The Agile Pocket Guide: A Quick Start to Making Your Business Agile Using Scrum and Beyond

Chapter 4

The High-Performance Team

Having a supportive and caring environment to work in may sound simplistic, but whether you're in preschool or a Fortune 500 company, it makes sense. One thing you continually need to communicate to your team is that you and your management care about the relationships within the team. Not only do you care, but you also have high expectations for the team given that the correct structure and guidance are in place. This is also an environment that gives opportunities for meaningful participation in any project and gives recognition to those who do well.

In this context one word comes to mind: differentiation. Some people may cringe at the sound of it, but the process it embodies is exactly what will move a team from underperforming (or keeping the status quo) to doing great work and excelling at any project that comes its way. As a proponent of differentiation, I allow the team members to establish themselves in roles that uniquely fit their strengths. (See Chapter 17 for more information on how to build and assemble a high-performance team.) This takes a ton of work from you: you must recognize that there are men and women who keep the lights on and there are those who need to be moved or released back into the jungle. You must be able to spend the time necessary to tap into each team member's potential. People want to flourish and they want to succeed, and to accomplish that, a leader must separate the wheat from the chaff and retain the best ...