How can I create a closer working relationship with my team?

I’ve been working with the same team for a number of years. We get on well but don’t always seem like a cohesive unit. Could you share a few insights on how to create a team with a higher level of connection and performance?

How great that you are interested in creating a team that works well together. The team is the engine of the project and it takes conscious effort to create a real team, let alone one that’s high performing. Let me share with you what two studies from MIT and Google revealed about high performance (see ‘The New Science of Building Great Teams’, Harvard Business Review, 2012; and ‘What Google Learned From its Quest to Build the Perfect Team’, New York Times Magazine, 2016).

In these studies, researchers found that the biggest indicator of a team’s performance is its communication patterns. In high-performing teams, everybody on the team communicates actively with other team members – and, at the end of the day, every team member has spoken in roughly similar amounts.

The studies also show that equal communication and contribution happens when the project manager or leader is able to create an environment where team members feel safe enough to contribute. In teams where a few team members are allowed to dominate discussions, or where the team leader is too controlling or judging, many members simply don’t come forward with their views and ideas out of fear of being dismissed.

Leaders need lots of social sensitivity

In practical terms, this means that, if you are leading a team where only three of five members are interacting frequently with each other, you must activate the last two team members in order to improve performance. You must take on the role of a facilitator and moderate the team’s discussions in such a way that the members feel that it’s OK – and safe – to come forward and share what’s on their mind. You can do that by explicitly asking the more reserved team members what their views are and by acknowledging their contributions during meetings. You will need to make use of your emotional intelligence to do this, because moderating a conversation and making people feel safe is all about listening, empathising and knowing how to make people feel that they belong in the group.

Show your vulnerability

When time is essential on a project, it may be tempting for you to jump in, force a decision and ignore the quieter team members. But this is exactly the moment when you need to show patience. Be sensitive to individual team members and encourage them to be sensitive to each other. What you want to avoid is a group of bright individualists who are only thinking about themselves. Instead, help your team members to be mindful of each other and share personal stories and emotions.

Begin by setting a good example yourself

Become an advocate for trust and respect by sharing something personal that has some weight and that shows your vulnerability. This could be a time in the past when you made a wrong decision, failed at implementing a project or made a faux pas with a client. What you will find is that you begin to create what psychologists refer to as psychological safety – a sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up or for sharing something sensitive.

When psychological safety is present, team members feel free to share what’s on their mind – whether it’s a bright new idea or a tough personal challenge. They are able to talk about what is messy and have difficult conversations with colleagues who have different opinions. And this is when high performance has a chance to emerge – when team members can contribute with all that they have without fear that they will be judged or criticised.

Susanne Madsen is an internationally recognised project leadership coach, trainer and consultant. She is the author of The Project Management Coaching Workbook and The Power of Project Leadership (second edition now available). For more information, visit www.susannemadsen.com

Do you have a question for Susanne? Email mail@susannemadsen.com