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Are you interested in building high performing teams in your organization? Our strategic planning services offer practical tools to empower leaders and teams, enabling them to work more effectively through conflict and enhance group performance. Learn more about how we can help your teams implement these strategies.
In this Blog, we examine the differences between High-Functioning Teams and High-Performing Teams. Despite the common misconception that both terms are the same, they are in fact two distinct teams with different approaches to achieving success in the workplace.
Since the start of the year, 297 tech companies laid off nearly 95,000 workers, and that’s just in the tech industry. This has left many organizations facing difficult decisions around their team makeup, such as reshuffling and consolidating teams and making hard decisions with limited resources and talent. The challenge for managers is to make the right decision: when forced to decide whom to let go and whom to bring onto their team, do you focus on performance or culture?
Although organizations can and have both. Many don't
Hi, it's Anthony here. I'm the CEO of SME Strategy. In this section of Leader's Digest, I typically give you my perspective on the topic at hand.
The last few years had been a wild ride for businesses of all shapes and sizes. The pandemic has forced many companies to restructure, lay off staff and make difficult decisions as they navigated the economic uncertainty. As a strategy facilitator, my role involves leading the strategic planning process and collaborating with multiple CEOs to explore ways of achieving optimal outcomes for their teams.
During our strategy meetings, I observed an interesting trend: many of them were using the terms 'high performing' and 'high functioning' interchangeably.
At first, I thought nothing of this, but after a few discussions, it became clear that there was a slight difference between them.
High-performance teams focus on measurable goals, such as output and performance. This type of team is often driven by quantitative results.
High-functioning teams, on the other hand, tend to focus on the dynamics between team members. They emphasize cooperation, communication, and collaboration.
Click here to watch Anthony's Perspective
I recently ran a poll on LinkedIn asking what type of team senior executives prefer. The results were clear: The majority of executives responded that they prefer high-functioning teams over high-performance teams.
As a CEO, it’s important to understand the power of a high-functioning team. While it might be tempting to focus solely on the performance of individual contributors, a cohesive group of individuals working together towards a common goal will be more likely to achieve success than a team of individuals who are not as well connected.
To illustrate this point, let’s consider an example. If an organization generates $5 million in revenue and one highly productive individual is not committed to teamwork, it could lead to a loss of $1 million in revenue if they were to leave. However, the benefits of having a team-oriented approach – such as increased motivation and collaboration – can easily outweigh the loss of an individual’s performance. By fostering a team-oriented environment, you can ensure that your organization is set up for success.
Remember that the value of a team cannot be replaced by one single person, and the health of the team should never be sacrificed for the productivity of one individual. High turnover can be an indication that something is amiss, and it is essential to ensure the well-being and success of the team in order to maintain a healthy and productive organization.
When it comes to the differences between a high-performing teams and a high-functioning team, I believe it's important to focus on fostering high-functioning teams first.
Trading off high performance for an individual versus high performance or high function of a team will cost you in the long run.
To gain a well-rounded perspective on the best practices for strategy and leadership success in 2023, we recommend reviewing these pertinent articles.
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There's always a lot going on at SME Strategy. Here's a snapshot of recent and upcoming articles, events, and news.
New Blog:
HOW TO MEASURE AND IMPROVE EMPLOYEE PRODUCTIVITY
In this blog post, our senior facilitator, Jen Scumaci, MBA highlights three truths about employee productivity that every leadership team should take into consideration and offers practical steps on how you can measure and improve the productivity of your teams.
New Blog:
Finding and retaining top talent is harder than ever due to technology, remote working, the global talent pool, and retiring baby boomers. A diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) strategy is one of the best methods to attract and retain the right people in the right roles.
In this blog post, Jenna Sedmak discusses why it is essential to create a culture of inclusivity and acceptance, Why most DEI Strategies fail, and what your organization can do to successfully implement your DEI strategy.