A high-performance team is guaranteed to produce results consistently. Whatever the odds, they will overcome, no matter what. Think of it as having an A-team work for you. This article explains.
Such dynamic teams have amazing chemistry, incredible efficiency, and unmatched productivity. But the staff must be created in a sustainable way, using a set of proven tactics, with the type of nurturing that also involves blowing off steam.
No matter how invincible they may be, all work and no play will drastically affect their performance. Indulging in games during breaks can allow them to cool off and enable them to reach the pinnacle of their success in no time.
From large corporations to non-profits, a high-performing team is an asset of any organisation. No wonder that every company dreams of that kind of employee. We will look at five tips to create your own high-performing team environment. Let’s dive in.
Selecting the high-performing team
It makes sense to begin by selecting your staff members. So, how do you narrow down to the chosen few and ensure the quality of the team? You can pair individuals who complement each other with their skillsets and personalities to make it easier to accomplish your goals.
That said, be careful not to duplicate skills. Otherwise, some of them will end up becoming redundant, which is not your aim in the first place. It’s crucial that your team comprises of people who:
- Respect each other
- Are great at conflict resolution
- Take responsibility, whether bad or good
- Work great together
- Hold each other accountable
- Express their creativity through team building
It may happen that skilful employees paired wrongly in a team. That’s why it requires a leader who can recruit the best, knows how to pair, and brings out the best in them. As a, you need to:
- Never lose sight of the goals
- Allow each team member to shine
- Be engaged
- Make decisions without hesitation
- Remove any obstacles
- Encourage team-building
Consider the size of the team
Your high-performance team cannot be too big or too small. The risk here is there may be groupings within the big one. This might end up working against the goals of the organisation. Besides, it becomes easier to overlook others in discussions.
As a result, some individuals may take the back seat since ‘another person is in charge.’ A team with more than eight members suffers challenges ranging from division and increased tension to coordination problems and reduced productivity.
With a smaller group, there are fewer opinions, making the process of decision making faster. Besides, each member can be given an opportunity to voice their concerns and air their views. It goes without saying that when an employee feels heard, they become motivated.
At the same time, with fewer people, there will be fewer opinions, which may hinder an organisation from actually getting the ideal solutions. There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to determining the optimal number of workers. That said, studies suggest that the perfect team composition should have about 5 to 7 members to be able to manage diverse points of view.
Communication has to be a priority
The continued success of a high-performing team depends on communication. Lack of it is a recipe for disaster — missed deadlines, conflicts, mistakes, and lost productivity. For instance, it’s common to think that you can give a summary because your team already ‘gets it.’
However, for the most part, that couldn’t be further from the truth. It doesn’t matter how intelligent you are; if you under-communicate parameters and expectations, your staff won’t go anywhere. On the other hand, effective communication ensures they stay on top of their game.
Research even shows that this is one of the essential skills any effective leader should possess. Communication with your team members as their leader should be fine-tuned with time; it doesn’t happen overnight. This process needs constant improvement.
One way of ensuring progress in terms of communication is to invite a neutral party in some of your meetings. A non-member can easily identify gaps and give feedback, which will help you streamline communication.
Also, all the team members should easily and freely access all the information shared in the team. Moreover, each and every person should feel comfortable enough to voice their opinions and ideas.
Image: Pexels
Be a true leader
Leadership and high-performance team go hand in hand. Suppose a team leader is unsavoury or aloof, most (if not all) team members will not feel inclined to perform. But when there’s good rapport, the team is highly likely to go out of their way to supersede expectations.
Leaders create a flourishing environment that either promotes low or high performing teams, which ultimately affects the overall productivity. In essence, united staff and team management are equally important. While you may have the best experts, inefficient leadership will have them performing at C or even D level.
Nothing will derail any team, no matter how good they are, except for seeing a leader who doesn’t lead by example. The stories of great teams folding from a lack of congruence from their leaders are many, to say the least. That is why leading from the top cannot be overemphasised.
You need a leader that professes and lives by their values and team’s goals at all times. A high-performance team can weather significant setbacks under outstanding leadership.
When a leader features the following, maintaining a high-performing team becomes possible, even when things are changing around them.
Providing clarity on results
This involves outlining what is expected of the individuals and the team as a whole. The progress has to be measurable to be able to track the progress.
Creating robust routines
It is the holy grail of success. As a good leader, you should be able to come up with decision-making methods that allow your staff to work nimbly. That said, the routines set-up should be flexible enough to suit the team’s needs, output, and environment as these things change.
Building great relationships
Team relationships are vital to the success of an organisation. Relationships help foster trust between team members while allowing them to embrace different points of view and challenges. All this will have an impact on the decision making and how results are delivered.
Conducting regular reviews
This entails reviewing the progress, taking note of the changes, and tweaking, where necessary, to maintain peak performance.
Diversity and inclusion
In recent years, most successful organisations have started paying more attention to diversity and inclusion. As a leader, it’s crucial to have an inclusive mindset to build a strong team. There are key attributes that help them stay ahead of the curve; top among them are diversity and inclusion.
Differences in race, gender, age, and ethnicity encourage high performance. This is what team diversity is all about, and although it is the initial and easier step, inclusion is what actually leverages diversity.
Besides a mixture of cultural backgrounds, age, and gender, a leader also needs to consider ‘cognitive’ diversity. This entails mixing individuals with different perspectives, thinking styles, and habits. If everyone on your team has one style, performance will be compromised.
When there are unique personalities, you benefit from the diversity of thought, skills, and experience, which go a long way in avoiding group thinking, enabling quicker decision-making, and achieving improved outcomes with greater quality.
In Summary
As a leader, when assembling a high-performance team, you have to pay attention to its size while ensuring diversity and inclusion. High performance requires open conversations about the similarities and differences of every team member and how that affects collaboration.
Such discussions create a feedback culture and safe space for learning, failing, and thriving through innovation. All in all, building a high-performance team is an outcome of careful planning, making sure your staff develops productive habits. To do that effectively, your employees must have breaks in between.
This will allow them to re-energise, re-calibrate, and put their best foot forward to overcome obstacles and achieve immense and continued successes. Please let us know if our tips have helped you create a high-performing team.
About the Author
Thomas Glare is passionate about helping businesses grow, and he demonstrates that through hшы writing. He is also a globe-trotter, moving from one continent to another. Thomas endeavours to stay in one location long enough to participate in local activities. When not writing, he reads Book of Ra to unwind and relax a bit.
