Executive coaches are frequently engaged to help executives work on three foundational aspects of high-performance leadership:

       - Productivity

       - Team environment

       - Development of high-potential employees

 In this blog, our spotlight will be on the first of these three aspects: Productivity. In upcoming blogs, we will further explore the other facets of top-tier leadership: Team  Environment ⁽¹⁾ and the Development of High-Potentials.

PRODUCTIVITY UNRAVELED

A team's productivity is a measure of their performance, taking into account the resources they have at their fingertips. Even though productivity is a crucial aspect of successful leadership, it's not an easy target to hit. Steering a team toward high productivity is an intricate endeavor. A group of well-educated, trained, and seasoned professionals does not automatically assure exceptional productivity. Instead, it's a complex interplay of various interconnected elements.

So, what is the key to ensuring the team is highly productive?

To delve deeper into this question, we like to use a formula which is based on Ivan Steiner's productivity-based model⁽²⁾ to show the relationship between a team's collective skills and their interpersonal dynamics:

Actual Productivity (or Performance)= Potential productivity - Losses due to flawed group processes.

Steiner's model underscores the discrepancy between a team's actual productivity and its potential. In other words, only when a team leverages all resources at hand to meet the task's requirements does its actual productivity approach its potential productivity.

A team frequently performs below its potential because of poor processes resulting from motivational and coordination losses.

Motivational losses

Motivational losses materialize when the team members do not exert their maximum effort assuming others will shoulder it, also called "social loafing." Several factors contribute to social loafing within a team environment. Some of these include:

     - The perception that fellow team members are less motivated and will make minimal effort.

     - The assumption that colleagues will compensate for any shortcomings.

     - The feeling that hard work is not adequately appreciated and personal efforts are not recognized.

     - The notion that team members can "blend" into the team and sidestep the adverse effects of underperformance.

A leader's ongoing challenge is to maximize each team member's performance and prevent a team from appearing productive on the surface while riddled with high levels of social loving.

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Coordination losses

Coordination losses happen when there is no synergy between team members or unclear strategies to achieve the goals. In this context, we will examine two principles for managing productivity: Roles and Objectives.

• Roles

To define "roles," we borrow a definition from the sports environment⁽³⁾: A role or function consists of the set of behaviors required or expected of the people who hold a given position on a team. Organizational growth is contingent on the clarity of role definitions. Employees are more motivated if they understand their designated roles and know their expectations. When roles are explicit and well-articulated, individuals are better equipped to cope with high-pressure situations.

What are the consequences of an unclear role definition?

A lack of clear expectations and role definitions can trigger confusion, frustration, and anxiety, demotivating employees and lowering performance. It leaves room for entrenchment, a "bunker mentality," and unhealthy office politics. The resulting disruption can steer collaboration from its primary objective: achieving the goals.

The absence of constructive communication can lead to confusion over pending tasks as individuals try to execute what they believe is best. Conflicts will arise when multiple minds try to control the same events. When everyone is vying for control, but no one is taking responsibility, conflicts inevitably arise, setting the stage for suboptimal outcomes.

So, what can a leader do when there is ambiguity about roles?

It is the leader's responsibility to define the roles in an organization. When employees understand what is expected, it creates a working climate that facilitates optimal work performance. The leader uses team roles to manage productivity by way of the following tasks: comprehensively defining roles, communicating them clearly, making sure that each group member understands them, ascribing importance to each of the team's roles, supporting the full and continuous assumption of the role, and accompanying this with performance objectives.

Productivity loss shows up the most when there is partial or intermittent ownership of roles. Ownership is intermittent when, at times, the role is assumed, and at other times it is not. In turn, ownership is partial when the most enjoyable parts of a role are carried out, but the less appealing tasks are not. The leader must establish compliance for each role within the team.

All roles are essential in a high-performance team, both those that enjoy a public endorsement and those that are carried out anonymously. An important factor affecting a role is the status the leader assigns them. If the leader presents a certain role as trivial, it will be difficult for the designated team member to accept doing this less important or unimportant work. 

• Objectives

Performance objectives are goals with specific results set by leaders that contribute to the success of a business or team. Business performance objectives typically include quality, speed, dependability, flexibility, and cost.

So, how are these performance objectives set?

A leader should focus on individual and group performance objectives to accomplish sustainable results:

1. Group results objectives.
2. Group performance objectives.
3. Individual results objectives.
4. Individual performance objectives

Results objectives answer the question:           What are the group and individual goals?                      

Performance objectives answer the question:  How do we achieve them?

A leader should focus on individual and group performance objectives to accomplish sustainable results.

The foremost mistake leaders make in managing productivity through objectives lies in only setting objectives for results without including performance goals. Even if the outcome is the most desired goal for both the employee and the team, it does not only depend on them: many barely controllable external factors influence the achievement of an outcome. A goal that a team does not control and that does not depend on their level of performance causes uncertainty, worry, and a lot of uneasiness. A well-known phenomenon in the corporate and sports world is that an employee's anxiety and stress levels increase, and positive outcomes decrease when the leader focuses only on achieving results⁽⁴⁾.

Wrapping it up

Organizations often define their leaders according to their mastery of some specific dimensions. Some leaders are considered very good at achieving outstanding performance and getting good results; others are exceptional at leading large teams with a favorable climate; a third group of leaders may be valued for maintaining a high motivation level among all team members. High performance demands that leaders not stand out in one specific dimension but possess comprehensive knowledge across all three dimensions.

The leader builds an environment that accomplishes sustainable results by focusing on individual and performance objectives. It is the leader's responsibility to organize the team roles to create the highest level of productivity. If there is no good team alinement, the leader must re-evaluate roles and responsibilities to achieve higher levels of motivation in people and greater job satisfaction.

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Notes

1) Foundation for creating a high-performing team environment

2). Ivan Steiner, Group Process and Productivity, 1972

3). Weinberg and Gould, Goal setting in sport and exercise1996, p. 190.

4). High-performance corporate leadership skills‍