S8E3: High-performing teams - what does good actually look like?

Most teams aren't short on motivation. What they're missing is clarity. Clarity on purpose, priorities, roles, and how decisions get made. In this episode, Imogen and Amanda look at what alignment actually means in practice (and no, it's not all about workshops and piles of Post-it notes). 

They cover the difference between a corporate purpose and a team purpose, why implied ownership is the source of more tension than most leaders realise, and how simple tools like priority matrices and decision frameworks can take the friction out of everyday work. When people know what good looks like, they stop hesitating.

Imogen Hitchcock and Amanda Pierce have a clear purpose: creating communications (and communicators) that spark action, drive growth, and build lasting influence. Between them, there’s not a question or crisis they haven’t faced. From the everyday “could you just…” to high-stakes challenges, they’re here to share their insights and help you thrive.

They'd love your stars, favourites, and follows. Please, give them the social validation they crave ;) 

Transcript

[00:00:05.540] - Imogen

Hello and welcome to Dear Comms, the coffee break podcast where we tackle your biggest corporate comms challenges. I'm Imogen.

[00:00:13.050] - Amanda

And I'm Amanda. We're here to give you practical, no-nonsense advice so you can focus on the things that will really drive influence, engagement, and impact.

[00:00:24.070] - Imogen

So we are now in the middle of our season on high-performing teams. Last episode, we talked about diagnosis, so figuring out what's really going on in the team, not just what we think it might be. And once you've got a better idea about the issues, the next thing to tackle is the so what, you know, what's next? A lot of the time when it comes to teams that aren't performing as well as they could, it's about alignment. It's, are they all pulling in the same direction? Alignment doesn't mean agreeing on everything, because I don't think you could ever have a team that agrees on everything. But it does mean that there's clarity about what the team and the individuals in that team are doing and what they're not doing.

[00:01:13.830] - Amanda

Yeah, exactly. Clarity is a great word. Most teams, you know, they're not short on motivation. No one's sitting there thinking, "I don't care about this." What they're missing is clarity, and when it's not there, I think everything just feels harder than it should. You know, work drags, decisions take longer, people start second-guessing. So, today's episode is really about getting to something much simpler, and that's what does good actually look like for this team?

[00:01:43.390] - Imogen

And it can be so frustrating if you are sitting there and you're not really sure who's doing what, what's going on, where we're supposed to be going, where the priorities are. And too often, if, a team is missing that alignment, is missing that direction, people think they can solve it by just doing a workshop, posters, Post-it notes, sprints, slide decks. And by the end of that workshop, everyone's like, "Brilliant, I know where I'm going, everything's sorted." And then the next day, nothing's changed. And the fact is that having values, having a purpose, having clarity, these things really matter, but they only really matter if they are actually having an impact on decision-making.

[00:02:35.550] - Amanda

Yeah, 100%. If they don't show up in how you prioritize or make trade-offs, they don't really do anything. They sound nice, but they don't change behavior. It has to show up in the day-to-day. In meetings, deadlines, how people push back. A good test is, does this actually change what we do tomorrow? And if it doesn't, it's not doing much.

[00:03:00.300] - Imogen

Yeah, and I think that's where teams and to a wider extent businesses get stuck and get things wrong. We see it with organizations the whole time. They have beautiful values and purpose statements, but it doesn't actually change anything about the way in which the business is run. And I think that idea of purpose is really important, that why are we actually here? Why do we do what we do? I think it's important to note that a team purpose isn't the same as a corporate purpose. They absolutely have to complement each other, but a team purpose is about why that team exists, that specific team. How are they helping deliver the company purpose? What breaks if they stop showing up?

[00:03:48.160] - Amanda

Yeah, if your purpose, I think, could apply to any team, it's probably too vague. A good one helps with your mission as a team. It helps you draw a line, helps you say, this is what we do, and this is just as importantly, it isn't. It's the North Star that guides mission, vision, values. And if you don't have one, I think you get creep. Before you know it, the team's doing a bit of everything, and they're struggling to keep up.

[00:04:21.200] - Imogen

Once you have that purpose and you're all clear as a team as to the direction you're going in, why you exist, then you can start to see what the next friction point is. And generally speaking, that's about roles and responsibilities. That's who's doing what, when, why. And I think in teams, there's a lot of tension that comes from implied ownership. So, "This is my project," or you assuming, people assuming that someone else has to be responsible for it, or there are 3 people who think they're responsible for 1 task.

[00:05:02.230] - Amanda

I'm laughing, but it happens. And this is where I think frustration builds, not loudly, mostly in the background. And if you ask who owns this and nobody's quite sure, or 3 people, like you said, put their hand up, that's where things start slowing down. And it occurs to me it's not a one-off fix either. You have to keep coming back to it as things shift, as priorities and workloads do.

