Chapter 3

Team Performance Management

Team performance Management
Building and leading high performance teams
A team is defined as a group of people who perform interdependent tasks to
work toward accomplishing a common mission or specific objective.
A "high-performance work team" refers to a group of goal-focused individuals
with specialized expertise and complementary skills who collaborate, innovate
and produce consistently superior results.
The challenges are that in any team environment people must work closely
together to achieve results.
They must work effectively across the organization to accomplish tasks and
objectives quickly enough to remain competitive.
Additional challenges include team conflicts, obtaining maximum results from
virtual teams and managing highly diverse teams – maintaining teamwork
mentality while capitalizing on the diversity of talents, skills, knowledge and
personalities within the team.
Stages of Team Development

Dr. Bruce Tuckman, an early psychology researcher focused on group

dynamics, developed a four-phase model of team development that
included forming, storming, norming and performing.

Refinement by other researchers has resulted in a well-known team

development process that provides a useful framework for leaders and team
members seeking to understand the nature of group dynamics and their
evolution.
The four typically recognized stages of the process include:

• Forming. Individuals are trying to get to know each other and the
organization and have not formed a commitment to the team. This stage is
typically fairly short, maybe only lasting as long as the first meeting. It is at
this stage that team members are introduced to one another, goals and
objectives are stated, discussions are held delineating how work will be
accomplished within the team and how goals and objectives will be met.
Leader’s responsibilities at the Forming stage:
• Establish clear objectives and team accountability expectations
• Remove roadblocks that may prevent the team from accomplishing goals
• Provide timely feedback on the team’s progress
• Storming. At this stage, reality sets in. Team members may jockey for position and seek
clarification of their roles. The rules are now defined. Some people are ready to get to the
tasks of the team, while others may be feeling overwhelmed with the amount of work to be
accomplished. The goal(s) and the worthiness of the team objectives may be questioned..
• This stage can be very emotional. Everyone is often on a different page. They may feel
frustrated trying to accomplish goals and objectives for which they will be held
accountable when they do not feel that they have neither the support of established
processes nor the support of fellow team members. This is the stage where many teams
fail.
Leader’s responsibilities at the Storming stage:
• Assist the team in establishing processes and structure
• Resolve team conflicts
• Assist the team members in building good working relationships
• Provide support to individual team members who may be struggling
• Remove roadblocks that prevent the team from accomplishing goals
• Provide timely feedback on the team’s progress
• Norming. If the team makes it through the Storming stage, eventually they
move into the Norming stage. Natural leaders emerge, the team is beginning
to work synergistically, relying on one another for advice and help, and they
may even be socializing together.
• There may be an overlap between the Storming and Norming stage. As new
and more challenging tasks arise, the team may lapse back into the Storming
stage. With time and as trust builds among the team members, the Storming
behaviors eventually cease.
Leader’s responsibilities at the Norming stage:
• Allow the team to work more independently
• Provide support in the form of resources, training to develop the skills
necessary to perform their jobs, and/or teambuilding events
• Remove roadblocks that may prevent the team from accomplishing goals
• Provide timely feedback on the team’s progress
• Performing. At this stage,
• Team members feel accepted and communicate openly with the leader. The
leader focuses on delegating responsibilities and must identify when the
team is moving into a different stage.
• At this stage, leaders are able to delegate more work to the team and can
also focus on developing the team members.
Leader’s responsibilities at the Performing stage:
• Delegate at much as it is reasonable to do so
• Allow the team as much autonomy as possible/trust them to work on their
own with minimal check-ins from you
• Remove roadblocks that may prevent the team from accomplishing goals
• Provide timely feedback on the team’s progress
Key take- away
Be transparent and honest in communicating team expectations
Train teams to enhance team effectiveness
Provide direction to enhance team performance
Use team-based performance appraisals to develop employees
Use the performance appraisal process to align team and
organizational goals
Link rewards to team performance
 Virtual Teams
A virtual team is a group of individuals who work together in pursuit of
common goals across time, space and organizational boundaries.
They are linked electronically by webs of communication technology
(e.g., the Internet, Skype, WebEx, internal networks).
Members of a virtual team coordinate their work predominantly with
electronic information and communication technologies to accomplish
specific organizational tasks and may never meet face to face.
 Virtual teams allow companies to obtain the best talent possible for a
specific project without geographical restrictions.
They are also generally viewed as more efficient in expenditures of time
and related travel costs.
Remote Working
• Remote work is a working style that allows professionals to work
outside of a traditional office environment. It is based on the concept
that work does not need to be done in a specific place to be executed
successfully.
• There are a variety of ways in which people can work remotely.
For example: some people have the opportunity to work remotely for
the majority of the working week, but have to commute to in-person
meetings at the office one day a week. On a typical day, these remote
employees work from their home offices or nearby cafés and can work
from their company’s office when it’s necessary.
Coworking spaces
Prerequisites of remote team performance
• Set Expectations. ...
• Communicate Effectively. ...
• Have a Daily meeting. ...
• Avoid Micromanaging. ...
• Employee engagement. ...
• Appreciate Performance.
Virtual Team Building Activity
Team Leader
• Team leading is the process of motivating people to act towards a
desired outcome.
• Effective team leading helps inspire people and engage them to fully
utilize their potential.
• In short, a team leader is someone who provides direction, guidance
and support, besides overseeing the overall functioning of the team.
HOW TO LEAD A TEAM EFFICIENTLY

