Introduction:

In an organisation, the teams, which are highly focused in the work and generate superior outputs resulting in the profit of the business and attainment of the business goals, are considered the high performance teams (Ma, Zhang, Zhang and Lam 2017). The members of the team have specific and well-defined roles and possess the complementary skills and talents for performing the roles effectively. These teams are expected to show high level of collaboration, intelligence and above all commitment towards the organisation. The members of the high performance teams are often expected to change their roles and thus it is expected that they will have expertise and knowledge in various areas rather than in a particular area.

It is generally assumed that the high performance teams, since they are experts in their field and are the most productive ones in the organisation, they do not require motivation or encouragement. This, however, is a misconception since the continuous work pressures, performance expectations actually exhaust them, and it has been found that they are getting de motivated.

The present report shall analyse the need and process of encouraging the high performance teams in Accenture, a well-known Fortune 500 brand company in Ireland. The report will analyse various issues related with the performance and will provide measures for their encouragement.

Characteristics of High Performance Teams:

No two groups of various organisations can be considered as identical. However, there are certain shared understandings that make a group work effectively and makes a measure of performance effectiveness. The performance work teams are generally viewed as the groups that are composed with people having purpose, talents, skills, performance ethics, communication skills, motivation, efficacy, norms and standards and power (Duck 2014). The mean characteristics of the high performance teams can be stated as follows:

1. The team is constituted as the social entities that are responsible for working together towards the common long term or short term goals of the organisation. They are expected to have commitment not only towards the organisation but also towards each other and support the true essence and meaning of the team’s mission and values. The process requires the clarification of the purpose and tying the roles and responsibilities of the individuals.

2. The high performance teams are generally initiated by making a group of the company’s best talents who in turn end up in raising the bar and helping the low performing members. The team members show a sustained commitment towards the possession of skills and the performance excellence (VALDéS, Chávez, and Angelelli 2014).

3. The monetary as well as the non monetary benefits and recognitions are regarded to be one of the most essential factors for the high performance teams. These processes seem to have a positive effect on the implementation of the goal setting plans by the company.

4. The high performance work teams are generally accompanied by the high performance leaders. The leaders are expected to posses the qualities that will a) help in keeping the goals an approaches relevant with the mission of the company, b) building confidence and commitment among the embers, c) ensuring that the members of the team are getting enough scopes and utilising them for developing their competencies, d) help in providing opportunities for others without seeking the credits etc.

5. the common types of high performance teams that are currently existing in Accenture, Ireland are the work teams who are responsible for providing services, parallel teams, who are from various work units to perform those functions that the organisation is not able to do. Other internal high performing teams include Project teams for particular projects and virtual teams that are linked by electronic means of communication technologies.

Common Challenges faced by High Performing teams:

1. problematic leadership- since all the members are of superior level in their expertise, it has been seen that they are failing in using democratic leadership style in engaging all the members.

2. Poor decision making- Since the members have huge pressure of expectations and performance, they often end up in making intitutive decisions without any rationale.

3. poor communication- though it is is expected that the high performance teams will excel in inter personal and communication skills, they often turn out to be cold towards one another when it comes to the issue of collaboration and credit sharing.

4. Conflicts- It has often been found that the members of the high performance team are not being able to manage the conflicts transparently and are allowing grudges to be built up (Zweifel 2013.).

5. Negative atmosphere: the teams often faces an overall negative atmosphere where the culture is not open and well integrated.

6. Zero error pressure- the members, being the most trusted and the competent ones are often overloaded with tasks and expectations. this leads most of them in suffering from zero error syndrome causing stress and affecting productivity.

Encouraging the high performance teams:

Encouraging the high performance teams seems to be a necessary act required by the management to perform effectively in order to sustain the high quality of the teams. The constant problems and challenges faced by the members result in the de motivation and shifting focus from the goal. Thus, team needs to be constantly encouraged even to some extent more than the other teams.

