Building High-Performance Teams

There are many groups of people who work at a company in the same department, on the same shifts, with the same people, and they function as a work group. As a leader and manager, you can take a work group and mold them into high performance teams.

There are four common elements in high performance teams.

The first is common purpose, common purpose is described as something larger than one’s own role within an organization. It’s more than just a business goal, it is what we want to be known as. Everyone on your team needs to understand the common purpose beyond the task they perform on a regular basis. This will give them a buy-in every shift, every day.

The second element of building high performance teams are goals. Every person on your team needs to know what their goals are and how they will be measured. They should be clearly defined, simple to understand, and measured through tools like mystery shops or associated performance reviews and regular scheduled coaching sessions to review goals and their progress towards those goals.
The third element of a high-performance team is complimentary team members. What this means is that members of your team each bring a different perspective, strength, ability, or mix of personality styles. This certainly can bring up many challenges. Many of you may be managers who inherit a current work group. Maybe you’re not that person who does the hiring for your department or maybe you don’t always have a choice in who you hire. While these challenges will always be present, your goal is to understand each person on your team, what are their strengths and areas for development, how can you best position those people that you have on your team and how you can become a person of influence in the selection of future team members.
The last element is mutual accountability. In mutual accountability, your goal is to create an atmosphere where each individual team member feels the role they play is important to the success of the entire business. Once individuals are vested in what they do, they become more accountable to each other as a group. The ultimate goal is to create an atmosphere where each individual feels their role is important to the overall success of the team.

All four of these elements are critical in building a high-performance team.

Superlative Leadership

There is an old saying that a manager lights a fire under people, but a leader lights a fire in people.
I’ve learned a long time ago that there are three traits of a great leader.

The first is passion.  A great leader has passion for what they do. They have excitement every day they come to work, and that excitement is infectious with their team.

The next is hard work.  A great leader will always work as hard as their teammate, and never ask a team member to do anything that they wouldn’t do, themselves.

Lastly, expertise.  A great leader is a student of their craft, and certainly always understands the challenges that their team goes through.

Always remember that leaders are not rewarded for what they do.  They are rewarded for what their

people do.