The mindset has a huge impact on the team’s performance. Leaders need to set the tone or the team’s mindset which in turn affects employee engagement and performance. When we think of high performing teams, we might consider factors like productivity or efficiency. We should also consider what the team achieves together and not look at individual performance. High performing teams should have:

1. Growth mindset

Leaders with a growth mindset believe that their team members have the potential for change and growth. This is much better than the fixed mindset that believes that people in the team are what they are, and they cannot evolve or grow. Teams with a growth mindset believe in continual improvement and keep evolving.

Leaders that support this mindset give time to the team members to work on their strengths and support them when they fail. Just as the leaders with a growth mindset support their teams to grow and keep learning new skills, they acknowledge and work upon areas where they still feel they can improve.

2. Curious Mindset

Leaders with curious mindset approach problems with curiosity rather than playing the blame game. In such a culture employee feels safe and they dare to take risks. They know that they will be supported by the team and the leadership even if they fail. As everyone contributes since they feel psychologically safe.

3. Mutually Dependent Mindset

When we say a team, it means collaboration and working together for success. It should just not be a group of individuals working together but are mainly concerned with their individual success. It can be a group of individuals who accumulate information and do not share with others in the team.

This can lead to a lack of trust among team members. But teams with interdependent mindset become more productive and perform better together than the individual performance. Here people work together for a broader vision.

In a mutually dependent mindset, team members sacrifice their own goals and help other team members to achieve their goals if it is better for the team’s long-term shared objectives. In teams with a mutually dependent mindset, members work together without feeling frightened by others’ success. They believe that the team works best when it is together.

4. Learning Mindset

Team members should have a learning mindset. Leaders should inculcate the culture of reflecting on success and failures both in a safe and secure environment. Leaders also spend time on reflecting their personal leadership development. Teams with a learning mindset can learn from the failures and successes both. The more leaders inculcate such a culture the more will the employees in the team adopt a learning mindset.

5. Long term Mindset

In high performing teams, members are not affected by both success and failures. They work towards long term goals. Such teams are more resilient in times of crisis or challenges. Leaders with long-term mindsets always link the team’s performance to a wider sense of vision and purpose.

Teams with a long term mindset do not react to every problem or challenge as if it is a crisis. Such teams accept the highs and lows in the work as they work together towards the long term mission of the organization.

If you want your teams to perform better, do not consider metrics like productivity or efficiency, rather keep a check on the way the teams are collaborating, their interpersonal dynamics, and collective approach to challenges.

Written & Compiled by Faber Mayuri