Above & Below the Line: A Quick and Easy Leadership Tool For Building Strong Teams

The Monday Morning Manager #15

This article is part of The Monday Morning Manager Series for new leaders. Check out the rest of the series plus the archives here.

You may have the makings of a great boss, but as a new leader, you will have to do some team building. If you inherit or build a high-performing team, you are fortunate not to have to address team issues immediately.

As a leader, I’ve had some talented and dedicated people work for me throughout my career. I’ve also had team members who are not committed and worked in wider teams with some truly toxic people.

A practical tool to address team issues, whether it’s poor manners, laziness, or toxic behavior, is Above & Below the Line, which is run as a workshop.

Above & Below the Line may not solve all your issues, but it’s an excellent first step. It will indicate who wants to build a high-performing team and who is a saboteur.

How to run an Above & Below the Line workshop

Step One: Invite the team

Invite your direct reports to a team-building workshop and ask them to think about what an outstanding team looks like. Say you want to invest some time to build a high-performing team.

Make sure you book a meeting room for privacy and allow about 90 minutes. An hour is too short and two hours is tiring. If you finish early, you all get some time back.

Avoid implying that the team is not performing or that the session is to fix anyone’s behavior. You don’t want your team to arrive at the workshop with a negative or suspicious attitude.

If anyone asks, say that you have found a team-building exercise you think would be valuable and productive.

Step Two: Prepare for the session

Think about what you want to get out of the session. Do you want behavior change, like stopping gossip or process-related changes?

Ask yourself what a successful workshop would look like, and make a list of topics you want to add to the discussion.

Get into the meeting room before the workshop starts and set the room up — you don’t want to waste valuable time messing around fetching water jugs and whiteboard pens.

Step Three: Run the session

Introduce the session by saying that you want to invest some time in the team and that the Above & Below the Line exercise is worthwhile.

Draw a horizontal line across the whiteboard.

Ask everyone to take a couple of minutes to think about what the team would look like in an ideal world.

Then go around the room and get feedback from each person in turn. Make sure that everyone you include everyone.

The sort of things you are likely to hear are:

• Friendly
• Co-Operative
• Respectful
• Competent
• Say Good Morning and Goodnight
• Care about each other
• Talented
• High Energy
• Focussed
• Positive
• Share knowledge
• Help each other
• Professional

If people have a negative issue they want to solve, encourage them to frame it positively and say what they want.

Write what people say in their own words in colored pens on the whiteboard.

Keep asking ‘What else?” until the ideas dry up.

Thank the team, and take a couple of minutes to talk about how amazing it would be if you all could abide by the Above the Line behaviors.

Now it’s time to do the Below the Line part of the exercise.

Ask the group what they do not want in their team. What annoys them? What is unproductive and unprofessional?

Write the Below the Line answers in black.

You are likely to get comments such as:

• Gossiping
• Rudeness
• Having cliques
• Taking credit for others’ work
• Not communicating
• Talking loudly
• Lateness
• Accepting meeting requests and not turning up
• Not responding to emails
• Not answering the phone
• Leaving work for others to do
• Criticizing the team to others

You now have clear guidelines of what is acceptable to the team and what is not.

Thank the team for highlighting the sort of behaviors that they don’t want and re-iterate that these types of behaviors are not acceptable.

Step Four: Get commitment

Ask the team to commit to only demonstrating Above the Line Behaviors from now on.

Take photos of the whiteboard and get a volunteer to type up the comments.

Discuss how to keep a record of the Above the Line behaviors. For example, would the team like a poster or a screen saver? Some teams create a pledge that everyone signs, and the pledge is framed and hung on the wall.

I’ve also seen teams use online printing companies to design mugs proudly displayed with the Above the Line behaviors.

Now that you’ve agreed on how to use the Above the Line comments, it’s time to look at the Below the Line comments.

A good solution is for the team to agree that if anyone displays undesirable behaviors, other team members can say, ‘That’s Below the Line’ or ‘I’d rather keep Above the Line’.

Using the words Above or Below the Line is how to call out poor behaviors in a neutral, non-provocative way.

Step Five: Implement the Above & Below the Line system

You’ve run the session, got the results, and agreed on what everyone will do. Now you have to ensure that it does get done.

Ensure the person tasked with creating the posters, screen saver, or pledge does so within a week. Start using the Above the Line words yourself. If you find yourself gossiping, say, “Oops, I’ve gone Below the Line,” and stop.

Your team will take follow your lead.

In your team meetings, check how people are doing. Ask them if they are managing to stay Above the Line and call out themselves and others who go Below the Line.

Above & Below the Line is a valuable tool if you follow through.

Summary

Every leader has to deal with an unproductive or poorly performing team. It may not be your fault. You could inherit poor staff or be over-ruled about hiring decisions or internal transfers.

Whatever the reason, you must fix it as a leader, and the Above & Below the Line session is an excellent way to start.

Remember that change does not happen overnight. It will take a while for the team to get used to complying with the desired behaviors or calling others out.

If you still have issues with a team member after giving plenty of feedback, it’s time to talk to HR and take a harsher approach.

I’m a Learning & Development professional writing about leadership & training. I’ve designed The New Leader’s Starter Kit to help leaders communicate more effectively with their teams. Get your free copy here —

The New Leader’s Starter Kit takes you through how to run One-to-Ones and Constructive Feedback sessions & develop professional listening skills — a printable one-to-one form, feedback form and listening skills checklist included.