speak up or provide corrective feedback because they didn’t want to hurt others’ feelings. This condition is common to many teams and won’t fix itself without intervention.

As a team leader, I worked to address this problem by running a training program on holding “crucial conversations” with my team and overtly encouraging the conversations I knew team members were reluctant to have. If your team leader genuinely helps people be the best they can be, and you work in an environment where you feel safe to speak up, the chances are you are part of a team that can continuously improve performance toward its full potential.

Teams that operate this way are not as common as they should be.