Is your team sustainable ?

Sustainability is one of the many popular business buzz words. In the last year or so, I have seen issues of Harvard Business Review and Rotman Magazine dedicated to the topic of sustainability. In times of uncertainty, stakeholders want to be reassured that the organization they are investing in, belong to or are a consumer of, will continue to be around.

On a somewhat smaller scale, let's look at a team's sustainability. A sustainable team would mean that the team is "able to be maintained at a certain rate or level". This means that the team continues to deliver high performance, year after year, whether in a crisis situation or in a growth environment. A sustainable team also means that the team continues to deliver after you - the leader - has moved on.

Leaving behind a sustainable team is the pinnacle of team leadership.

Any team can be "whipped up" to deliver under difficult circumstances. A pep talk, an all-hands meeting will often boost energy and motivation. But this does not go on forever. If the team is pushed all the time, for more, faster, better ... individuals will often end up being burnt out. You can only push so much, or be pushed so much.

The only antidote to performance burnout is to create and maintain a positivity in the team. Positivity is not the same as friendship (although camaraderie is part of it). Positivity is a shared energy and power to support extraordinary motivation (www.teamcoachinginternational.com). In a future blog I will review the components of team positivity, and how you can nurture each to create a sustainable team.