Q&A: What Makes a World Class Team?

Confessions 3.5.25 Mary & Layci
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Mary: [00:00:00] Welcome to Confessions of a Terrible Leader, where real leaders share the raw truth about the lessons they learned the hard way so you don't have to. Join our host, Laci Nelson, founder of Transcend Leadership Collective and former Terrible Leader. On this podcast, we invite you to step into the confessional and get real with the messy stories and behind the scenes reality of leadership.

Mary: Let's get to it. Hello, friends, and welcome back to Confessions of a Terrible Leader. Take care. I'm your friendly neighborhood podcast producer, Mary Skopp, here today with our president, founder, CEO of Transcend Leadership Collective. Laci, welcome back to your own show. Why, thank you. Thank you. As we are recording this, we are right at the end of February.

Mary: Yes. Yes. So everyone getting to the end of Q1, maybe they're figuring out, okay, this was a good goal. This wasn't a good goal. Right. With those things in mind, as we are nearing the [00:01:00] end of a quarter, kind of reconfiguring and reassessing what worked for the team, what didn't work for the team, what worked for the company as a whole, let's talk about teams.

Mary: Got it. Specifically the question, what makes a world class team? Loaded question.

Layci: Totally loaded question. And I'm here for it. I love it. Okay.

Mary: Awesome. Okay. So ready, set, go. It's all yours.

Layci: Okay. Okay. So what I want to say before I go into like, what are the hallmarks of a world class team? Is that this is the culmination of a progression.

Layci: So I'm going to cast a vision for what you're shooting for. But if you don't start here, if you try to go out and if you try to run a marathon, but you haven't even done a couch to 5k and you're still on the couch, don't jump into the marathon. You're going to be in a world of hurt because you're, you and your team aren't ready for it.

Layci: So I want to make sure that I preface it. With that reality that this [00:02:00] is something that is worked into, I mean, listen to our podcast catalog. If you would like to see the steps required, I mean, there's a lot to getting to this point, but it's nice to have. What is that benchmark? What am I shooting for?

Layci: What am I using to benchmark our progress when it comes to what is a world class team? So that is my preface. Now, what are these hallmarks of a team that is just killing it? And this isn't just my thoughts. This is evidence of having the privilege to have worked with and be working with some of those teams.

Layci: And also what the research shows us. There's been a lot of research over the years into this question and about a billion books written on it. So much. So much.

Mary: No shortage of leadership in teams books.

Layci: So we are going to really distill this down into a few benchmarks or a few actual ultimate North stars that you can benchmark against.

Layci: First one, how do you know you have a team that's absolutely killing it? Well, you're a high performance team, [00:03:00] meaning you're not only meeting output expectations, you're often exceeding output expectations. As a unit, every single member of your team is not only pulling their own weight, they're looking to the people next to them and saying, how can I help you so we can all get there together?

Layci: There's not siloing of departments. There's definitely well defined functions of departments, but we all view each other as one another's customers as much as we view our external customers as customers. Really having that ability to work together and collectively when you're doing that well, you have massive levels of output.

Layci: People go, how does your team get all of that done? Right. That's one marker. Yeah. And it's done well. Not just like shoddily done. It's done well. And people aren't packing resentments. That's number two is like you have a really healthy team dynamic and good healthy norms. Meaning, you don't have people that are feeling like, well, that person's not pulling their weight.

Layci: Or, there's not all of [00:04:00] these, what we consider workplace politics and drama things happening under the surface. Those don't exist because you have a healthy immune system of your organization, of your team. So when your team knows what the norms are, meaning this is how we talk to each other. We don't talk about each other.

Layci: We talk to each other when we have a problem. This is how we show up for our customer. This is how we show up for each other. This is the quality of work that we put out. This is how we show up when it's time to go. When we're working on something together, we come ready. Those are all just little things around norms that every team has.