[00:05:29.580] - Imogen

Yeah, because the team's going to shift, the business strategy might change, as you say, priorities might change. And so, understanding who owns what is an ever-changing thing. And even if you do know what your role is and what you're responsible for, it doesn't mean that the struggle is over. We're painting a very bleak picture here for teams.

[00:05:56.930] - Amanda

We are.

[00:05:58.340] - Imogen

But knowing who does the work doesn't mean that there's necessarily agreement on how it's being done. So, to get a team aligned, it's not just about what you're doing, but it's about how you're doing it. So, is there a cadence of meetings? What's the escalation for this? How quickly do we need to respond? Who makes that final decision?

[00:06:21.740] - Amanda

I mean, most teams don't argue about strategy or the bigger picture. They disagree about process. You know, who decides? What does urgent actually mean? When do we escalate? If it's all a bit fuzzy, then I think you get a bit, emotion creeps in really, it becomes a bit more personal, I think. But once it's clear, all of that friction drops away. And I think it's usually one of the quickest ways to make things feel easier.

[00:06:51.240] - Imogen

Yeah, 'cause it's about expectations, you know? If I say something's urgent, I might have a different idea of that than you, for example. Urgent might mean in the next hour, or it could be tomorrow. And when you're asking for sign-off, you need to be sure you're asking the right people and that they know that they're the right people to sign off. And so, if you don't have that process set in stone, it's about managing expectations, I guess. And I think when those expectations aren't managed, people in a team start to understand that the pressure that they're feeling isn't necessarily about the amount of work that they're doing, but it's actually about the level of prioritization that those tasks are being given. Because not everything is urgent all the time. It can't be urgent all the time.

[00:07:47.480] - Amanda

Really true, I think.

[00:07:50.310] - Imogen

Poor planning prevents piss-poor performance or something, as my father always used to say.

[00:07:55.550] - Amanda

It's a good old phrase.

[00:07:56.900] - Imogen

Proper planning.

[00:07:58.090] - Amanda

Yes.

[00:07:58.260] - Imogen

Proper planning, that's it, not poor. But just because something is urgent to someone else, it doesn't mean that it has to be urgent to you. And so, if you don't have some form of a framework which helps you understand where the priorities lie, then you're going to struggle.

[00:08:19.180] - Amanda

A surprising amount of stress comes from not knowing what really matters, or indeed feeling unable to push back and say no. In our experience, the teams teams that work really well are very clear about the trade-offs. They know they can't do everything, so they choose. If you can't say no, you're right back to being urgent again, aren't you? You're back to where you started.

[00:08:40.820] - Imogen

And that courage and ability to say no is something that we have to teach a lot of teams. It's very easy when you're sitting outside to say no, because there's no politics, there's no detriment, right? But when you're sitting within an organization, sometimes it can feel a bit tough to push back and to ask those questions.

[00:09:01.930] - Amanda

You've got to go back to your purpose and mission, don't you?

[00:09:05.010] - Imogen

You do, but if the person asking you for the work doesn't understand your purpose and mission, then you're in the same position. So, I think you need to develop something tangible. You need to have something that the whole team's bought into, can refer back to. So, for our clients, that's, looks like priority matrices, decision frameworks, so actual guidelines on how decisions are made, and very explicit roles and responsibilities.

[00:09:35.220] - Amanda

And they're not tools that add layers of complication. They can be very simple, but it takes the guesswork out. You're not re-deciding everything every time. You can feel the difference quite quickly, I think, when people get more confident because they know what they're working from. They're referring to it.

[00:09:55.420] - Imogen

And it's also something that's been agreed as part of a team and come from the manager. It's not, you know, something they've made up. So therefore, it's not about personal viewpoint. It's about a procedure or a process. And I think when teams understand what good looks like, where they're going, how they're going to do it, where they can push back, where they can say no, they're going to start moving faster, they're going to start making better decisions, and therefore, the tension in that team is gonna reduce.

[00:10:36.030] - Amanda

Yeah, that's the whole point, isn't it? When people know what good looks like, they don't hesitate as much, and they usually perform better as a result, because there's just less tension all around.

[00:10:48.140] - Imogen

Yeah, but it doesn't build capability.

[00:10:50.560] - Amanda

No, it's a foundation. It's not the full picture. Knowing what good looked like versus actually delivering it consistently, well, that's another thing. And that's where we're heading next. So, taking this clarity and turning it into something that actually sticks in how the team works and how the team performs.

[00:11:15.100] - Imogen

So, if anything we've talked about this episode sounds familiar, don't worry. It's clear you're not the only one who's dealing with it. Be sure to pass on the episode to someone in your team who might need a little steer or a little few ideas to get them going. And if there's a question that you want us to answer, do send it our way.

[00:11:34.460] - Amanda

Until next time.

[00:11:36.690] - Imogen

Bye.

[00:11:37.110] - Amanda

Bye.