Managing Performance: Building a High-Performing Team
Creating a high-performing team is essential for any organization aiming for success. Here are the seven critical aspects to consider:
1. Set Direction
- Vision: Establish a clear, ambitious, yet realistic vision for where you want to be in 3-5 years. It should be something worth doing, differentiated from competitors, and concise.
- Mission: Develop a mission statement that reflects your organization’s cultural values, beliefs, and philosophy. It should be clear, brief, and understandable, outlining how your organization creates value and serving as a rallying point.
- Shared Purpose: Involve your customers in achieving your mission and vision.
- Strategy: Define core competencies, articulate strategic filters, prioritize, and align team member capabilities.
2. Gather and Deploy Resources
- Articulate Needs: Make a prioritized list of initiatives, build a bottoms-up forecast, and lay out needs for each project.
- Make a Business Case: Clearly present the rationale for the resources required.
3. Assemble the Team
- Skills: Consider the required technical, functional, and cultural skills.
- People: Assess the current skills of team members and evaluate performance detractors.
- Chemistry/Trust: Create chemistry by involving everyone in the interview process, using tools to assess personalities and work styles, and finding common ground. Build trust through shared experiences and predictability.
4. Allocate and Prioritize the Work
- Balance Workload: Ensure tasks are distributed evenly based on skill sets and availability.
- Set Attainable Goals: Define both achievable and stretch goals to motivate the team.
- Prioritize Efforts: Focus on the most critical tasks to maximize impact.
5. Execute the Plan
- Making Decisions: Follow a decision-making cycle: Prepare, Decide, Communicate, Execute, Measure, and Adjust. Use different decision styles (Autocratic, Participatory, Democratic, Consensus) based on the situation.
- Run Meetings Efficiently: Share information ahead of time, define the purpose, ensure the right people are prepared, discuss major variances, use the 80/20 rule, and review standing meetings.
6. Motivate People
- Empowerment: Allow team members to take different routes and learn from their experiences, whether they succeed or fail.
- Resolving Conflict: Teach your team to resolve conflicts on their own by recognizing issues, giving control, and mediating only as a last resort.
- Providing Feedback: Ask permission, offer fact-based observations, explain feelings, request behavioral changes, ask for commitment, and offer assistance.
- Celebrating Success and Accepting Failure: Celebrate success with bonuses, visibility opportunities, public recognition, increased responsibility, and promotions. Accept failure by avoiding blame, creating learning opportunities, failing as a team, and praising risk-taking.
7. Develop the Team
- Building Individual Capabilities: Identify required skills, create individual development plans, provide real-world experience, and discuss results during annual reviews.
- Building Bench Strength and Succession Plan: Avoid over-reliance on key players by cross-training, building redundancy, providing growth opportunities, and creating a robust talent pipeline.
- Creating Stretch Assignments: Balance 30% stretch and grow assignments with 70% current responsibilities.
Creating the High-Performing Virtuous Circle
By focusing on these seven elements, you create a virtuous circle where each aspect enhances the others. This dynamic enables your team to perform even better than if you focused on individual elements alone.
Closing Thoughts
Building a high-performing team is a continuous process that requires dedication, strategic planning, and a commitment to fostering a positive and collaborative culture. By implementing these key strategies, you can create an environment where your team members thrive, innovate, and drive your organization towards success. Remember, the journey to building a high-performing team is as important as the destination. Embrace the process, celebrate the milestones, and learn from the challenges along the way.
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Sources:
Building High-Performance Teams | LinkedIn Learning