Managing High Performance Teams
December 15, 2015 | Written by Sree Ravela
Photo courtesy of Unsplash
I want to share my experiences building and operating high performance teams. During my MBA days, we used to have several healthy debates in our class about building great teams where all the teammates and the leader have clarity in their roles and higher motivational levels than average to achieve collective goals. After taking up management positions in the corporate world, I started focusing on applying my theoretical knowledge to building my dream teams. It’s easier said than done, and very soon I realized the vital role played by an organization’s culture in building and operating in high performance mode.
Why is high performance important?
Organizations that are intentional toward building and operating in high performance mode benefit in several impactful ways. Here are just a few of those benefits.
Year after year, organizations can aim to set stretch level goals for their teams.
Leadership can focus more on strategic planning vs. day-to-day operational tasks.
There is limited labor turnover due to committed, passionate, and recognized employees.
Continuous feedback provides opportunities to address behavioral improvements.
There is relatively lesser effort in building trust with internal, as well as external customers.
The organization sees an increase in happier and returning customers due to excellent service offering.
What does a high performance team look like?
A high performance team operates with clear, aligned goals in a collaborative environment, empowered to make decisions and continuously improve while maintaining open communication and consistently delivering high quality results. Here’s an overview of what a high performance team should look like.
Every teammate is fully engaged and committed to supporting eachother.
The team has very clear and SMART goals that focus on a larger, collective goal.
The team’s goals ultimately align with the organization's goals.
The team operates in a collaborative and a trusted environment.
The team is empowered to make decisions.
The team operates with the philosophy of continuous improvement, and it’s perennial.
The team engages in open, continuous, and appropriate communications.
The team outputs high quality delivery, over and over again.
What should I look out for when building high performance teams?
When it comes to building high performance teams, I always think back to the wise words of the Dr. Reed Markham, “Successful leaders see the opportunities in every difficulty rather than the difficulty in every opportunity.” High performance cannot just happen by chance. Building high performance teams involves a number of activities, in which leaders should pay attention to and address all major issues, or else they’re at risk of derailing the process. Here are some caveats and suggestions for paving the way.
Inadequate trust between teammates takes away from promoting honesty, transparency, consistency, clarity, commitment and high integrity. Such behaviors help build/regain trust, so protect these at all costs.
Inefficient feedback doesn’t help anyone. Make sure to thoroughly verify the facts and discuss behavioral aspects and focus on the context, especially while providing constructive feedback.
Conflict resolution should be carefully managed. While healthy conflict should be expected, make sure to promote an open-minded approach during discussions that focus on the collective team’s goals vs. personal goals.
Contradicting messages cause confusion and frustration. On the other hand, consistency in messaging and choosing your words wisely will provide clear direction, reducing risk of confusion and wasted efforts.
Core values and ethics and must be valued above personal relationships.
High performance teams are characterized by clear, aligned goals, collaborative environments, and consistent high quality output, which are crucial for organizational success and growth. Building these teams requires intentional effort from leadership, focusing on fostering trust, efficient feedback, effective conflict resolution, and consistent messaging. By prioritizing these elements and adhering to core values and ethics, organizations can create teams that drive innovation, improve customer satisfaction, and achieve stretch goals year after year.