I’ve been thinking about The Characteristics of a High Performance Team.
I was in a conversation with a professional colleague this week, and we were talking about building high performance teams. She talked about the metaphor between sports teams and health care teams, and asked the question …
“Does the sports team truly capture the complexity of health teams?”
Great question. What do you think?
This discussion caused me to reflect back to December of last year when I was in Louisville for a few days. The NCAA Woman’s Volleyball Final Four was being held at the KFC YUM Center. Both of my daughters played volleyball in high school, and both of their teams made it to the Pennsylvania State championship tournament. I became a huge women’s volleyball fan, and I’ve managed to watch some of the final games of the NCAA tournament the past several years.
Since I was going to be in town, I went online and bought tickets to the NCAA Final Game. As it turned out, the two final teams were the Penn State Nittany Lions and the University of Louisville Cardinals … two great teams with a very personal connection … my home state Penn State, and my home town, Louisville.
Well, it was one of the best volleyball games I’ve ever seen, and the Nittany Lions came out on top. What a win! I felt bad for the lady Cardinals after such a wonderful season, but they had nothing to be ashamed of. They have had terrific a season and came out big winners overall.
And I felt great for the Nittany Lions coach, Katie Schumacher-Cawley who has been fighting cancer while guiding her team to a National Championship. Penn State has been a top contender in Women’s Volleyball for the past two decades.
Seven Characteristics of a High Performance Team
Over the years, my wife and business partner, Elizabeth Jeffries, and I have worked with hundreds of teams in health care organizations from hospitals and health systems, to Long Term Care and Senior Living, to Home Care and Hospice, to Medical Schools. We developed a tool called the High Performance Team Assessment Profile, based on the seven characteristics of a High Performance Team.
How about your Home Care Team?
How do you compare to this list of seven characteristics?
- A Mission that Motivates – the team is clear about their purpose and are highly motivated to fulfill that mission.
- A High Level of Trust – there are three forms of trust for a team; contractual trust, disclosure trust, and informational trust.
- Attracting Top Talent – your team is able to attract and retain the very best talent for each position on the team.
- Mastering the Fundamentals – each team member has developed a high level of competency in each of the fundamentals of their role on the team.
- Systems for Communication – the team has developed a clear system for communicating so that each member is clear about what the other members are doing, and how they will interact.
- The Ability to mix Work and Play – high performance teams work hard and play hard. They have the ability to accomplish their goals and then be together in social settings where they enjoy each other.
- They have a High Performance Coach – the coach develops the game plan, drills the fundamentals, helps members develop skills, and guides the team to victory. In my observation, coaching makes the difference between good teams and great teams.
How would you rate your team, or a scale of 1 to 10, on each of these seven characteristics?
How would you rate yourself as the coach of your team? Are you the difference between a good team and a great team?