Layci: But unless you explicitly have an understanding of this is who we want to be and how we want to function, and you've taken the time to cultivate that within your team. Often, the norms are not intentional. They're just kind of what they are. Right. Not the recipe for success. You have intentional norms that you know [00:05:00] how you want to move through your work as a team, how you treat each other, how you talk to each other, what it feels like to be on the team, what it feels like for other people to be on the team, what do you want to be known for.

Layci: I mean, we could go on and on, but those are just some of the things. You have those norms and the healthy immune system. What the heck does that mean? That means that when you have team members that are coming into the team or are starting to violate those norms, it isn't quote unquote the boss's job to get it in check immediately.

Layci: I mean, it's always their accountability, right? But what happens is often the team immune system kicks in and those things get organically course corrected by their peers. And it's not in a punitive, what are you doing, telling me what I can and can't do. Remember, that's not the hallmark of a team that is there for each other.

Layci: It's like, hey, I see that you've been really off in this area. What supports do you need? When you're always assuming the best of each other, that immune system kicks in and it comes from a [00:06:00] place of care when you notice the norms are off. And so that typically, those course corrections. Then it takes some of the pressure off of the leader to always be policing because if your team's killing it, a lot of that is just organically happening and it's not policing, it's support.

Layci: So healthy immune system kicks in, you're supporting each other.

Mary: I love how you break down the framework, establishing that you don't start there. The hallmarks of what makes a world class team, it's intentional practice of this along the way. As many of you listeners may know, I'm a musician, so I'm obsessed with practice.

Mary: And the funny thing about practice is that it works. Yeah. And of course, the hope is that, and this does apply to developing world class teams, but as you grow as a musician, you're putting in hours of practice. hours and hours. You're honing your craft. Yep. As you grow as a musician with the right mentor, teacher, the hope is that you become smarter and smarter and more refined in how you [00:07:00] practice.

Mary: We talk a lot in the music world about perfect practice with the understanding that there's no such thing as perfect practice. But the idea is that are you sitting at the keyboard or whatever or piano, whatever your instrument may be, are you fully engaged? Do you have. A plan for how you're approaching this prelude or whatever you're playing, especially if it is a large scale work.

Mary: Like if you dive in, it's just like, I'm just going to play this from beginning to end. Guess what's always going to be shaky? The end. Always. Because your beginning, you know, you're going to hit that, but you would be surprised at how often the ending is neglected and doesn't get actually worked nearly as much as the beginning.

Mary: All that to say, just drawing those parallels between my world as a musician and what I observe being a. part of Transcend Leadership Collective and how we function as a team, it's really extraordinary. But you don't get there overnight. No. And that is where good leadership really comes into play.

Mary: Because [00:08:00] as team members, you can't just do all these things out of nowhere. There has to be a precedent set. There has to be leadership.

Layci: Yes. I love it. I love you bringing in your lived experience, which comes to my third point, beautifully. So, awesome. A really amazing team is comprised of people of varied life experiences.

Layci: They have varied lived experiences. So when you're looking at a team from the outside that can look like a lot of different, you know, a mix of ages, a mix of socioeconomic backgrounds, a mix of genders, all of the different variables that make up humanity. The more varied life experience you have on the team, the richer your product is going to be.

Layci: Whatever your product is, when you have the capacity to have honest communication, healthy conflict acceptance, respect, and trust, like we're imagining that's dialed in, right? That's when you really get the most beautiful product, because it's [00:09:00] not just one or two perspectives that are refining it, that are adding their thoughts to it, that are holding it up to a lens of a musician, of an artist, of someone who has this completely different lived life experience when it comes to even what socioeconomic status you grew up in.

Layci: You're going to come with a lot different questions and approaches, and that's going to, when done well, you're going to have the best healthy task conflict over and over again, which then lends itself to the fourth hallmark. I think I got my counting right, which is innovation. And a team that has all of that at play is able to not only come up with the best product, the key to that.

