Harnessing Trust, Motivation, and Emotions for Team Performance

Humans at Work with Michael Glazer

This episode examines the components of building and leading high-performing teams with guests Alison Grieve and Jenni Miller, experts in transforming team dynamics at some of the world's leading companies, including PepsiCo and ING.

Alison and Jenni share practical advice on the critical roles of trust, motivation, and emotional intelligence in team success, as well as advice on fostering resilience, enhancing virtual and hybrid collaborations, and creating a culture of accountability and empowerment.

If you enjoy the show, please rate it on iTunes or Spotify. Your ratings help more people like you discover the podcast!

Episode Highlights

• The importance of understanding and managing emotions within teams.
• How daily and significant changes within teams can affect team performance.
• The responsibility of leaders and team members in recognizing and managing emotions.
• The need for us to recognize our own blind spots and develop better self-awareness.
• How unchecked assumptions can lead to misunderstandings and conflicts.
• Recognizing that what motivates one team member may not motivate another.
• Feedback as a Tool for Growth: The significance of creating a culture of constructive feedback to foster personal and team growth.
• How shared experiences strengthen team bonds and trust.
• Concrete strategies to build trust and improve team performance.

Alison’s and Jenni’s views on the greatest unmet wellbeing need at work today

Alison

“I think isolation—so, talking about meetings, going into meetings, and nobody's got their video on their screen, so you can't see them. People are not communicating very well. They're just sending WhatsApp or Slack messages and emails. They don't meet physically. I think isolation then tends to make people feel that it's just about the task, and work becomes a tool because fun at work often comes from having solved a problem or overcome a challenge with someone else. And so, if we start to lose those, then I think it's really sad.”

Jenni

“I was going to fully agree with what Alison said. I think it is the number one challenge that organizations are wrestling with at the moment in the debate about whether hybrids work or whether it's back to the office. I don't think it's actually a location issue. I think it's an isolation issue. So what people are picking up on is that people aren't as motivated or as productive as they could be if they're just working from home. That, the working from home bit, is not the issue. It's the fact that managers and teams aren't putting in mechanisms to make people feel still connected to the organization. You address that, and I imagine it's going to open up something really powerful and positive.”

What "working with humans" means to Alison and Jenni

Alison

“There is a warmth and creativity that is so empowering [to that phrase], and inspiring and energizing. That's what it's about.”

Jenni

“What's the alternative? It's working with robots and artificial intelligence. I'm hearing a lot of concern from people, asking, ‘Are they going to replace me? What does that mean for my job going forward?’

Actually, the beauty of working with humans, as opposed to AI, is in solving really complex problems together, doing something for the first time that nobody's ever done before, being creative, and coming up with new ideas. Like, ‘I may well be proven wrong, but I don't think that robots and AI can do that.’ So, I believe that's what keeps us special and powerful as a species—all of that.”

Resources

Follow: Alison and Jenni on LinkedIn

Visit: Management Dynamics

Read: Leading Edge: Strategies for developing and sustaining high-performing teams

Visit our website for a full transcript of this episode and for more episodes that give you fresh perspectives and actionable ideas for making working with other humans better for everyone.