LEADING INSIGHTS
ASK THE EXPERT

The following is a summary of the questions received from the recent group performance survey, along with Cindy’s responses. We appreciate your thoughtful questions.Whether or not you participated in the survey or posed a question, we hope you find her answers helpful in improving the performance of your group or organization.

To find out more about Cindy McCauley, please read her bio on page 6.

How important is group cohesion for becoming a high-performing team?

Group cohesion or unity—the degree to which individuals in a group pull together to create collective results—is a central driver of high-performing teams. There are three facets of group cohesion: (1) agreement in the group on overall goals, (2) coordinated work within the group, and (3) mutual responsibility among group members for the group. At CCL, we refer to the three facets as direction, alignment, and commitment (DAC); and see leadership as the process that produces these outcomes in groups. Certainly there are other drivers of performance -- for example, having the right expertise and talent in the group for the task at hand. However, many of us have had the experience of being part of a team made up of very talented individuals who struggled to work together, ultimately failing to achieve needed team-level outcomes. Creating shared goals, processes for aligning work, and high levels of commitment are key strategies for transforming individual talent into team performance. For more details on the DAC model of leadership, see

What are some strategies for getting different sub-groups on a larger team working together effectively?

Being able to lead across boundaries is a prized competency in organizations today. There are many boundaries within organizations that divide people from different functions, levels, cultures, and demographic groups. These boundaries demarcate sub-groups with different values, perspectives, and expertise. Managers often find these boundaries within the teams they are responsible for and are challenged to create direction, alignment, and commitment across the boundaries.

With roots in a major research project, my colleagues (Ernst & Chrobot-Mason, 2011) articulated a model for developing the capacity to span boundaries in groups and organizations. Spanning boundaries starts by simply pointing out boundaries while at the same time encouraging communication and respect across those boundaries. Having subgroups articulate clear expectations of each other and creating open communication channels would be two examples of laying the groundwork for working together effectively. The second step is to forge common ground by enhancing intergroup trust and crafting a shared purpose across subgroups. Opportunities for team members to get to know each other as individuals are critical for this step, as is identifying a core set of common values or principles that will guide the team. As trust and a sense of shared purpose develops, teams can begin moving toward a third step, integrating work across subgroups and capitalizing on their differences to find innovative new possibilities. Strategies for moving to this stage include helping subgroups in conflict explore ways to reconcile their differences and creating partnerships across subgroups to explore new frontiers for the team’s work. For more on boundary spanning leadership, see

As a group leader, how do you encourage continued commitment to the group during difficult times?

Groups can encounter a wide range of difficulties. Some of these directly impact the work of the group, for example, not getting needed resources, losing key team members, or external stakeholders who are being uncooperative. However, difficult times in the larger organization (e.g., reorganizations, staffing cuts, financial shortfalls) can have indirect effects by impacting the morale of group members. As a group leader, it is important to be straightforward and transparent about difficulties impacting the group, sharing information about what is happening and why. It’s also important to be available to your group, encouraging individuals to come to you with questions and suggestions or to just let off steam. Group leaders can also lessen the sense of powerlessness in the face of difficulties by involving group members in developing strategies for dealing with adversity and by being a visible advocate for the group with external stakeholders.

When the larger organization is facing difficult times, group members may feel particularly vulnerable. Fostering a spirit of support and camaraderie within the group can help individuals better deal with stress and fear. A personal example comes to mind: In the face of impending staff cuts in the organization, the group I was a member of created a volunteer “buddy system”—twosomes formed to create space for confidential conversations about personal concerns and for encouragement during an uncertain time. We also held a group event focused on celebrating our accomplishments and sharing what we appreciated about one another. Not only did this help me through a difficult time, it made me especially proud to be a part of this group.

As a group member (rather than the formal leader), how can I be influential in resolving problems that are limiting our effectiveness?

I was pleased to see people asking about exercising leadership in a group when they are not the formal leader. In high-performing groups, everyone feels responsible for the success of the group. And because group members are often closer to the day-to-day work, they can see some problems and possible solutions more readily than the manager can. The first step is to check with others in the group to see if they agree with your assessment that a problem exists and to get their views on causes and possible resolutions. Then there are several tactics that you can use to get others to take action on a problem: (1) logical appeals: providing compelling evidence that taking the action will yield benefits to individuals and to the group as whole, (2) emotional appeals: showing how the action supports important group values or generating excitement about getting involved in solving the problem, and (3) cooperative appeals: reducing the difficulty of taking the action by providing needed resources or offering to help the individual; and being willing to modify the solution by incorporating suggestions from other group members.

