The Social Skills of a Team Player Matters as Much as IQ When It Comes To Team Performance

Research from Harvard University and National Bureau of Economic Research

Most jobs require that we collaborate effectively have display good teamwork. But have you ever wondered why some teams consistently outperform others, even when individual skills seem comparable? A study from Harvard University and National Bureau of Economic Research by Ben Weidmann and David J. Deming, sheds light on this puzzle, where they studied “team players” in detail, along with their outsized impact on group performance.

The researchers set out to tackle a perennial challenge in organizational psychology: how to identify individual contributions to team success. While we've long known that teams can be more than the sum of their parts, pinpointing exactly who makes that magic happen has been elusive. They wanted to figure out if some individuals consistently boost team performance above and beyond what you'd expect based on their individual skills.

For example, adding a genius programmer to your software team will likely improve output in some ways, but that doesn't necessarily make them a team player. The question is, are there people who make the whole team better than the sum of its parts?

Previous research has focused on team-level characteristics like average IQ, personality profiles, and shared knowledge, but these provide a limited view of the individual dynamics at play.

The Methodology

To find out, they ran a clever experiment. First, they tested individuals on various problem-solving tasks (memory, optimization, pattern recognition) and also measured their social intelligence and personality traits.

Then, they randomly assigned these individuals to multiple different teams and had them tackle similar tasks collectively.

This random assignment and repeated teaming up is key – it lets the researchers isolate the unique contribution of each individual to different team compositions.

This method, known as repeated random assignment, is crucial for disentangling the unique contribution of each individual from the overall team performance. By repeatedly shuffling team compositions, the researchers could control for the influence of specific team dynamics and isolate the consistent impact of individual team players.

The Experiment: A Deep Dive

The study involved a two-phase process. In the first phase, participants completed a battery of online tests designed to assess their individual skills across three key areas: memory, optimization, and pattern recognition (using a task involving geometric shapes). These tasks were chosen to represent a range of cognitive abilities relevant to problem-solving in various work environments. In addition to these skill-based tests, participants also completed assessments measuring their social intelligence (using the Reading the Mind in the Eyes Test or RMET) and personality traits (using the Big Five inventory). The RMET, a well-established measure of emotional perception, assesses an individual's ability to infer the emotional states of others based on subtle cues in their eyes.

The second phase of the experiment brought the participants together in a laboratory setting. They were randomly assigned to teams of three and asked to complete tasks similar to those they had performed individually online. This allowed the researchers to compare individual performance with team performance and identify any discrepancies. Crucially, participants were assigned to multiple different teams throughout the experiment, ensuring that the observed effects were not simply due to the specific dynamics of a single team composition.

The researchers then developed a predictive model of team performance based on the individual skill scores from the online tests. This model essentially represented the expected team performance if individual contributions were simply additive. By comparing the actual team performance with the predicted performance, Weidmann and Deming could identify individuals who consistently caused their teams to outperform expectations. These individuals, they concluded, were the "team players."

The Surprising Results: Social Skills Take Center Stage

The study's findings were both surprising and insightful. Contrary to expectations, traditional measures like IQ, personality traits, education level, and gender did not predict the "team player" effect. Instead, the strongest predictor was social intelligence, as measured by the RMET.

Individuals who scored higher on the RMET, demonstrating a greater ability to understand and respond to the emotions of others, were significantly more likely to be identified as team players.

Furthermore, when the researchers combined the "team player" effect with the RMET scores into a single "social skill" factor, they found that this factor was as powerful as IQ in predicting team success. This suggests that traditional assessments, which often focus heavily on cognitive abilities, may be overlooking a critical component of workplace effectiveness.

Beyond the Lab: Rethinking Talent and Teamwork

So, what could we learn from this study?

While the study was conducted in a laboratory setting, its findings have significant real-world implications.

The researchers found that the "team player" effect was robust across different types of tasks, suggesting that its influence extends beyond specific contexts. The study also provides suggestive evidence about the mechanisms through which team players enhance team performance. It appears that they contribute to increased team persistence, potentially by motivating teammates to exert greater effort and maintain focus on shared goals.

Further research is needed to fully explore these mechanisms, but the initial findings underscore the importance of social skills in driving team effectiveness.

All this should force us to reconsider the traditional markers of talent, where especially in hiring, we tend to focus too heavily on individual-level hard skills in isolation (for example, in programming tasks, we often focus on random “leetcode” style tasks which often are never really required in the job). At the same time, we focus less on evaluating their skills as team players, and how their addition can make the team better than the sum of its parts.

Here's how tech leaders can apply these findings:

• Revamp Recruitment Strategies: Move beyond traditional technical assessments and incorporate measures of social intelligence into the hiring process. Look for candidates who demonstrate strong emotional intelligence, empathy, and the ability to effectively navigate social dynamics. Consider incorporating team-based exercises or simulations into the interview process to observe candidates' collaborative skills in action. This doesn’t mean that you suddenly don’t look for hard skills, but this does mean that the soft skills component should not be overlooked.

• Invest in Social Skills Development: Provide training and development opportunities for employees to enhance their social intelligence and collaborative abilities. These skills can be learned and improved through targeted interventions, workshops, and coaching (which is what Voohy is all about). Encourage employees to actively practice active listening, empathy, and constructive communication.

• Implement Team-Based Evaluations: To identify the "team players" within your organization, create opportunities for employees to work collaboratively and evaluate their performance in team settings. Incorporate team-based projects, peer feedback mechanisms, and 360-degree assessments to gain a holistic understanding of individual contributions to team success.

• Strategically Deploy Team Players: Once identified, leverage the unique abilities of team players to maximize their impact on overall organizational performance. Assign them to teams where their collaborative skills can elevate the performance of the entire group. Consider rotating team players across different projects and departments to spread their positive influence throughout the organization.

• Cultivate a Culture of Collaboration: Foster a work environment that values and rewards teamwork and collaboration, not just individual achievements. Encourage open communication, knowledge sharing, and mutual support among team members. Celebrate team successes and recognize the contributions of individuals who demonstrate strong team player qualities.

It's time to move beyond the myth of the lone genius and embrace the power of truly synergistic teamwork. Investing in developing social skills within our teams could unlock significant performance gains, turning groups of talented individuals into truly high-performing teams.