Are You the Elementary Band Concert or the Symphony Orchestra?
Is your company operating as a high-performance team like a symphony orchestra, or is it toxic and more akin to an elementary school band concert? In other words, do you have a high-performing team or individuals? Is your company stalled, going in circles, and repeatedly addressing the same issues? Do you have regular employee and customer complaints? Then, your people need more cultural alignment for high performance.
As the owner/CEO, you either control and drive intentional purpose and behavior, or each employee will create their own. You can’t possibly read off the same sheet music when everyone is doing their own thing. Thus, your business operates and sounds like an elementary school band concert, not a symphony orchestra. To get your people to read off the same sheet of music and be a high-performance team, you must provide them with the songbook.
Safety
The songbook starts with developing safety and trust. Safety is about moving people from “I” to “We” by establishing safety with one another. For an employee to contribute and participate, they must feel safe as an individual within the company and department, with a sense of connection. Every employee wants to know they are accepted, that their opinions matter, that their ideas will be heard, and that they are valued.
People forge a deeper understanding and appreciation of one another by hearing and seeing each other’s commonalities and differences. Thus, creating a culture of candor is vital for people to have a solid connection. We have often heard the term “work family.” Some take offense to this, saying that work is not your family. However, this kind of deep connection fosters high-performance teams because we feel safe with one another. When someone feels safe, their “I” shifts to “We,” which leads to trust.
Trust
Trust comes from shared risk and vulnerability. Conversations progress from sharing voluntary ideas and thoughts to seeking opinions and help, ultimately revealing weaknesses. When everyone, including leaders, relies on one another for the greater good, it sends a signal of understanding why “I” am here and why “We” are here. The team becomes empowered, contributing and listening with intention and respect. Everyone is grateful for the team’s help.
If your people recognize that everyone, including themselves, has weaknesses, they can move past posturing and get to work. However, if any group member doesn’t trust another member, this will limit their participation. Their feelings of exclusion led to disengagement, inefficiency, and overall disappointing results for the entire group. In other words, the performance is that of an elementary school band concert.
Priorities
Building safety and trust is not easy. People process information based on their own experiences, knowledge, and beliefs. They express their views based on their perceptions with well-meaning intentions. Unfortunately, not every receiver has the same perception. Therefore, the receiver may perceive a well-intended message as personal or negative. One misunderstood intent can impact safety and trust, resulting in a dysfunctional group. One way to prevent this from happening is to set priorities and values, and define fundamental behaviors that outline how people are expected to behave and treat one another. This helps significantly in building and sustaining safety and trust among your team members, creating a high-performance team.
Establishing your priorities creates shared values and an identity for what your company is about, stands for, and believes in. It is the foundation of your company culture. A list of values, typically ranging from five to seven, guides the conduct, attitudes, and activities of your team, including the CEO and those below. Further define each value with a few sentences of expected behaviors to clarify intent. They are marching orders for executing the mission with little to no room for interpretation, as they are critical to the company’s success.
Purpose
The next component to moving your people from “I” to “We” or creating a high-performance team is for them to understand why they are there. This is the company’s mission and vision. Why do we come to work every day, and why do we do what we do? Where are we going?
Mission
A mission is why your company exists. It’s not what you do; it’s why you do it. The company’s purpose, passion, or cause should elicit a powerful and motivating emotional response. The mission is a straightforward statement that is understood and lived by everyone daily. It’s why your people come to work and provides a clear decision-making guide. The action either aligns with the mission or doesn’t. Consider it your company’s “Life, Liberty and Pursuit of Happiness.”
Vision
The vision outlines where the company is headed and how it intends to fulfill its mission. A vision serves as a unifying direction or focal point for all, creating excitement, passion, and energy for the work being done. The vision becomes long-range goals with specific steps to get there. Each department and person has ownership of the plan, with quarterly expectations of results that drive the company forward. People understand why they work for your company and what is expected of them.
Your priorities and purpose must be visible to everyone every day. Discuss it in weekly team meetings and individual coaching conversations, demonstrate it through actions, and repeat it until it becomes a habit for all. Your people can never stop hearing it and seeing it in action. Course-correct unaligned behavior immediately through coaching and candor to ensure that everyone understands the company priorities matter. You reinforce that this is what your company culture is about, stands for, and believes in without wavering. You are giving feedback because this person matters, and you believe in their potential. When your people get it right, publicly showcase, praise, and reward actions and behaviors to reinforce your expectations.
High Performance Team
All of this may seem like you are trying to build a utopia. You’re not. It is a highly accountable, continuously practiced and enforced, strategically designed company culture. You are teaching the notes (what your company stands for) by which you expect your people to play. You are taking individuals, such as elementary school band members, and molding them into a symphony orchestra that delivers your music (products and services) to delighted customers. You are creating your high-performance team. Each person understands why they are part of your orchestra, which instrument they play, and what part of the song they contribute to in creating the harmony of your music.
Need help defining your company’s culture, mission, vision, strategy, and developing a high-performance team? Please reach out. I help businesses seeking their greatest potential find clarity to win. I do this by facilitating and business coaching on company culture, purpose, and performance.
