Recently, we spoke about the importance of team development for achieving breakthrough performance. But once we recognise the power of teams, the next question is: how do we understand and elevate their performance?
Imagine this scenario: you’ve just landed in a new role. You’re tasked with driving change and delivering standout performance outcomes. You plot your first 90 days, evaluating the usual levers – capital, technology, and product. You consider the structure of your business and the quality of the people on your team; maybe you change or move one or two of them.
But do you assess the quality of the teams across your leadership?
Sure, on an informal level, you get a sense of which teams are running smoothly and which are struggling. Your instinct might tell you that certain groups are more effective than others. But is that enough? Do you really know what’s going on within your leadership teams?
Taking a more systematic look at the top few levels of teams in your organisation can provide the insights you need to answer some critical questions:
- Are my teams performing at a high level?
- What makes the top-performing teams so successful?
- What’s holding the lower-performing teams back?
While we regularly evaluate individual performance through assessments, reviews, and coaching, we don’t always apply the same level of focus and rigour to understanding and improving our teams. This is a missed opportunity: teams, not individuals, drive breakthrough performance.
To get the best out of your teams, you need more than gut instinct. You need data and insight – you need to understand the strengths and challenges of the collective.
We created the X-Model to help teams unlock their full potential.
It empowers teams (and their leaders) with the data-backed insight they need to build trust, define their collective goals, and drive high performance.
Find out more here.