How can you motivate a group that is performing well to take on a stretch goal and strive for exceptional performance?

If we go back to the DAC model, taking on a stretch goal would mean getting agreement in the group that this new goal is what the group should be aiming for. But before taking on a stretch goal, I would recommend taking a good look at alignment in the group (how well is the group’s work coordinated?) and commitment to the group (to what degree is there mutual responsibility for the group?). Improved performance might be achieved by enhancing alignment and commitment. However, if you already have high levels of all three facets, taking on a stretch goal is a useful strategy for moving from good to great. There are a number of reasons why a group might be particularly motivated to pursue a stretch goal, for example:

  • They want to have bigger impact in the organization, on their clients, or in their field.
  • They are feeling competitive with other groups and want to outperform them.
  • There would be rewards for higher group achievement (e.g., money, prestige, status, expanded opportunities).
  • They are feeling bored and crave the excitement of a new challenge.

You need to know your group and what motivates them in order to decide on the right stretch goals and what to highlight about those goals. And it is unlikely that everyone in the group has the same motivational make-up, so you will need to weave together (with the help of the group) a more multi-faceted narrative for why the journey to a higher goal is important.

What are some tactics and tools for getting groups to step back, reflect, and consider how they need to improve?

It is not unusual for groups to focus all of their energy on accomplishing tasks, fulfilling commitments, and meeting deadlines. Yet for groups to continue to learn and improve their performance, they have to build assessment and reflection into their routines. Three tactics for continuous improvement are:

  • After action reviews. These structured reviews encourage reflection on recent events (e.g., group accomplishments or mistakes, project milestones, changes in group processes). The group articulates what they had intended to do, what actually happened, what they learned, and what they will do the same or differently moving forward.
  • Asking powerful questions. When facing a challenge, powerful questions get groups to examine the roots of issues they face, uncover aspects of a challenge that they may be ignoring, and discover untested assumptions. They invite exploration (e.g., what is your intuition saying?), encourage imaginative thinking (e.g., what if we deliberately tried to make this challenge worse?), invoke strong feelings (e.g., what are we afraid we might lose?), and encourage a more holistic view (e.g., how would our client’s see this problem?).
  • Periodic assessment of the group against a model of effective performance. The assessment might take the form of a team effectiveness survey, an employee engagement survey, a benchmarking study, or customer feedback. Making sense of the data together, identifying an area or two for improvement, and putting together an improvement plan is a critical part of the process.

What is particularly important to have in place for geographically-dispersed teams whose interactions are primarily virtual?

As organizations make increased use of virtual teams, we are just beginning to understand some of the unique challenges of teams whose members rarely (or never) interact face-to-face. One thing emerging from this research is the increased importance of “preparation activities” for virtual teams to succeed. Preparation activities include goal-setting; developing strategies for how work will be done, by whom, and when; developing alternative courses of action; establishing norms for electronic communication; and carefully planning knowledge management systems. These are good practices for all teams, but they become especially critical for virtual teams. For virtual teams, preparation also includes discussing cultural differences openly and becoming aware of how aspects of the work context that can impact the team vary across team members (e.g., technology available, schedule flexibility, workload expectations). Whenever possible, experts encourage investment in some face-to-face time for virtual teams—time for more complex conversations and personal connections. CCL is in the midst of a major project examining the polarities that virtual teams need to manage. Your virtual team can participate in this research and gain insights for improvement. Learn more at

About Cindy McCauley

Cindy McCauley, Ph.D., is a Senior Fellow at the Center for Creative Leadership in Greensboro, NC. With over twenty years of experience at CCL®, Cindy has been involved in many aspects of CCL's work: research, product development, program evaluation, coaching, and management. She co-developed two of CCL's management-feedback instruments, Benchmarks and the Job Challenge Profile.
Along with Ellen Van Velsor, she is co-editor of The Center for Creative Leadership Handbook of Leadership Development. She has written numerous articles and book chapters for scholars, HR professionals, and practicing managers; and is a frequent speaker at professional conferences. Cindy is currently involved in CCL's effort to explore leadership as a collective, organizational capacity.

Additional Resources

Ernst, C., & Chrobot-Mason, D. (2011). Boundary spanning leadership: Six practices for solving problems, driving innovation, and transforming organizations. New York: McGraw-Hill.

Ernst, C., & Martin, A. (2006). Critical reflections: How groups can learn from success and failure. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

Kanaga, K., & Browning, H. (2003). Maintaining team performance. Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.

Scharlatt, H., & Smith, R. (2011). Influence: Gaining commitment, getting results (2nd edition). Greensboro, NC: Center for Creative Leadership.