“Nearly half of team performance is linked to the quality of workplace relationships, and social activities alone cannot repair unresolved friction,” says Helene Vermaak, managing director of The Human Edge, the sole licensee of Crucial Learning in Southern Africa.
Research Crucial Learning did with 800 professionals found that nearly half of what makes a team perform well, or poorly, can be linked to relationship factors such as feeling understood, assuming positive intent and resolving interpersonal conflict quickly.
Half of respondents also reported spending at least two hours every week dealing with the effects of conflict within their teams.
"The mistake is assuming good team relationships mean everyone must be friends or work in the same way," says Vermaak.
"A high-performing relationship is one in which people can disagree, make mistakes, express a difference of opinions and still work through friction constructively. That is very different from simply getting along."
Most workplaces bring together people with different personalities, experiences, motives, and ways of approaching a task. One team member may prioritise people, another may focus on speed and results, while another places greater value on processes and accuracy.
None of these approaches is inherently wrong, but they become a source of conflict when people treat their own preference as the only correct one.
"When performance drops, leaders often turn to adjusting structure, strategy or processes," says Vermaak.
"These changes may be necessary, but their impact is limited if people do not trust one another, cannot raise concerns safely or routinely assume negative motives in colleagues who work differently."
Rate the quality of each relationship, followed by how strongly it affects the result. This will reveal where improving the relationship is most likely to improve performance and helps leaders focus their attention on where the biggest difference can be made.
Teams need enough self-awareness to recognise the effect their well-intended behaviour may have on others.
Questions such as "Why is this important to them?" and "What are they most concerned about on this project?" can uncover priorities and reduce defensiveness.
“Different perspectives and working styles can only become an advantage when people have the skills to use them well,” Vermaak adds.
“Without these skills, differences can feel isolating or threatening. With them, a process-focused colleague stops being seen as an obstacle and starts being recognised as the person protecting the team from risk. The difference is not personality but rather relationship intelligence."