1. Motivating the high performance teams:

The concept of work motivation is generally defined as the “set of energetic forces that originate both within as well as beyond an individual’s being, to initiate work related behaviour and to determine its form, direction, intensity and duration.” It is generally assumed that the members of the high performance teams are motivated people who have strong focus in work and commitment towards the organisation. However, there exists a constant struggle among every employee to make a balanced attitude towards the strategic goals of the organisation and their individual goals or needs. The disparity between the two occurs when there is a gap in communication in understanding the expectations from each other. The proper motivation of the team thus will primarily include the identification of the individual needs. According to the Theory of needs as proposed by Mc Cleland, people who exhibits superiority in competencies, generally have the needs of three particular things namely, need for achieving, need for affiliation and need for power ( Pinder 2014). Since the people in the high performance teams are categorised as superior than other employees, there is an inherent desire to dominate or exert the power. Often some of them can be classified to have the drive for striving towards excellence and to achieve a task better than others. The needs for affiliation can be described as the urge of having friendly inter personal relationships with others and companionships. In motivating the team, the management needs to learn about their personalities and needs. Isabel Briggs-Myers and her MBTI theory is one of the major theory used for measuring the personalities of the team members. The theory is developed based on the responses of the respondents on how they view the world. The proper understanding of the ways that the individuals perceive the world is a good source of understanding their needs and concerns. The management can motivate the members by assigning the profiles suitable for their needs. The people with high need for powers can be given leadership or supervisory tasks while the people with achievement needs can be given jobs that are critical.

The recognition of the tasks and the remunerations based on the achievements is one of the major criteria of motivation. While it is to be understood that being a part of the high performance team is a matter of prestige and a sign of recognising the efforts. However, it can be tiresome and mundane at times, if they are not constantly encouraged to strive for better. Fixation in the roles is one of the major negative results of such de motivation. Control over resources, achievement both in monetary and non-monetary fields, feedbacks are considered to be the ways of encouraging and motivating the team as well as employees. Belbin created a list of nine roles that every team should have. These roles are Plant, Resource investigator, Coordinator, Shaper, Monitor Evaluator, Team Worker, Implementer, Completer-Finisher, and Specialist (Cook and Artino Jr 2016.). The proper assigning of the roles according to needs and the expectancy theory as proposed by Vroom will enhance the motivational force (Moura, Dias, Dominguez and Varajão 2014.).

2. Leadership in encouraging the team:

According to John Adair, the leadership of the high performance team must be action centric. This leadership is often defined as the three-circle model that comprises of the individual, the team and the task. All the three elements are overlapped and the leadership competencies include the achievement of the tasks, the managing of the team and managing the individuals, which make e team (Odumeru and Ogbonna 2013). The leader is expected to have a good communication skill primarily so that he is able to communicate the definite goals to the team and the individual. He is also responsible for the delegation of the works to the team members and set the standard. In managing the team, he must be able to resolve conflicts and maintain the discipline of the team. The high performance teams are generally entrusted with complicated tasks and the pressure of good work is an additional burden for them. The leaders need to effectively motivate the team by focusing on high people and the task focus. The leader needs to establish the culture empowerment, commitment, task and respect among the team so that it results in both employee satisfaction and high productivity (O’Neill and McLarnon 2018.). Since the high performance teams are already known as the experts in their fields, dictatorship on them may impact them negatively (Landis, Hill and Harvey 2014.). The leaders must focus on theory Y type of leadership where he knows that the members are already competent but need some facilitation regarding any problematic issues.

Performance Management:

The most important factor in encouraging the high performance team is managing their performances. High stress levels and constant strive for being the best often affects the performance. However, judging an employee only based on the output is a partial approach of managing the performance. It is to be understood that in the era of globalisation and competition, training and introducing all the employees with the new technologies and the company strategies is required even for the members of high performing teams. The management has to chalk out effective programs for training them so that they feel competent in taking up new responsibilities and tasks (Bianchi 2016). Moreover, feedbacks on their strengths and monetary as well as non-monetary benefits as a recognition for their works encourage the team members in retaining their state of excellence. Performance management of the high performing team may include the rating of the members not just according to their skills as individual but according to the contribution, they made to the team and the organisation. Encouraging a healthy team relationship during appraisals and showing the benefits of the same will not only encourage the members but also benefit the organisation (Yadav and Sagar 2013). The team also needs to be motivated by asking for their engagement in any critical issue for the company.  The company can make a priority list for the individual as well as the team and they must also be given scopes for relaxation. A plan for collecting and summarising the performance data so that the team and individual know how they are performing will make them set their benchmark goals. This will help them in finding the most efficient ways of reaching the goals by themselves. As stated earlier, since dictatorship is not a perfect way of managing the performance of a team who are already qualified and experts, giving them scope for self-growth (Demartini 2014).

Conclusion:

The members of the high performance teams have to work for the company in different areas. This often creates a tendency of shifting focus and making the task to be more frustrating and monotonous. The constant pressure of creation of new ideas and successfully implementing them often makes the members de motivated. The process of encouraging the teams thus are more complicated for them since work motivation or reward incentives are not enough for them. The report thus analysed the key theories of motivation, leadership and performance management and provided the beneficial ways that will encourage the team.

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