How to build or rebuild a team's confidence

Dale Carnegie's three commandments: Don't criticize. Don't condemn. And don't complain.

Leaders often find themselves needing to rebuild the confidence of a team. It happens in new roles, where previous management has eroded confidence, but it can happen to a previously high-performance team after a series of setbacks.

Getting confidence back on track is where great leaders distinguish themselves. A rousing speech might help a little, but true success comes from a deep dive into hidden causes and undiagnosed problems. Here’s a short overview of a process designed to rebuild a winning team.

Acknowledge the team is suffering.

As the leader it is not enough to simply criticize, condemn and complain. Performance is suffering and the team knows this. Had they been able to correct it themselves it is likely they would already have done so. Start with the assumption that they need your help to run the diagnostic and repair

Discover underlying issues.

Use one on one meetings with senior staff initially to get a sense of the problems and then a group airing of grievances from that same group afterwards. Emphasize that this is a safe opportunity to discuss issues but don't do this blind (without showing to individuals first). Some people will be comfortable shattering everything in a one to one, others will find their confidence when they hear colleagues being honest.

Recognise the achievements the team have made,

despite the difficulties above. Giving credit for achievements lets the team know you can see their capability and potential. Recognition for achievements also serves as a foundation for building trust and garnering the team's support for the new approach.

Be vocal in support of the team's capability and capacity.

Emphasize a sense of trust in them and ideally in each other. Getting them to think of their achievements and allowing them to credit one another for that work and the potential each other has is a good foundation to build a shared mental model from.

Consider recovery time.

If there's room in the budget, this is a great time for some R&R. Leaders often build events or rest to celebrate success, but sharpening the saw is even more important when people are struggling.  Team activity and scoping sessions off-site can work too. Getting the team away from the work and into a creative, ideative, and collaborative investigation state where a new normal can be visualized or invented is a great use of time. What are we keeping from the old ways, what are we modifying and what are we scrapping?

Solicit Customer feedback

This is also a good time to solicit customer feedback (internal or external). Not only is this good business practice but it also, along with the above, a highly visible sign of your commitment to change. Things are going to be different so the team can choose to get on board.

Bring in outside perspective

Invite other senior figures into the team to help perform a full diagnostic of what works and what needs improvement. External opinions (those working outside of this group, but who understand the wider business) can be very valuable. Additionally, the team will notice the rise in interest in their work. This has the effect of encouraging high performers and accelerating the departure of those who might fear the spotlight.

Revisit values.

The business values and the artifacts around those values in terms of the way this team carries out its work are possibly out of line. This is an opportunity to revisit the values in light of how work actually gets done and even to redefine or re-describe values that meet what the team is hoping to achieve now. What do we want to do? How do we want to work? Wat is important to our success? How do we want to be judged? It is possible for a small team to establish their own values distinct from (but allied with) the main company values if by distancing them you will create a working shared identity in order to improve this struggling team. Look for ways in which behaviours, attitudes and shared insights can be useful to the long term goal.

Capability and Capacity reviews.

A simple 9-box matrix review of staff capabilities can be highly instructive. Gathering team leads together to evaluate the wider team (it is important they don't only rate their own people and that they understand that "we are all responsible for the talent in this business") gives an effective overview of those 20% who contribute most highly to the team's success. This is the group to find promotions within. Teams always know who truly adds value and high performers will react well to seeing you understand and reward that ability.

Back your most effective people

Let the top 20% know that you plan to invest time into their careers. These are the people to help shape the new reality of the team. It is important they feel heard and valued. More money helps, but not as much as attention and opportunity. Look for ways this group can be mentored, coached, stretched and promoted. What extra responsibilities can members of this group take on immediately and what can they work towards? Link them to these opportunities and ask for their feedback, insight and ideas - not only does this show an active interest it also brings new thinking, allows you to keep tabs on projects and even gives you an opportunity to see if the team's faith in the person's ability and potential was justified.

Get rid of the low performers

If the team have been honest in their assessments - and they may not be at first - you may well have people classified by their peers as underperformers low performance and low potential. It is important to move these people on from the team for the team to grow. Depending on your team and company there may be other parts of the business to take these people. They are underperforming in your environment but that doesn't mean they would underperform everywhere. Moving on conversations can be hard, and for long-serving employees there are performance measurement processes to go through to remove someone entirely, but remember that you are trying to build a great team, and they are trying to find a team in which they can be great.

