It is PerformanSe’s firm belief that understanding what motivates your team can help you make performance gains. On the basis of a study of about a hundred teams of different sizes from a variety of sectors conducted using TEAM BOOSTER (a tool for assessing and enhancing collective performance), the publisher identified 4 major team motivators from which they then defined 4 team styles. 

In a previous article, “4 MAJOR TEAM MOTIVATORS” PerformanSe revealed the characteristics and motivations of these 4 team styles (“systematic”, “competitive”, “affinity” and “agile”). But what are the advantages and dangers for each one?

“Systematic” team: take care not to focus too much on procedure

The advantage of a “systematic” team is its unflinching reliability in terms of planning and organisation. Its members know where they’re going right from the outset because everything is dictated by well-oiled procedure. Sometimes, however, all it needs is the tiniest little thing to come along and disrupt their normal working mechanics for there to be a significant impact on the group’s performance. The team also risks being unable to respond to the unexpected because of its hardline approach to following rules and its close attention to detail.

The “competitive” team: take care to manage members’ egos

Those who are said to have “strong competitive spirit” in a team are also often called keen debaters or enthusiastic about their work. The danger for a manager faced with a team made up of strong personalities motivated by their own individual goals is not being able to reach a consensus within the team. Or failure to ensure compliance with decisions that are implemented. The members’ risk-taking can sometimes be an adventure and must therefore be confined to certain limits. Not to mention the issue of managing egos, which can quickly become a headache.

“Affinity” team: take care to avoid uniform thinking

Group work, mediation or coordination pose no problem for affinity teams. The other side of the coin is that despite being able to reach an agreement very easily… the group risks making irrational decisions from time to time. They issue is that they indulge their peers too much or outright avoid any conflict, which prevents the team from challenging itself during the decision-making process. Ultimately, the group’s uniform thinking can have a negative effect on the team’s performance.

“Agile” teams: take care when improvising

Agile teams are creative by nature and stand out from the crowd by their curiosity, their fondness for new developments and innovation, which extends to the way they work together. This strong tendency towards improvisation makes it very difficult for managers to consistently monitor projects and implement standard processes. This type of team spends too much time thinking about the big picture and long term vision at the expense of the finer details, which can mean it occasionally risks hitting a brick wall.

 

“Sometimes helping managers and their employees gain some perspective on their group behaviour can allow them to anticipate risks, while also enhancing their collective performance.”

 

Find out how to keep your team type motivated by downloading the PerformanSe guide :

 

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