Written March 13, 2006.

I write this one day after the 2006 Winter Olympic torch was extinguished in Torino, Italy. While I am hard-pressed to name one athlete and his or her accomplishment within three years, eleven-and-a-half months between Olympic events, I avidly watched all two weeks of sports coverage during the events. The same holds true for the summer games. What struck me the most during these Winter Games is the pressure we place on medals (gold, especially), the sportsmanship (or lack thereof) of individuals representing teams, and the mindset of those held in high esteem prior to their expected performances aligned with their words after less-than-stellar performances. As with most analogies, there are tie-ins between these areas and characteristics of high-performing teams in
organizations.

First-the pressure of achievement at the highest level.  In this case, the achievement to which I refer is
"thing-oriented". Gold medals, in the case of the Olympics; you determine your "thing-orientation" in terms of your organization. The pressure placed on people barely within the legal age of adulthood to  acquire the golden load for an entire nation is a burden I can hardly imagine. Personally, I am impressed with what it takes just to participate in an event such as the Olympics, let alone to medal; and then, to win gold! As a tennis player in college I was a
choker-someone who made a lot of mistakes just when the pressure was most intense to win. I watched athlete
after athlete choke during the telecast broadcasts of the Games and recalled my own experiences. I look back at my corporate experience where I worked with teams of people with high expectations. When the team expectations were out of line with either the organization´s or my own, our performance was less than expected. We reached choke-points where we had difficulty moving forward to achieve the levels expected of us.  In college, it took special sports counseling to learn to work through my own choke points. For Olympic-caliber athletes it takes sports counseling and skilled coaching to do the same. In organizations it takes coaching, communication, and
team training to get through the choke points and become a high-performing team.

Second-sportsmanship. The two most-striking examples of representative teamwork for me were the exchanges
between the first African-American male individual gold medalist in a Winter Olympics (speed skating) and his
gold medal-winning teammate, and the speed skating teamwork required in the relay event. One of these is a negative example; one a positive one. The public sniping between two teammates was disappointing given the significance of their individual athletic accomplishments and the social significance of one. None of us knows the true causes of the perceived animosities between two athletes who, on outward appearances, should have represented one national team together. These unknowns and perceptions reinforced for me the characteristics of a high-performing team that include:
- Build relationships for trust and respect.
- Respect and understand each others' "diversity".
- Practice effective dialogue instead of debate.
- Identify and resolve group conflicts.
It was clear that these characteristics were lacking for the two sniping speed skaters.

The relay team, on the other hand, demonstrated the following positive characteristics of a high-performing team:
- Share a common purpose / goals.
- Balance task and process.
- Value synergism and interdependence.
- Emphasize and support team goals.
- Reward individual performance that supports the team.
- Communicate effectively.
- Practice continuous improvement.
- Critique the way they work as a team, regularly and consistently.
- Involve members in clear problem-solving and decision making procedures.

Third-mindset. Prior to the Olympics, one athlete in particular received great press and intense media exposure and commercial success. He was expected to win five gold medals. He turned out to win no medals at all. He was seen as less than committed to the goal of five medals, and he had excuses for his performance  when he was interviewed by the press. His attitude was less than I expected from someone purportedly dedicated to earning five gold medals. What came to my mind was that he went to Torino with goals of earning gold medals, yet I wondered just whose goals they were. Was this young man truly dedicated-mind and soul-to achieving a goal that was not genuinely his own? When team members are not in sync with the team´s goals because they were not a part of the goal-setting process to begin with, how committed might they be to accomplishing those goals? How high can a team perform when its members are not invested in the team´s results? Characteristics of a high-performing team
indicative of team members truly invested in the team´s success include:
- Plan thoroughly before acting.
- Vary levels and intensity of work.
- Provide a balance between work and home.

If ever there are times when teams need to perform at their highest levels, the Olympic games are some of those times. What stellar examples of positive-or negative-team performances we get to see every two years (summer or winter).

Note: Characteristics of high-performing teams are listed at http://www.improve.org/team1.html.
Sylvia