2. Building High Performing Teams
So how do you build, develop and maintain high performing teams? Below we have listed some key tips to help you develop and nurture your team:
Continuously enhance your own management and leadership skills: Keeping up to date with your own personal development will not only set a good example to your team but also ensure you are equipped to effectively manage all types of team management situations and stretch your team's capability.
Select a balanced team: By identifying new recruits with not only the right technical skills, but also those who balance the team with their team roles, communication and thinking styles, you can ensure you have the most effective team. This balance can be identified through the use of tools such as the OPQ Occupational Personality Questionnaire, Belbin Team Roles, and MBTI Myers Briggs Type Indicator.
Provide the team with your vision and direction: High performance teams are psychologically bound together by the team goals they work which help them to achieve their future aspirations. The team leader therefore needs to be able to articulate the direction the team should be heading for, so they know whether each step they are taking is taking them closer to their vision for the future. This vision can be articulated in various ways through images, words and experiences. The more experiences you can provide your team members with of the future, the more likely they are to understand where you want to take them and how they could get there.
Discuss your expectations and establish objectives together: Although a newly appointed team member will need strong direction, those who have settled into their job role will be highly motivated by being challenged to make recommendations for their performance objectives with your support and encouragement. You will probably need to adjust your leadership style here dependent upon the seniority of the team members you are managing. More junior team members are more likely to need strong direction whilst senior members can be coached.
Pay attention to the development needs of team members: As a manager, you are responsible for ensuring each team member has the skills and knowledge to do their job. Each individual has ultimate responsibility for his or her own personal development but, as a manager, you also have responsibility to inspire, encourage, support and nurture your team's personal development, which often stimulates a high level of motivation. You will also need to ensure you effectively and realistically manage each team member's career aspirations.
Support and nurture timely team building activities: These activities are most effective if they are featured at short but frequent stages across the team's life span. The range of teambuilding activities should be tailored to meet a specific objective you wish to achieve but must involve activities that each team member will feel comfortable taking part in. However, simple activities such as going to the pub or café for lunch will help your team to relax and get to know each other better. Remember, evening events or those held outside working hours are motivational only if the personal circumstances of each team member suit evenings.
Encourage the involvement of team members in any activity where they could make a contribution: Generally, people like to feel part of something – a family, a social network, etc and the in the work place, this means being able to contribute to something worthwhile that reflects on their hard work. Challenge yourself to see if you are tapping into all of your team's talents? Are there further opportunities? If there are, you have an opportunity to further motivate your team members and get the highest level of performance results. Try to balance these opportunities so that every team member feels they are being valued and treated on an equal level. Where you have team strengths, are there opportunities for these team members to develop others?
Provide and receive constructive feedback: Feedback, when used constructively, is a really powerful and helpful tool in our business and personal world. Team members need to know where they stand in terms of how you view their performance. Use as many opportunities as you can to provide team members with constructive developmental and motivational feedback and actively encourage the team to give you feedback. With feedback from your direct reports, you will find it much easier to manage them appropriately and develop different leadership styles.
Do not allow conflict and competition to get out of control: Although some competition can be healthy, too much within a team can turn to a negative force. Conflict, when managed constructively, can channel healthy debate and energy into a team, taking the team to a much higher performance level that had that conflict not been initiated.
Recognise, reward and celebrate the success of the team and its members: Celebrations not only serve to honour the accomplishments of employees and of successful projects, they reinforce and bolster the specific actions, behaviours and values that the company is striving to embed in its culture. Finding the most appropriate method of celebrating these achievements is key to motivating the people they aim to thank.
Recognise the stages of team development: Research shows that all teams go through different stages of development to reach peak performance, and however skilled and experienced each team member is, the group dynamics will vary for each individual team. You will need to adapt your leadership style to the relevant stage your team is at. See Group Formation Theory for further information and to assess where your team are currently in terms of their group maturity.
Prepare and manage the transition of changes to the team: As team members change within the team, the team dynamics will alter. Anticipate these changes and provide your team with opportunities to explore these changes and get to know new members quickly. Again, simple social team gatherings can help ease new members into the team, along with task assignments working together.
Regularly review the performance of the team: Taking your vision and the team goals, ensure you with your team members regularly review the performance of the team. Ask yourselves: How well are we doing? What's working well that we need to continue? What should we stop doing that isn't helping us achieve our goals? What should we start doing that will bring us closer to achieving our goals?
Empower your team to manage themselves: As your team matures, encourage and empower your team member's to take greater responsibility for team activities that traditionally you may have co-ordinated. Allow and support your team members to make decisions whilst being accountable for their actions. Encourage and foster a "learning culture" rather than a "blame culture" when things go wrong.
Next > Stages of Team Development
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About the Author
Written by Kim Larkins.
