You’ve seen your team through a lot: you have onboarded them during training in the forming stage, you helped them navigate the prominent conflict of the storming stage, and you supported the team as they found their new normal and made the role their own in the norming stage. But how do you push your team from good to great? That’s what Bruce Tuckman’s Performing stage is all about: it represents the pinnacle of team cohesion, productivity, and collaboration. In this stage, team members are working toward shared goals with minimal supervision and do so with a high degree of autonomy. While this phase may seem like a point when the supervisor can kick their feet up, their role remains essential to sustain high performance, drive continuous improvement, and foster resilience in the face of challenges. While the team is more effective than ever, it’s the supervisor’s responsibility to identify how they can reach the highest levels of performance.
Other Posts In This Series:
Forming | Storming | Norming | Performing | Adjourning
After the team moves from the norming phase and into the performing phase, they have understood how to work together and continue building on a strong foundation of trust. Key characteristics of the performing phase includes:
High Trust & Collaboration: Team members communicate openly and rely on each other’s strengths. They trust each other’s decisions and intentions when there may not be a clear way to proceed. Think about policy violation confrontations here: there is a clear understanding of the best way to respond to potentially volatile situations when there may be unknown variables at play. That level of trust only comes from dependency on one another during these moments, so there has been a clear demonstration from team members that they can be trusted to identify the best next steps from a departmental perspective.
Clear Roles & Responsibilities: Everyone understands their role and contributes meaningfully to the team’s objectives. Beyond that, there is an acceptance in how each person brings different strengths and perspectives to the table. The team emphasizes using people where their strengths are so that every individual can be used most effectively. Someone who has skills with event planning can focus on leading all-hall events rather than assisting with an additional committee or collateral assignment. Likewise, someone who is better at having difficult conversations may elect to take more on-call responsibilities rather than focus on all-hall programming. The key is that each staff member is completing their fair share of the work.
Effective Problem-Solving: The team resolves issues independently, without needing frequent intervention from supervisors. For the most part, staff will move past taking every grievance to you during one-on-ones and will address them with one another as they happen (or shortly after). This builds on the trust they have with one another and how they recognize each other’s strengths: staff members know how to address conflicts with one another and can communicate effectively to get to a resolution point without additional assistance.
Adaptability: Teams are flexible, responding to changing priorities or external challenges efficiently. As the supervisor, you may have normally seen resistance to change from the staff as they were still getting familiar with expectations and how to do well in the role. At this point, staff are willing and able to adjust as needed. There’s understanding of when plans change and a team needs to improvise based on the factors at play. You arrive at this conclusion when you provide your team with the proper amount of support.
With previous stages, most of the work from the supervisor’s end was to help push the staff through the stage. With Forming, it was about building a foundation for the team to stand on and ensuring that they knew what was expected of them so they could move into Norming after cycles in the Storming stage. With Storming, it was about moving the group out of a period of dissonance so that they could find their way into Norming. With Performing though, the effort of the supervisor is to keep the team in this advanced stage. Maintaining this level of performance requires attention from supervisors. Here are some ways that you can help your team remain in Performing:
Facilitate Continuous Growth: Even high-performing teams need to keep growing. Offer opportunities for professional development, new challenges, and advanced training. This is a prime opportunity to give your staff meetings more sustenance, to provide additional insights on how the team can continue building with what they already have started. This also doesn’t have to be solely on you: have groups of staff members present on different topics that they would like to see with professional development. Another way to continue growth is to promote innovation: if a staff member has an exciting idea that they would like to implement, do what you can to support their efforts and highlight it to the team. Always challenge the status quo: don’t be someone who shuts down ideas and says, “this is how we’ve always done it.”
Provide Strategic Guidance: With this, your biggest focus is on connecting various staff responsibilities to overarching goals within your community or department. It is critical that team members catch the vision in terms of what the collective is trying to accomplish. If it feels like they are just planning a bi-weekly program just to check a box, they’re not going to come up with ideas that are exciting; you’ll likely see the repeated and uninspired movie nights in the floor lounge. Help your staff see the big picture and how their day-to-day actions move the vision closer to fruition. This is also a key time to look out for signs of stagnation or burnout before it affects performance. Encourage staff to take nights away or make time for themselves as needed.
Foster Autonomy While Offering Suppport: At this point you should feel comfortable giving staff autonomy to make decisions on how they carry out their responsibilities. They understand what is expected of them and have likely been completing these tasks for at least a few months (I don’t anticipate any team reaching the Performing stage in September). Staff should know that you trust them to complete tasks and that they have the ability to do so creatively, meeting the needs and desires of their specific residents rather than completing an action just to check a box. An example that comes to mind is that residents may not be as receptive to programming in their specific community. It may provide an opportunity for a staff member to tag along with pods of residents to their student organization’s programming or organize a few events where they could take residents to programs that have already been planned instead of hosting something on their own. At the end of the day, staff need to know that you trust them and that you are available for support as needed in this stage.
Promote a Positive Team Culture: If you have not already started celebrating staff achievements, you need to start doing so as soon as possible. That’s the fuel that keeps the team’s momentum going. Ask your individual team members how they would like their efforts to be recognized: talking highly of them during staff meetings may feel more embarrassing than receiving a card as a written affirmation of their accomplishments. Included in this is the concept of psychological safety. While staff should be recognized when things go well, they should also feel that it’s a safe environment where they can learn from mistakes and engage in constructive conflict to challenge their perceptions. Focus on creating a team where staff constantly lift each other up and encourage each other to grow.
Anticipate and Manage Change: Unfortunately teams won’t stay in the Performing stage forever. It’s likely that they will ebb and flow between Performing and Norming (and may even slip into Storming at times). Help equip your staff to have an open mindset and to know that regression is not final or fatal: it’s part of the process. When it feels like the team is growing complacent, help them focus on a new set of meaningful goals that will help push the team’s boundaries and keep engagement high. This was one of my favorite parts of winter training, as it was an opportunity to build off what was learned in fall semester and to dream new heights for what could be achieved in spring. And, as the supervisor, you will be aware of team dynamics that may shift with turnover or external departmental pressure. Be proactive in guiding the team through challenges and helping them utilize flexibility.
If you’ve reached the Performing stage with your team, you deserve one of the most epic high-fives. This is a point that not many teams can reach given the high turnover rate that is normal with Residence Life due to competing educational goals. Don’t be fearful when your team moves out of this stage: with your efforts, you can help guide them back to Performing. Supervisors play a vital role in maintaining momentum by empowering their teams, providing strategic support, and fostering a culture of continuous improvement. By balancing autonomy with support, supervisors ensure that their teams stay motivated, focused, and ready for whatever comes next.
