A Proven Strategy for Fostering Team Health and Efficiency

This proven strategy works regardless of the team size!

Let me first define what I believe makes a healthy team.

A healthy team...

1. Produces high-quality deliverables
2. Completes projects efficiently, on schedule
3. Showcases and maintains positive team morale

Number 1 and 2 are generally easy to track. Number 3 is more difficult to track but so impactful to 1 and 2.

Here is what I pay attention to on a day-to-day.

Is the team...

1. Communicating clearly and empathetically?
2. Collaborating smoothly and enthusiastically?
3. Working on what's important now (WIN)?
4. Aware of what's important next (WIN)?

Now, let's dive into the specific practices I employ to ensure these three key aspects are continuously met in my team by caring for the individual.

My team is comprised of many autonomous individuals with different beliefs, needs, aspirations, family structure, home environment, etc.

So it's important to understand how each member is doing individually because it affects the team and it's part of the team dynamic.

I look at how each member is managing their attitude, time, resources.

Most importantly, I ask myself these questions...

• Do they feel safe at work?
• Do they feel supported by me/peers?
• Do they enjoy the work that they're doing?
• Is their level of productivity sustainable?

And now the "hard question": Is this scalable?

Yes!

Larger teams can be broken up into Pods (6-8) where each leader has been trained to care for their people and to ask for help from the rest of the leadership team when a need arises.

In tech, we often pay too much attention to the outcomes and not enough attention to the people who produce them.

Final thoughts

I know this strategy is not right for every team and not every company prioritizes a healthy work culture.

P.S. How do you stay on top of your team well-being and performance?

LinkedIn is a great place to connect with me.