What Values are Guiding Your Team’s Behavior?
Your team’s shared mindset is a key driver for an effective team. Just as individuals need an effective mindset, your team also needs an effective shared mindset. The shared mindset that your team operates from is your team culture—and mindset is the shared values and assumptions that guide the team’s behavior. Mindset drives everything the team does. An effective shared mindset, along with effective behaviors that follow from it, enables your team to solve problems, make decisions, and manage conflict productively. All of these create the three results for effective teams: increased performance, stronger working relationships, and improved individual well-being.
Do you want to learn what values are guiding your team’s behavior? If so, continue reading this short article, and take a brief survey by clicking the link at the end of the article. You’ll immediately see the results. You can even ask each of your team members to take the survey and share your results with each other.
Often, teams do not explicitly decide what mindset to operate from; instead, they tend to assume that they are all in sync. As it turns out, the core values and assumptions teams operate from are often different than the ones the team thinks it’s operating from. This causes problems when teams encounter challenging situations, because in those situations almost all of us are operating from a mindset that is different from the one we think we’re using.
This is important because how you think is how you lead as well as how your team leads. Your mindset drives your behavior, which leads to the results you get—for yourself and those you work with. Your team mindset, or lack of a shared one, may be hindering your ability to get the results you need. When your team is operating from the same mindset, it will be much easier to achieve the results it seeks and achieving results is usually the reason the team has been assembled in the first place.
The research shows, and Roger Schwarz & Associates’ work with clients reinforces, that in challenging situations, almost all of us operate from what we call a Unilateral Control mindset even though we think we are operating from a Mutual Learning mindset. Here are the different values of each approach:
| Mutual Learning Mindset Values | Unilateral Control Mindset Values |
| Transparency | Win, don’t lose |
| Curiosity | Be right |
| Informed Choice | Minimize expressions of negative feelings |
| Accountability | Act rational |
| Compassion |
For example, in our work with clients, many leaders and teams have told us that they thought they were operating from the values of transparency and curiosity until, with our help, they realized they were not nearly as transparent and curious as they thought they were.
How difficult can it be to be to operate from the values of transparency and curiosity? After all, it’s simply a matter of saying what you’re thinking and asking a genuine question, right? Yes—and for most leaders and teams, that’s harder than they thought. If your mindset doesn’t include the value of transparency, it will be difficult for you to share relevant information that doesn’t support your proposed solution. Similarly, if your mindset isn’t operating with the value of curiosity, it will be hard to ask a question that authentically conveys your genuine interest in the other person’s reply. This, in turn, makes it difficult for you to engage in conflict productively and create solutions that everyone supports and is committed to implementing.
By understanding the mindset you and your team are actually operating from, and shifting your mindset where needed, you can improve your results.
Click here to take the brief survey and see which Mutual Learning mindset values your team is operating from. If you want to learn whether your team members think they are operating from the same mindset, ask each team member to take the survey and set a time to share your results with each other. You’ll quickly learn how aligned your team is.
If you’d like to learn more about developing a team with a shared mindset that gets strong results, contact us.
