Team Effectiveness

Successful organisations understand that the quality of relationships within their business is vital to making the most of their talent. However, effective teams are often a rare and sought after commodity in organisational life. When a team comes together and achieves extraordinary performance coupled with heightened energy and engagement, you know something special is happening.

As global leaders in applied Emotional Intelligence (EI) we know that an effective, emotionally intelligent, team is one in which the shared behaviours, habits and attitudes create the conditions for all members of the team to co-operate, co-ordinate and communicate well.

Our research with teams over the past two decades has shown that this seemingly elusive state can be both measured and intentionally created through focused development. We know that great teams take care of their relationships. High-performing teams offer a constructive climate with both challenge and support and they show a high level of EI. They also meet team members’ psychological needs for belonging, empowerment and friendship. These factors result in trust-based relationships which make the difference between a group of highly talented people coming together and achieving less than the sum of the parts, and a team producing extraordinary performance.

An effective team successfully manages and gets the most from the personalities within the team, pays attention to both task and feeling and skillfully reads and manages emotion in the team. Measuring how effectively a team navigates these challenges will enable the team to identify areas of strength and draw its attention to obstacles getting in the way of effective team functioning, which may be blocking the team from achieving its full potential.

Research clearly demonstrates that the emotional intelligence of a team is a predictor of high-performance – so paying attention to the conditions leading to a team’s effectiveness makes sound business sense.