 COMMUNICATE CLEARLY
 ENGAGE YOUR EMPLOYEES
 TRUST YOUR EMPLOYEES
 BE FAIR AND KIND
 BALANCE THE PERSONAL & PROFESSIONAL
Designing Performance Appraisals Programs
There are several factors to consider when designing a performance
appraisal program. These factors include
 considering the persons who will be involved with designing the
program,
 assessing the past,
 setting program goals, and
 deciding what gets measured.
Six tips on how to conduct an effective
performance appraisal.
1. Be prepared
2. Create a joint agenda
3. Discuss challenges and successes
4. Discuss ideas for development and action
5. Agree actions that need to be taken
6. Summarize the meeting and express support
Feedback Mechanism
 Performance feedback is a communications process
 It should be ongoing meaning as adjustments are made based on the
information exchanged between manager and team member
 The focus of this feedback can relate to the skills, behaviors, attitudes
and knowledge an individual within a group articulates (www.hbr.org,
2017)
 The purpose of a feedback mechanism is not to provide a review of
your past behavior
 Feedback mechanisms are naturally forward focused because they
connect your current actions to your future results
Individual and Team Rewards
• The reward, or parts of the reward, for reaching a goal or performing
an action in the game is given to only one of the players. Example:
the items given as a reward for completing a goal in a roleplaying game
are usually distributed amongst the players as Individual Rewards.

• Team-based rewards are commonly defined as any formal incentives

provided to a work team or at least one of its individual team
members. Rewards may be based on organizational, team, or team
member performance or other outcomes (e.g., sales, customer
satisfaction, and profit).
6 STRATEGIES TO DELIVER EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE
FEEDBACK

1. Time it right
2. Prepare
3. Ditch the “sandwich approach” or “Hamburger approach”
4. Understand the power of negative feedback
5. But don’t assume that everyone wants only positive feedback
6. Avoid gender (and other) biases
Performance Management Guidelines
1. Business Requirements
2. Goal Setting
3. Desirable Features
4. Check the User-friendliness
5. Compatibility with the existing system
6. Quick Feedback
7. Software Support
8. Learning Modules
9. Real-time Reports
10. Live Software Demo
Common problems in assessment
1) Compare/contrast error
2) Similarity error
3) Bias
4) Stereotyping
5) The Halo effect
6) Recency effect
7) Attribution error
8) Leniency and Severity tendencies
Ways to avoid pain during appraisals

1) Communicate feedback regularly

2) Train managers to conduct appraisal meetings
3) Take genuine interest in employee development
4) Lessen administrative overhead
5) Use simple and easy to handle software
a. A view of the self-feedback (and other relevant feedback). This will
help managers to easily understand and frame their own thoughts.
b. A view of their own personal notes / or regular feedback notes.
c. Guidance text on how to give feedback on certain scenarios.
d. Automatic feedback saver, save and complete later options
Case Study