Four Ways to Improve Your Team's Performance

Wednesday February 11, 2009 by Daisy Wademan Dowling -Harvard Business Publishing-

Face it: 2009 is going to be your toughest year yet. Budgets are lower, expectations are higher, and you're under pressure to deliver the goods -- no mistakes or hiccups allowed. That's a tall order even if you've got a seasoned team of highly motivated A+ performers.

But what if you don't? What if, like most managers, you're dealing with a strong but not stellar group, players of varying drive and skill, and a severely limited ability to bring in fresh talent? A recent New York Times article demonstrates how the right approach to coaching your team can let you achieve spectacular performance -- no matter what the environment.

The article describes Tom Donnelly, the men's track and field coach for the past 34 years at Haverford College, a Quaker school with fewer than 1,200 students. Despite the school's tiny enrollment, noncompetitive philosophy, and lack of athletic scholarships, Donnelly has managed to produce 113 All-Americans and 24 individual N.C.A.A. champions -- a jaw-dropping record for a school of any size or budget. He's also sent runners to each of the past four Olympic trials, and won more "Coach of the Year" awards than anyone can seem to count. (His team boasts the highest average GPA of any Division III track team, too.) Donnelly's superb, sustained results are the kind every manager dreams of.

And according to the Coach himself, they're the kind of results any manager can shoot for -- and attain. The secrets to getting your team out front, he says, are as follows:

1. Spend as much time with the slowest runner as with the fastest. To improve a team's performance, focus on its weakest members. As long as a team member is working hard, he or she deserves your attentive, careful coaching.

2. Take away performance pressure by adding perspective -- and fun. Donnelly's pep talks are laced with trivia, history, and jokes. He readily acknowledges that running track is not the only important thing in his athletes' lives. "All you have to do" he says, "is try your very best. Then you cannot lose."

3. Accept inevitable setbacks -- and move past them quickly. The times when other teams win? Donnelly and his runners spend no time sulking or pointing fingers. "We acknowledge the other team's accomplishment and we recover."

4. Let the team's performance be its own reward. The team's trophies and award certificates go up in Donnelly's office. His own coaching awards go in the trash. They get in the way, Donnelly claims, of doing his job -- teaching other people how to succeed.

Imagine your workplace being managed by Coach Donnelly. Sound like one where you would be motivated, even in this awful year, to achieve? (Me too.)

Now imagine being Coach Donnelly -- and watching your runners lap the field.

What other ideas do you have for spurring your team's performance in this challenging economy?