8 Ways To Develop A High-Performing Team

In a world that demands as much as this one does, it’s imperative to have high-performing teams, or as I like to call them – super teams.

Now the question is how exactly do you get your team to reach that level of performance?

Well, you could try to hire some superheroes, but I doubt anyone could get them to be all that focused on a day job.

Or, if you were really serious about it, you could use these tips to turn the teams you have into super teams;

It’s All About The Leader

Since the beginning of time, people have misunderstood the purpose of a leader, a leader is not someone who simply delegates tasks and handles any repercussions should the team not meet their goals.

A  good leader manages his teams, inspires them, motivates them and constantly tries to improve the workings of his team.

Optimism and creative problem solving are essential attributes for good leaders, above and beyond the ability to lead teams well.

It also needs to be someone that the team will trust, and the importance of that cannot be overstated.

Because when the team trusts their leader they will heed his/her council, they follow direction and they are more likely to push harder to improve on their work, productivity or to solve problems.

A good leader holds the team together.

Roles and Procedures

If you’ve ever watched the series like Scorpion, the bunch of geniuses that solves the government’s problems, then you have an idea about what a high-performing team is.

Each of them has their specialty and their specific set of skills is crucial to the team’s functioning.

However, they never cross over into one of the other members’ responsibilities, except to offer a fresh perspective when this person is having a tough time solving problems.

In High Performing teams, each member knows exactly what the role and responsibility are,  which is why they can function so well.

Because they’re not worried about a million different things same focus on one specific aspect of the project, and doing that really well.

High-performing teams are 100% sure about the way the Team works, they know the rules of the company as well as the rules of the team.

Magical Meetings

Or as close to magical as you can manage.

Meetings need to be (at least) a bi-weekly occurrence, and this is not only to discuss issues, that can arrive as quickly as the Flash (yes the hero), but it’s also important to help keep team members accountable and keep them motivated.

Running effective meetings is not for the faint of heart but if you put in the energy and the work, it can really be the one thing that pushes your team towards super productivity.

Make sure to write out the important topic points ahead of time and try to stay on track during the meeting except for addressing any issues that can be quickly sorted out.

Also, make sure that your team is prepared and that your meetings are scheduled at the same time every week as far as you can help it.

Performance and Progress Tracking

Performance and progress tracking is crucial to the success of high-performance teams, so it’s only obvious that you should have a system to manage that.

Project management software can be super complicated and although they can be brilliant, depending on your industry and specific project requirements, they can also take time to learn and master and it’s likely that your team members will not have the time to incorporate that learning into their day.

Instead, you can opt for something simpler, such as Monday.com or Hitask, although personally, I’m a fan of the former but Hitask does have a free option, so there’s that.

Maintain Positive Relationships

As a leader, you will have to solve conflicts between team members and liaise the relationships that are a little prickly.

Now that doesn’t mean that you interfere in every conversation, it means that you are observant, and you pick up on tensions in how team members interact (or don’t interact) with each other.

It’s important to facilitate a positive relationship with yourself and each individual team member too, in order to build loyalty towards the company.

You see in many cases employees form bonds with each other but not with their leaders (and in essence the company).

Now imagine if one of your team members gets injured on duty and can no longer work, and aside from all the worker’s compensation procedures that you now have to deal with, your team members start to get restless.

Before you know it there’s tension, people are fighting and the team is anything except high performing.

Not ideal.

And this is why it’s important to build loyalty towards the company as well as each other.

Embrace Independence and Innovation

Contrary to popular belief independence is not the enemy of the team, it is a component of a team, and an important one at that.

Think about how your body works when you are swimming, for example, if your right arm did the exact same thing as your left leg, how well do you think you’d be able to swim, if at all?

Nope. You would drown.

This is why it’s so important to embrace independence in a high performing team, yes they should all work together towards a common goal but innovation and independence can only help everyone grow, even if it is a little out of the box (and sometimes doesn’t conform to a standard)

Promote Learning

As I mentioned earlier, learning does take time. But for some things, it just might be worth it.

Furthering your teams’ skills, increasing knowledge, and expanding horizons has never been more important than the age of today.

Everything is fast-paced and sometimes, what we already know just needs to be challenged.

Team leaders have to stay on top of any new courses or learning that could further the productivity and innovation of his team.

One could argue that good leaders would actively seek out ways to improve the knowledge and lives of his team members, and in so doing increase the performance of his already high-performing team.

Celebrate As A Team

As you can probably tell, all these trips really build on each other and this one is no different.

Once your team has been united by good leadership, by loyalty and positive relationships the only thing that’s left is to celebrate triumphs and progress together as a team.

After all, there’s an age-old saying that is totally spot on; all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
And I couldn’t agree more – celebrate your team.