4 Strategies to Develop a High-Performing Advancement Team
A university advancement leader shared with me, “We’re doing well individually, but we’re not yet fully working as one team.”
Half of the team was new.
The other half had been holding everything together.
They were strong individual contributors, but they weren’t yet functioning as a cohesive team.
Does this sound like your organization, too?
Here’s the secret to building a strong team culture: It all starts with trust.
Not only the trust in leadership.
Not only the trust in mission.
When the advancement VP brought me in to work with her executive team, our focus was to build trust, understand how to get the best of each other in the workplace, and ultimately to raise more money. We started with Hocking Leadership’s signature About Me story cards and a customized exercise using the Hogan Assessments to help them understand each other’s values, strengths, and potential derailers. From there, we implemented strategies to strengthen collaboration, proactively share information, and even disagree—better.
What happened next was more than a leadership discussion.
They began to see each other as people.
They reflected on how they show up and how to support each other to lead well, together.
And they started building the kind of deeper level trust—in both each other and the work—that you need when leading an organization through uncertainty.
Since then, they’ve been working more collaboratively, communicating more openly, and moving forward with a clearer sense of shared purpose (and fun!).
You don’t have to wait until a retreat or fiscal year end to start building a stronger team.
Here are four strategies to develop your high-performing university advancement team.
1. Create an Intentional Plan for Collaboration
Many teams believe they work in a collaborative work environment; few organizations truly achieve it. In my work coaching advancement teams, I often see leaders misattribute cooperation or coordination for collaboration. Collaboration occurs when two or more people approach a situation or problem with their own ideas and then work together to develop an idea or solution that’s even better than what one of them could have come up with on their own.
Building a truly collaborative relationship requires intentionality, clear communication, and time spent understanding the project—and each other—before the work begins.
As you plan for your team’s next cross-functional project or multi-interest donor cultivation plan, use this process to guide your efforts:
Set up a meeting to discuss your shared goal and outcomes. Practice active listening to each other’s ideas, not just representing your own.
Clearly define roles, frequency of meetings, and communication tools you’ll use to relay updates. Also discuss work styles and individual strengths. Create a shared document that outlines all this information, so it can be accessed later, as needed.
When there are roadblocks or issues, bring all parties back together to revise or create a new strategy. Even if some members of the group aren’t affected by an issue, it’s valuable to have everyone invested in the solution.
According to recent Gallup research, giving specific guidance on how to collaborate boosts team members’ understanding of their own roles and expectations. Role clarity is one of the predictors of employee engagement, so intentional collaboration has benefits for your short- and long-term organizational goals.
2. Recognize Your Colleagues
Research clearly shows the value of recognition at work: In organizations where managers show appreciation to their teams, employees are five times as likely to be connected to company culture. Further, employees who feel valued at work demonstrate increased productivity. Stewarding your employees is the key to your fundraising success. And yet, high-performing teams go beyond recognition from manager to team member —on these teams, recognition happens frequently between peers.
You can create opportunities for peer recognition on your team by:
Start a team meeting by inviting people to share how someone on the team helped them over the last week.
Model the importance of “shared credit” for closing a gift. Leveraging the psychology of reciprocity, when one colleague acknowledges another colleague, it will help them both feel appreciated and more inclined to give recognition to others, too. Recognition extends beyond who was in the room for the donor conversation. When a prospect management team member identifies a new donor in the database, have gift officers prioritize reaching out to that colleague after the first visit and when a gift closes, so they celebrate together.
Incorporate team-building activities where colleagues can strengthen connections with each other. In one of the workshops we offer, we work with teams to identify their individual strengths and leverage their collective strengths for overall team performance.
An inclusive, thriving team is created in the “in-between” moments.
3. Proactively Share Information
Access to information can be a competitive advantage in an organization. This contributes to a false workplace belief that hoarding information makes you more powerful. Here’s the thing: a colleague who proactively shares expertise and updates with others can influence the organization, no matter where they are on the org chart. Imagine how powerful an entire organization can be when sharing information is encouraged, understanding this helps everyone rise. Of note, a high-performing team takes initiative to circulate information to their colleagues, instead of expecting information-sharing only from managers.
Here’s what proactive information sharing may look like for your organization:
Provide timely updates about topics or news that may affect your colleagues.
Document processes, so team members understand what is expected from them.
Encourage team members to ask questions, so they can get the information they need.
Discuss in group settings when things didn’t go as hoped or planned and how you’ve learned from it.
Keep in mind, during challenging times for the fiscal year budget or in the world, people may perceive a sense of scarcity, which can cause them to turn inward to preserve themselves and their team. In turn, teams hold back from sharing resources or information. An organization can overcome these challenges by continuing to keep team members informed and connected.
4. Effectively Work Through Challenges
A high-performing team can work collaboratively, proactively, and compassionately, and still experience disagreements or misunderstandings. The goal is not to avoid conflict in the organization—it’s to give people the skills and support to work through it effectively and compassionately when it happens.
Creating a culture where people can thoughtfully disagree and still respect each other comes from how your organization teaches about the value of giving feedback. When team members understand that it’s okay to thoughtfully challenge each other’s thinking or ideas—because they care about the organization and each other—it helps strengthen the individuals and the organization.
To help your team effectively work through challenges, make a shared commitment to:
Seek to understand each other. Help team members engage with different perspectives and together determine a solution that best supports the organization.
Re-clarify expectations. Team members can lose sight of shared goals and their respective contributions to achieving them.
Spend time cultivating genuine relationships on the team. It’s important not to take for granted positive work relationships on a high-performing teams, especially in a distributed work environment. Invest in ongoing culture-building exercises, workplace rituals to connect team members, and meaningful team gatherings.
Building trust begins with leadership, but has to be cultivated at all levels of the organization. It’s a dynamic, ongoing process that requires communication, consistency, and compassion. When you feel unsure of where to start building trust in your advancement organization, remember it’s often the smallest moments that lead to the biggest outcomes.
For more articles like this, read 5 Research-Backed Strategies to Recruit and Retain Your Team.
