How To Turn Team Values Into Team Performance

We previously visited with Adrian Gostick, whose bestselling book The Best Team Wins: The New Science of High Performance offers a wealth of research-based ideas for building cohesive, productive teams. (See “Lackluster Teamwork? Tips For Boosting Performance.”)In this continuation of that conversation, Gostick talks about culture and career development issues.

Rodger Dean Duncan: The culture manifesto at Netflix is often referred to by people wanting to build a high-performing organization. One section of that manifesto says this—“On a dream team, there are no ‘brilliant jerks.’

The cost to teamwork is just too high. Our view is that brilliant people are also capable of decent human interactions, and we insist upon that.” What can leaders do to operationalize that philosophy when forming and managing their teams?

Terrific question. One CEO we interviewed told us his company’s number one salesperson had just been let go because he had been found to be sexually harassing female staff members. As the CEO told us, “While you may pay top performers differently and reward them differently, the rules have to apply to everyone exactly the same.

” Many organizations might try to sweep his actions under the rug because he was such a high performer, but the CEO said: “How long would that have taken to get out? A few days at most. And it would have given our company a black eye. There are no secrets in an organization.”

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