Building a team to deliver quality at all times is a very important aspect of improving efficiency and productivity. A high-performing team will always deliver results. Unfortunately, not all business owners/team leaders know how to build their team to that level of competence and efficiency. Some employers spend a lot of money hiring professional trainers to help them develop their team which may not necessarily effect significant changes in the team’s performance.
Developing a high-performing team entails a lot as it has to deal with developing every member of that team to reach the desired level of performance and productivity.
If you’re looking towards developing a high-performing team, then this article is for you- read on.
>> Recommended reading: How to Develop Leadership Skills in Your Team
What exactly are High-Performing Teams?
To be able to develop a high-performance team, you need to know what a high-performing team looks like.
According to New York Times, they are teams or organization that are highly focused on their goals and achieve superior business results or objectives set before them.
Forbes says high-performance teams are a group of people sharing a common vision, goals, metrics and then go ahead to collaborate efforts, challenge each other and are accountable towards achieving outstanding results.
Let’s See how to shape our team to achieve this model described by New York Times and Forbes.
>> Recommended reading: How to Evaluate the Team?
Characteristics of High-Performance Teams
There are certain values and traits that a high-performing team display. Until our various teams can emulate such characteristics, they will be yet to achieve this feat in terms of performance.
Team members of High-performing team:
- Have a clear vision of their objectives and goals;
- Are enthusiastic about achieving their goals;
- Stay committed to achieving their objectives and goals;
- Act according to clearly defined priorities;
- Have good problem-solving skills;
- Manage conflicts successfully;
- Are accountable;
- Share and exhibit leadership responsibilities and qualities respectively;
- Maintain effective communication and a healthy relationship with each other;
- Make unanimous decisions;
- Execute their respective weights and respect team processes and members.
There are many other characteristics but these are the most common traits that your team should aim towards emulating if they are ever going to become a high-performing team.
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How to Develop a High-Performance Team
After seeing the model of how a high-performance team ought to be and the many characteristics they display, how then can we hone our teams into becoming the same as them?
Here are the following ways to develop your team into a high-performing team:
1. Get the Team Composition Right
This is probably the first and important step. McKinsey advises that the team needs to be kept small though not too small. The structure of the organization does not in any way dictate the team’s membership.
A smaller team facilitates decision making because of lack of diversity. The team would make faster decisions and less-poorer decisions. Also, it is easier to choose during succession planning. In a small team, every member’s opinion and voice can be heard which will help increase the togetherness.
Research implies that a team’s effectiveness becomes to dwindle if there exist more than ten members. So first step is slicing your team into a smaller and compact one.
2. Focus on team dynamics
Selecting the team composition is important but not enough towards developing a high-performing team.
Team dynamics as team dynamics is what shapes the team character to enable they achieve extraordinary things or make them mediocre. Ensure that all members totally understand the objectives and goals and that they are motivated towards achieving the pre-set goals.
Furthermore, they must share the same vision else they won’t be in synergy towards achieving the goals. High-quality interaction by members as well as effective communication boosts team dynamics which helps produce results.
Finally, team members must always have a strong sense of renewal where they are energized because they feel confident in taking risks, creating innovating ideas and achieve results that matter.
3. Be a Source of Inspiration
Forbes says that as a team leader, you must go out of your way to ensure your team is always inspired and motivated towards achieving their goals.
This is because a high-performing team goes beyond pull and push. You must and should know how to create energy and enthusiasm in the team. It is your obligation to gauge the teams’ motivation every point in time and give them a refill when you feel the gauge isn’t looking good.
When your team is inspired then they become more confident about their goals and consider achieving it with the highest priority and commitment.
One way is not to give them the hairdryer treatment everytime they fail but encourage and discuss possible alternative ways the goal can be achieved.
4. You must be Trusted
If your team can’t trust you then they can’t be loyal to your or trust your judgements either. They would not bring pressing matters i.e. conflicts, objective issues, etc. to your table because they don’t trust you.
Lack of trust slows down everything because it is the basic pillar in relationships. Build a positive relationship by increasing your team’s trust in you. After which, go ahead to ensure this trust exists among themselves.
You can build trust through:
- Building positive relationship amongst the team and yourself
- Increasing expertise and knowledge- always seek to develop your team’s technical capabilities as this helps them trust their abilities in executing their tasks, and
- Be Consistent in your actions, speech and stay true to your pledges to them.
>> Recommended reading: Everyone aware of their roles: a matrix for assigning task-owners
In Conclusion
Building a high-performing team is not easy but it isn’t rocket science either. Implementing the discussed ways will help turn your team into a more productive one that will deliver results.
Also, staff development is pertinent to developing a high-performing team. So keep looking for ways to improve the capability of every member of your team.
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