What COVID can teach us about high performing teams

The conversations around high performing teams in the workplace are usually around outputs. When in fact, the output is a result of creating a team environment where people can work through issues and tough times together.

In a recent webinar with the positive leadership expert Sue Langley, our COO Noelle Smit discussed the need to reassess this concept.

“We should be thriving at striving to create teams that can work together through any issues that come up.”
Noelle Smit

Where should your team focus be?

The COVID situation is inviting leaders around the world to shift their focus from team performance to mental health and wellbeing. The truth is that one is a consequence of the other.  

At Teamgage, we believe that the best definition of a high performing team is the ability to work through any issues that come up together. When teams are engaged and working together, they'll be able to sort out the outputs. They'll look at inefficiencies to drive efficiency. They will contribute ways to deal with crisis, workload management, stress and depression.

How can you help build your own high performing teams?

The first step is to give your team the ability to raise and address issues on their own, so that they work on them as a team and produce positive results quickly. Recent research shared by the Harvard Business Review identified that employees who are unable to raise concerns have much higher levels of stress and burnout than those employees that can.

The second step is to measure and track it. After all, you can't truly correct challenges if you don't know what the problems are or whether they are reoccurring. One of the key elements of teams and workplaces that work through issues together is they have the ability to measure and track how they are going.  

Early on in the process of implementing Teamgage, we often heard from our own customers that they were somewhat fearful of knowing what was really going on in their workplace. A perfect example of how that statement is more damaging than helpful came from Donald Trump in the first few weeks of Coronavirus testing in the US:

"When you do testing to that extent you're going to find more cases, so I said to my people 'Slow the testing down please'."

The reality is that problems are there whether you know them or not, so you better go in with your eyes wide open.

Find out more

Get in touch if you'd like to learn more about how Teamgage can help you during COVID, learn more about our product or book a consultation.

Watch our full webinar on creating and measuring engagement in organisations

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Noelle Smit is Co-founder and COO of Teamgage. She is passionate about seeing more women in technology and leadership roles, and helps to inspire the next generation through her board role at HerTechPath.

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