Layci: It's innovation. Is your team innovative? Are you coming up with really interesting, non traditional, or unexpected solutions? If your team is just copying what everybody else is doing, you're not innovative. And some things don't necessarily need to be innovative, right? Not [00:10:00] everything needs to be innovative.

Layci: Maybe your product is cups. Cups are not likely going to change. There's no need for a disruption. But I would say the processes you're using probably has room for innovation. Yeah. Looking for efficiencies. that you're missing. That's innovation. Even just understanding innovation beyond just the end product that the user is going to experience, whether it's a service or an actual physical product, a really innovative team can come up with and refine, always be refining.

Layci: And this is an outgrowth of the growth mindset, but always be refining how they do things and being open to going, you know what? that worked up until now, we need to look at something different and not have it turn into a fear spiral or change resistance. Right. Innovation. If your team is innovative, that is a key hallmark.

Layci: And what's really interesting is during COVID times, the C word. Yes. When everyone [00:11:00] transitioned to the work from home and people were freaking out over productivity, which our team has always been a hundred percent remote. So it wasn't a big change for us, but. The productivity factor is what everyone was scared was going to go down and what they found, interestingly enough, in several different studies, like MIT Sloan did one, HPR did one, was not that productivity actually went down.

Layci: Productivity actually stayed the same and or actually increased because of less distraction, less commute time, all of that. What did

Mary: decrease? That makes sense. Mm hmm. And you have to have capacity to innovate.

Layci: Yes.

Mary: Yeah.

Layci: Also true. Very good point. Mary, speak to that for just a second. Sure. Capacity to innovate.

Layci: What does that mean?

Mary: I wholeheartedly agree, and I see that play out in the team all the time that you have to innovate. And innovation in itself is a fine line because it's very easy to get enamored with the latest workflow or platform or software. That's not innovation, that's shiny [00:12:00] object syndrome.

Layci: Yes,

Mary: thank

Layci: you.

Mary: Yes, but innovation, yes, absolutely. But in order to innovate, you have to have the capacity. You have to have the brain space. This is assuming that the workload is well distributed. Roles are well defined. People know what they're doing. They know the why behind it, which is huge. When those foundational things are in place, you are so much more likely to actually have the capacity as individuals and as a team to innovate.

Mary: When you are experiencing worldwide trauma, it's hard to have capacity to innovate. Collective trauma. That was the phrase I was looking for. Collective trauma. So there has to be space to innovate. But yeah, wholeheartedly agree.

Layci: Absolutely. Has to be space to innovate. We could do a whole nother podcast on the connection between innovation and employee well being, right?

Layci: Oh,

Mary: yeah.

Layci: The happiness number and rights. There's so much there. There's a series there. Yeah. In the

Mary: interest. Noted. Noted. Because that would be really fun because [00:13:00] there's so many studies behind that. But yes, noted.

Layci: Yes. Innovation. What does it really take to support your team? Yeah. The other final hallmark of a team that's just Slaying that's out there aspirational for you to be like, yes, I want this is that every single member on the team is taking extreme ownership.

Layci: But I'm going to take that to the next level because I think we all have a general understanding of extreme ownership. You take full responsibility for the things that are in your lane. It starts and stops with you. I always say your team is in a good place if there's a mistake made and everybody's immediately trying to take blame for where their piece contributed to it.

Layci: We're like, It's like a game of Hungry Hippos for blame taking instead of like hot potato of like, well, my department didn't do it, you know, it's the opposite. That wasn't

Mary: me. That wasn't me. Yeah, exactly.

Layci: Yeah. We always get blamed for everything around here. Like that. If that is a common theme, you're not there yet.

Layci: Right. But you want to be taking that extreme ownership. But I think a [00:14:00] step further. Into even more dynamicism. Is that a word?

Mary: Dynamicism? No, maybe.

Layci: It should be. Okay. Look at me innovating words. Is that how it works? That's fun. So, anyways, listeners, thank you for bearing with me and my terrible sense of humor.

