By Anne Evenson
Maintaining a high-performing team is dependent on the leader and the atmosphere they create. Read on to learn specific steps on how to achieve this and where those steps lie within the four-phase team development model.
“In periods where there is no leadership, society stands still. Progress occurs when courageous, skillful leaders seize the opportunity to change things for the better.”
Harry S. Truman, 33rd U.S. President
In part one of this series, we covered the characteristics of high-performance teams, their development stages, why they are essential to organizational and individual success, and how they differ from regular work teams; in part two, we reviewed various work teams, common obstacles high-performance teams face and two real-world examples of high-performing teams.
In this last segment, we’ll offer specific guidance on cultivating and sustaining a high-performance team and where these best practices fall in the four-phase team development model (forming, storming, norming and performing introduced in part one).
Be a Strong Leader
A high-performance team can only exist under the direction of a high-performing leader. These leaders are masters of communication, collaboration and delegation, fully committed to their team and its goals. This level of leadership is necessary at every phase of your team’s development.
Consistently practice active listening, ask clarifying questions and establish open lines of communication between you and your team. Don’t be afraid to show vulnerability or ask for help to create an atmosphere of mutual accountability and trust. Hone your emotional intelligence and exercise self-awareness by knowing your strengths and weaknesses. Manage your time effectively so you can make informed, proactive decisions.
Elevate and motivate your team whenever possible by offering individual coaching for performance and ongoing professional development to refine their skills. Provide opportunities for teamwork and find ways to incentivize successful collaboration. Be open to your members’ ideas, opinions, and perspectives. Inspire your team through mentorship by sharing your strengths and lessons learned.
Foster Trust
Trust is the heart and soul of every high-performance team and can take team performance from satisfactory to outstanding. Ideally, it’s formed towards the end of your team’s forming phase and is a required element of the norming, storming, and performing phases of your team’s development. Trust is necessary for your team to progress due to fear of conflict and lack of commitment. To create and maintain a solid foundation of trust among your team members, remember the following:
- When people know their ideas, opinions, and perspectives are valued, they feel empowered, aren’t afraid to take risks, and will always perform at their peak.
- Professional adults work through challenges and conflicts calmly and respectfully.
- All lines of communication should be consistently open and transparent.
- Communicating openly and honestly about everyone’s strengths and limitations can generate trust among team members.
- Knowing your team members’ personality traits can help you empathize with them, understand their behavior, identify how they interact with others and whether they need to modify their behavior.
Prioritize Communication
High-performance team leads prioritize communication to increase engagement, motivation, efficiency and productivity. Team members consistently fine-tune their communication skills to bridge gaps and collaborate to achieve their shared goals.
To promote effective communication, ensure your team is clear about your expectations. Encourage them to consistently connect with their colleagues to listen to each other, explain their perspectives and relay expectations. Emphasize the importance of disseminating information to their direct reports and the team. Help your team understand their communication styles and those of their colleagues and establish communication guidelines for briefings or formal meetings. Establish a set communications process that includes digital communication channels like email, Slack, and text messages, as well as in-person check-ins like briefs, meetings and working lunches.
Set Clear Goals and SMART Objectives
High-performing leaders ensure that their team understands their common purpose during every phase of team development and that success means working together. Begin at the forming phase by creating a team charter to identify goals, objectives and guiding principles. Ask for contributions from each team member so they feel engaged and empowered right from the start.
Set SMART objectives aligned with clear goals to guarantee that your team knows exactly what they’re working towards, how to achieve it and how it contributes to the organization’s overall success. Discuss key priorities and ensure none are competing, and use SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound) to outline specific objectives. Allowing team members to have input at this stage encourages creativity and ensures their commitment to shared goals.
Define Roles and Responsibilities
The roles and responsibilities of a high-performance team should align with organizational values and be governed by the team charter that outlines guiding principles and clarifies expectations. Assign roles at the forming phase and allocate responsibilities by the end of the storming phase. Every team member must be crystal clear on who does what and when.
In addition, it’s essential to understand the nine behavioral attributes of a high-performing team identified by management consultant Dr. Raymond Meredith Belbin. Understanding these attributes helps teams develop their strengths and work collaboratively to manage weaknesses. These attributes may be distinct from the formal role the team charter assigns each member.
Resolve Conflict
Even the top high-performing teams will still experience conflict occasionally; however, it mustn’t be allowed to fester if everyone is to keep moving forward together. A psychologically safe workplace is essential for any high-performance team at every development phase.
Bolster your teams’ conflict resolution skills by practicing together through targeted professional development training and in real-time with a predetermined dispute process. While some disagreements can be beneficial, the best approach is to expect and be ready for them when they happen. As soon as an issue arises, address it immediately to prevent it from spiraling out of control and deepening the rift in your team. Ensure that you and your team have mastered emotional intelligence—this will go a long way toward preventing conflict.
Nurturing an environment of accountability also goes a long way to preventing conflict. Greater accountability helps team members feel that their perspectives are validated, which leads to them being more accommodating toward their colleague’s struggles to meet expectations or deadlines. Establish workflow tracking to keep everyone accountable for their specific tasks and responsibilities. Lastly, implement a zero-tolerance rule for bullying, manipulation or any other type of abuse.
Offer Incentives, Rewards & Recognition
High-performance teams must receive incentives, rewards and recognition for working together to achieve their high-level goals. Incentivize achievements and celebrate milestones by offering monetary bonuses, extra paid time off or unique gifts tailored to their interests. Publicly acknowledge their accomplishments with an award ceremony, in the company newsletter or on social media.
Take them out to lunch or a sporting event to demonstrate how much you value their efforts. Celebrating outside the workplace is a great way to build camaraderie and get to know them better as individuals. A simple handwritten note articulating how much you appreciate everyone’s hard work can go a long way to show your appreciation. Any or all of these acknowledgments are appropriate during the norming and performing phases and promote a positive team culture.
High-performing teams don’t happen by accident. They require a strong and effective leader who will support each person’s growth and development and cultivate an environment of trust and mutual accountability where everyone strives towards a common goal. When operating at top capacity, a high-performance team can achieve almost anything!
Anne Evenson is a native Austinite and a proud Veteran’s spouse with over 20 years of marketing, communications and program coordination experience in the public, private and nonprofit sectors. She is also a sculptor, jeweler and all-around dabbler in the arts and loves to help military-connected individuals discover their inner creativity.
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