Having an excellent leader is significant, but having a high-performing team plays an equally important role in every organisation’s success. Whether you’re just starting out or you already have an established business, having an organised and efficient team is the cornerstone of how you can reach your business goals.
By definition, high-performing teams are made up of people who share the common vision and attributes, focused on their goals and can manage conflicts effectively. They work together toward the achievement of a common goal or business objective.
There is more than one pathway for developing an effective team as every business has its own unique sets of challenges, but leaders play a huge role when it comes to creating high-performing teams. Below are some principles that will help you build and sustain effective teams in your organisation.
Build trust
Trust-building is an essential part of the process. Lack of trust can paralyse the whole organisation and slow down your processes. If you want to achieve outstanding business results, the starting point is always trust.
Highly-effective teams that get results have built high trust with each other. It helps them share ideas and give opinions and recommendations, which are very important when innovating or creating solutions.
Trust is earned step by step and increases with time, but it can be built with easy steps one day at a time. As a leader, you need to develop a positive relationship amongst the team and yourself. Each team member must understand that trust has a direct impact on productivity and even profitability.
Trusting one another’s skills is important in order to get the job done. Allow your team members to encourage each other. Work with them in developing their skills as this helps them trust their abilities in doing their tasks. Trust serves as the glue that will help your team stick together and is built through openness and mutual respect.
Effective communication
Communication is a huge factor in achieving business goals and creating strong relationships within the organisation. Having strong communication between the team members and the management results in aligned outcomes and improved team efficiency.
Leaders who take time to ensure roles and responsibilities are communicated well help build trust among employees, which then leads to increased productivity. Keep your team updated with everything that’s happening in your business. If there’s a new client getting on board, a new product to be launched or changes in your business, let them know immediately. Make sure they are aware of the progress the company is making.
By creating a habit of honest and open communication with your team, you’ll avoid mistakes and misunderstandings. This way, your colleagues will also become more comfortable asking for help or advice.
Using communication tools and platforms can also help your team communicate well and stay on top of their responsibilities. Always remember that having strong communication brings the team together and increases psychological safety.
Establish a high-performance culture
Company culture is one of the most significant aspects of your business. Growth starts with culture and a high-performance culture exists when people in an organisation know what exactly is needed to achieve their goals.
Leaders must clearly communicate the organisation’s vision and values in order to achieve a high-performance culture. When your team clearly understands what is expected of them and they are aligned with your core values, positive things will ultimately happen.
High-performance culture also promotes continued learning and development, and is significant in sustaining high-performing teams and organisations. Research by IBM states that 84% of employees in best-performing organizations are receiving the training they need.
An organisation should cultivate a learning culture in the workplace in order to foster an environment of growth and success. Employees feel empowered whenever they gain new skills. Learning allows them to become more capable of accomplishing short-term and long-term goals.
Measuring performance is also a big part of cultivating a culture. An organisation must regularly evaluate the performance of each team member and then measure the team as a whole. The purpose of doing this is to determine how the processes deployed could be improved and what learning or best practices can be shared with other team members. This is the time where each employee is given a chance to improve their performance. It’s not just about looking into the past, but it’s one way to wake up the ambition and create new common goals to strive for.
Having a high-performance culture contributes to the identity of your company. At the same time, it helps attract and retain great talent. It allows you to build and sustain an A-list team that will help you build your company’s legacy.
Be a good leader
Just like what leadership author John C. Maxwell said, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” You may have the best people in your team, but with ineffective leadership or management, you’ll have difficulty achieving your desired outcomes.
Leaders play a crucial role in building high-performing teams. You need to understand that the most vital part of an organisation is its people. As a leader, you have the opportunity to act as a champion of change and promote an environment of collaboration and excellence.
Sustaining high-performance teams is just as important as building them. It is your responsibility to create guiding principles and work processes that allow them to continue delivering the best performance they can.
Motivate them to work together and become more confident about their goals. When your employees are inspired, the possibilities are endless. They will become highly adaptable, more productive and motivated.
Effective leaders lead by example. When you set a picture of what’s possible, you’re influencing them to create something bigger.
Developing and sustaining efficient teams is the first step in becoming a high-calibre organisation. If you’re ready to transform your business, head to our Corporate Labs and we will help you build a high-performing team.