Layci: What is that next step in extreme ownership? It really is when you start to see, especially people that are the head of departments in full alignment with the vision, mind you. So they're not, what I'm going to say doesn't mean they're going off on their own tangent. They're full alignment with the vision, full alignment with the core values.

Layci: But they're really taking that next level of intrapreneurship. So not everybody is born to be an entrepreneur. You have to have an extremely high risk tolerance. Yep. It is not something that everybody loves or wants to do. Yep. However, when they have just a little bit of [00:15:00] buffer. Where if they are extremely talented, because you're attracting the best, if you're one of the killer teams, you're attracting the best, this is why I said you can't start here, don't start with this expectation, and then wonder why the department had all these glitches, so you've had your warnings, my friends, but if your team really is At that level, or you have a department excelling.

Layci: When you look at what are those hallmarks, they've taken it from just a level of ownership to entrepreneurship, and that is where they are running their department or their team, like a mini business within the business. And they have exceeded even your expectations for what you thought was possible because the creativity is just off the charts.

Layci: The innovation is high. All these things that we talked about for a collective team, they're running their department that way. They are leading their department that way. And it also takes a high level of skill because at the same time, they can't become insular and siloed. Right? Right. I think we do see that sometimes, [00:16:00] but the breakdown is that they become disconnected from the rest of the team in a way that is not healthy.

Layci: Like we have dual citizenship. A great entrepreneur has dual citizenship. You are a citizen. You are a member of your core leadership team, which is the CEO, the directors. It's who's making the decisions. So you're a member of that country. And then also your second citizenship is your team, right? You are responsible.

Layci: You're accountable for your team, but you have loyalty and accountability to both. So a really good entrepreneur manages that exceptionally well and they are helping their team rise to the occasion and they're running it like a super smooth unit and they're being that ambassador and that bridge to the collective whole.

Layci: And we all see each other as customers. So there you go. That was a lot. Really fast.

Mary: Yeah.

Layci: Right. Fire. Comments. [00:17:00] And

Mary: don't forget listeners that we are on YouTube and that is a great place to leave questions in the comments. I monitor those and I see all of those and if you have any question regarding teams or leadership or you want to learn more about Transcend Leadership Collective.

Mary: just drop a comment in our YouTube channel and I will be sure to make sure that goes to the right place and that you are heard. Laci, thank you so much. That was amazing rapid fire of what makes world class teams.

Layci: Right.

Mary: And that is definitely something that I get to see played out frequently on our team and it's just truly an incredible experience.

Mary: So thank you for your time. Yes. And sharing your expertise.

Layci: If anyone, if you're listening and you're like, you missed one, I want to know, let me know, we are open to, what did I leave out? This has been really

Mary: fun.

Layci: I like it. [00:18:00] Yes. It's fun to get to be on the other side. Yes.

Mary: No, I enjoy them very much as well.

Mary: And I was praying that I wouldn't have a visitor this morning because I have a child who is going into school later today. And, but yeah, we're good. No visitors. We're fine. We made it. Awesome. Well, thank you again, Lace. And listeners. Till next time, go manage like a leader. Thanks for listening to Confessions of a Terrible Leader.

Mary: If you're feeling brave and have your own terrible leader story that you'd like to share, head over to Transcend leadership collective.com/podcast to fill out a guest application. We'd love to hear from you. Confessions of a Terrible Leader is hosted by Lacey Nelson and produced and edited by Fixation Point Productions.

Mary: Music is by Leif Olsen and Mary Skop from the band. The number of months. Confessions of a Terrible Leader is a free leadership resource offered by Transcend Leadership Collective. If you are ready to refuse the limits of average leadership and join the leadership revolution, visit transcendleadershipcollective.

Mary: com to check out our offerings for engaging workshops, [00:19:00] strategic planning, and more. Thank you so much for listening. Don't forget to like, subscribe, and leave us a review. And until next time, go manage like a leader.