Don't forget your Core performers

Trying to build a team comprising only superstars not only is incredibly hard, it is statistically likely to end up being highly unsuccessful. You don't want a Super Chicken team. Long term sustainable success comes from a motivated and inspired team which removes its most toxic and negative elements, allows room for everyone to grow and take ownership (and to know how they contribute to the bigger vision) and maintains a 5-15% group of outstanding performers. Being a Core or Solid performer in a high impact team is an achievement in itself, and given time some of these people might end up finding a niche in the company that allows them to excel even further.

Ensure the backing of louder voices

Teams always contain certain individuals with high influence levels. These people are not necessarily in the most senior roles in a group but, thanks to their personalities they are able to sway a team's thinking and approach. These influencers are often popular and are experts at building relationships or cliques. If this group are on your side their work will galvanise the change you want to enact. If they oppose your agenda (and their influence is not curved) none of your measures to rebuild confidence or develop a winning strategy are likely to succeed.

Influence is a subtle thing, expressed in private doubts or in an attitude of mockery toward authority. It can be difficult for a leader to spot because these people are often highly flattering. A good way to spot these people is by having enough conversations with the wider team one on one, encouraging them to be open on their comments about their team-mates. Often these influencers are frightening to newer team members or to those outside of a clique. Identifying them is similar to inference; trying to read between the lines of comments, statements and references. Getting this group on your side is plan A. Diminishing influence (by breaking cliques, giving responsibility to outsiders, chasing the accepted way of doing things or moving people out of the team entirely) is plan B.

Moving forward together

"Once they could trust me, I could incorporate core values: collectiveness, unity, pride. It was a commitment to nurturing." (Brendan Rodgers. Football Manager)

By now you have an idea of your people, capacity and potential. You understand what issues were holding the team back (or what the excuse was for previous poor performance). You are enabling conversations about meaning and impact in the work and are accelerating the careers of useful people.

The next step is to work on the shared mental model that will bond the group, to augment that group with new hires and to build an onboarding process that will allow these new recruits to be maximally effective as quickly as possible.

A shared mental model

Powerful, impactful, winning teams share common goals and trust one another implicitly to work towards those goals. Royal Marines Commandos teams don't share a helicopter with a team member they don't trust. Building this kind of trust (particularly in a team which has struggled in the past) takes a long time and a lot of consistency. the fundamentals however are simple enough: A shared core of beliefs in both the work and the ethos for getting the work done; a skilled team with the right people in the right seats; routine reminders of the how and why; enthusiasm from all the team members for further learning and development; leadership that empowers and encourages but also sets a high bar. Simple enough, but not easy.

Hire correctly for the new need

and for any gaps that the reviews have identified. if you've had to move on low performers or disruptive influences look for promotion opportunities first as this is a way to show your faith in your team. Helping active, positive, contributive team members into higher roles magnifies their voice. Sometimes it is necessary to bring in external perspective and these people benefit the team by not knowing anything about "the bad old days". They buy into the model and mission and bring new approaches to getting to a solution.

There's a need to make sure the hiring is done to high standards however, so as not to undermine the bigger work. Make sure you have correctly identified the gaps and the skills and behaviours required on detail, then design a series of questions specifically around those needs. Set a high hiring bar and commit to a talent first process so that your recruitment efforts show the team further evidence of your commitment to progress. Get a wide spectrum of the team involved in the interviewing process (even if just to chat between rounds) so that you can hear more voices and ideas.

Strengthen your onboarding

When you get your new recruit make sure the onboarding process gets them quickly up to speed with the new shared mental model and vision. Buddy up new starters with recently promoted individuals or those who most clearly have passions for the new project. This serves a dual purpose - it helps the new starter understand the passion the team has for the work (causing their behaviour to rise to the challenge) and the act of selling this vision and approach to a new start had the effect of reinforcing the employees open commitment to that vision.

Solicit regular feedback from both the new starter and the team. Sometimes the theoretical vision isn't a practical realty of the ways the work needs to be done (even with the best intentions) and a certain recalibration needs to take place. Finding this need early is vital in order to maintain vision momentum.

Maintain the momentum

Finally, don't abandon the open conversation forum just because you feel the team now "get it" and their confidence is back. Confidence is fragile and your people will be in new situations frequently where they will have to make tough decisions, new decisions, and key decisions often without enough input to make them certain. The way to keep their confidence high is to remind them of your faith in their ability to navigate those situations well, your belief in their abilities to make the right considerations for those decisions, and your backing and support should things go wrong. These are messages that need repeating and reinforcing as part of regular business. Keep the support strong and your team will thrive.