Understand the principles behind high-performance teams and player-centered leadership.
Review by Robert Morris for First Friday Book Synopsis
June 5, 2009
Howard Guttman draws upon several decades of extensive experience with thousands of executives across hundreds of companies worldwide to offer in this volume everything he has learned about how developing high-performance individuals and teams can create and sustain a high-performance organization. He asserts that there is a "code" to be cracked and cites several dozen examples of executives who have done so. Guttman correctly points out that effective collaboration is essential at all levels and in all areas of an organization, regardless of its size or nature. Moreover, the focus must be on cross-functional team initiatives.
"Great teams make great organizations. Period.Good and mediocre teams make good and mediocre organizations. They meet deadlines, stay within budget, and maintain the status quo. But they do not push the envelope. They do not typically reach for performance breakthroughs. It is unlikely they will set the world on fire. And over the long haul, they will take you out of the game."
According to Guttman, great business teams are led by high-performance leaders who:
Create a "burning platform" for change.
Are visionaries and architects.
Know they cannot do it alone.
Build and nourish authentic relationships.
Model the behaviors they expect from their team members.
In unique and effective ways, "redefine" the fundamentals of leadership.
I wholly agree with Guttman that members of great teams are "us-directed." They tend to use only first-person plural pronouns (i.e., we, us, our). Great teams play by protocols such as these ten agreed-upon ways of working together at Chico's FAS in areas such as conflict resolution, decision-making, meetings, and determining performance expectations for both individual team members and their leader:
Be candid and straightforward.
Be receptive to others' points of view.
Be accountable for your results and behavior.
Hold others accountable for their results and behavior.
Let go of "stories."
Resolve it or let it go.
Do not triangulate.
Do not accuse or allege in absentia.
Depersonalize (i.e., focus on issues, not individuals).
Structure decision-making and follow the process.
Guttman asserts that great teams continually raise the performance bar rather than allow complacency. They also have a supportive performance management system that provides the necessary resources.
"In order to effect permanent behavior change, a team's performance management system must support the new expectations [perhaps what Jim Collins characterizes as a "BHAG," a Big Hairy Audacious Goal]. Team and individual goals have to be crystal clear; the necessary technical and interpersonal skills must be provided; performance has to be monitored, and feedback must be timely and well thought out. Unless there are positive consequences for staying in support of the given initiatives—and negative ones for retreating—most people will quickly revert to old, safe ways of behaving. That is why great teams only flourish when there are positive consequences [e.g., financial incentives and rewards] for embracing team values and negative ones for flouting them."
The Chico's FAS list of protocols is one example of the reader-friendly tools that Guttman skillfully uses throughout his narrative. Other tools include:
Self-audit questions to determine adaptability to the player-centric leadership imperative (Pages 39–40).
Six principles guiding leadership development (Pages 41–43).
Characteristics of a "great player" mindset (Pages 50–60).
A graphic illustrating the four stages of team development from hierarchical to horizontal (Page 82).
Insights into how great teams make decisions (Pages 131–133).
Behavioral protocols that great teams insist on (Page 147).
Methods for managing key issues (Pages 148–149).
Ten elements of high-performance communication (Pages 156–158).
The five "musts" for building great organizations (Pages 171–181).
Readers will also appreciate the two appendices, which include a review of the key components of "Player-Centered Leadership" and "The Skills of a Great Team Member."
One of Guttman’s most important points, reiterated throughout his narrative, is that all great leaders are also great team members, and all team members must also provide leadership. What he proposes is high-performance collaboration within the structure of a meritocracy.
"Cracking that code does not guarantee a perfect outcome every time you engage in competitive play. But, by changing your game, you will acquire a sustained competitive advantage and the ability to excel in a very different marketplace. Make the change, and you will likely join the ranks of the great leaders and teams he discusses in his book."
I congratulate Howard Guttman on what I consider to be a brilliant achievement.