In a world of constant change, it’s essential for businesses to be able to adapt to whatever comes their way. As a leader, reevaluating your teams and ensuring they’re high-performing and differ from the status quo is one way of doing this.
A high-performing team is made up of highly skilled and diverse people who focus on achieving a common business goal or team goal. They share similar values, commit to innovative problem-solving, have a sense of ownership, communicate and collaborate effectively, and consistently deliver the best results.
High-performing teams benefit your organization in many ways. This type of effective team helps boost productivity and efficiency, drive creativity and innovation, improve employee engagement and morale, and increase customer satisfaction.
Here are our top tips and strategies for creating and nurturing high performance in your teams.
Tip #1: Transform Your Hiring With Diversity
A team that’s made up of different personalities includes a variety of behaviors, communication styles, and ways of working. They come with different backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.
It’s important to build successful teams with diversity. Diverse teams see things in many ways and can get the organization to the next level. They share ideas, collaborate on creative solutions, recognize new market opportunities, and better appreciate customers' needs. High-performance work teams also engage in active listening. When people with differences come together, it encourages innovation, which drives market growth and contributes to the overall success of business performance.
Research by The Wall Street Journal found that companies with above-average diversity produced more revenue from innovation (45% of total) than those with below-average diversity (26%). This resulted in overall better financial performance.
Once hired,team leaders should nurture the diversity within the team. Help members work together effectively by ensuring they understand and appreciate each other’s specialized expertise, unique strengths, and personalities. Rather than being a source of conflict, personality differences become a springboard for team and project success.
Tip #2: Set Your Team’s Uniting Factor
Your team needs to understand their why. What are they trying to achieve together, as a team and as a business? Do this by creating a team purpose statement with input from every individual. Having a purpose statement will drive motivation and create a connection amongst team members.
Consider these factors when putting your statement together:
- What does your team do, deliver, or create?
- Who is impacted by your team’s work?
- What business outcome does your team create for your company stakeholders?
Ensure your team references their purpose statement in the work that they do. This way, they’ll understand their role in the bigger picture. They’ll also understand how their role and individual goals fit into your organization's overall mission.
Tip #3: Create Alignment
Team members need clarity around roles and responsibilities to prevent confusion and frustration. Take the time to clearly define these to each individual–for present initiatives and future projects. Then, if any issues arise, everyone is already on the same page, and it’s far easier and quicker to sort out.
This alignment is often times what’s missing from traditional teams. To ensure your team is collaborating and thriving in their roles, meet with your team weekly. Questions you can ask them include:
- What tasks are you working on?
- Are the initiatives we focus on this week fulfilling our team’s purpose?
- Have any issues come up that have prevented you from doing your job to the best of your ability?
By asking these questions, you can spot issues before they become bigger problems that affect deadlines or achieving goals.
Tip #4: Be Intentional
Create an environment of psychological safety where everyone feels safe and comfortable. Your team members should be able to openly express their ideas, opinions, or dissatisfaction through multiple channels of communication in a way where they know their colleagues will always respect them and provide constructive feedback.
You can do this by being transparent in everything you do. This is an easy way to create mutual trust within the team. Ensure the team’s energy is focused on the things that matter (it shouldn’t be unhealthy conflict!), communicate often, and find ways for your team to collaborate as often as possible. As the saying goes, teamwork is dreamwork!
Keep the Momentum Going
While these strategies help create and nurture your high-performing team, it doesn’t mean your work is done once they’re set up. It’s up to you, the business leader, to make sure your team continues to grow, improve, adapt, and thrive under pressure.
Build a high-performing team from scratch, with Birkman Signature. We’ll arm you with the data and insights you need to hire the right candidates. Once onboarded, our High-Performing Teams Program will get your people working cohesively together for better business outcomes.
