Top Ten Tips for Creating a High Performing Team
A high performance team is a group of people who share a common goal and work together to achieve something amazing. A good team will also communicate well, support and mentor each other, nurture each other’s skills and are creative and forward thinking. They are also likely to share the same kind of values and goals.
So if you want to enhance your team performance and success, here are our top tips:
1. Share your mission, vision and values
Whether you’re a big or small organisation, you should have some strategic objectives which outline your ambitions. You may also have a mission to guide you and a set of values which show how you will work towards achieving your goals. This should ideally be developed in collaboration with your team so they feel a sense of ownership and pride in what they’re working towards. Engagement with your team is key!
2. Make time and space for creative thinking
Thinking creatively can be really inspiring – for both yourself and others. Even if you don’t work in a typically creative industry, there are still opportunities to use your imagination to create new and exciting ways of doing things to enhance your team’s performance. Why not set time aside for team brainstorming sessions?
We spend most of our daily lives at work surrounded by the same people, equipment and office space. This environment doesn’t lend itself well to thinking creatively. Why not arrange a team away day where you can have more informal and creative discussions about your roles, department or business as a whole?
3. Inspire them
One of the best ways of creating a team which works well together is to lead by example. Taking charge, being positive, encouraging and ambitious will hopefully rub off on your colleagues and inspire them to change their mind-set and behaviours too. People are also more likely to perform well if they’re working on something they believe in and that matters to them. You need to check that any new employees also have the right mind-set and are a good fit for the existing culture of your business so they don’t become disengaged later on.
4. Communication is key
One of the signs of a well performing team is how honest and open their communication skills are. A lack of communication and engagement can easily lead to a lack of cohesion and conflict. It’s important that when communicating with your workforce, you don’t just tell them what they should or shouldn’t be doing, or what you think they need to know. Good communication should motivate and inspire them as well as inform them. Don’t forget to include information about your company’s values and objectives and how individual colleagues or teams represent them really well.
5. Support and engage with your colleagues
By having regular one-to-ones and team meetings you can glean useful information from your colleagues about what they want to achieve and how you can help facilitate this. Rather than seeing a gap in someone’s skill set as a weakness, you should champion their ambitions to develop and improve. For example, could you provide opportunities for them to attend a training course, to work shadow a more experienced colleague or allow time out to attend networking events. Providing a supportive environment will help you understand your team’s strengths and weaknesses, which in turn provides an opportunity to mentor and coach each other. This will lead to everyone performing better and more confidently.
6. Reward your colleagues
Whether it’s a small achievement or something much bigger, always take the time to thank colleagues who have performed well. Everyone likes to do a good job, but offering that added extra incentive will help boost the competitive spirit amongst your team and give them something else to work towards.
You could show your appreciation to colleagues who have done a good job by having an ‘employee/team of the month’ award or a financial or extra annual leave bonus. Make sure you reward all staff for their good work, not just the top performers or those at higher levels within the business to avoid individuals working in silo rather than as a team.
7. Trust their skills
Colleagues who feel they have autonomy over their jobs and who are allowed the freedom to make day-to-day important decisions can really feel appreciated because they know their boss trusts them to get on with the job in hand. Being micro-managed and having to check every detail with your boss can be demoralising and disheartening if you feel you’re capable and confident to do it yourself. Trusting in their skills and instincts will make them feel their judgement is appreciated.
8. Set goals
Your team members are more likely to succeed and perform well if they have ambitions and goals. A good goal should be something that stretches you but it also needs to be attainable. When setting goals for you and your team, make sure it’s something that really inspires and motivates you and will result in something meaningful. If it’s not something you care about, you’re unlikely to have the energy and enthusiasm to see it through.
9. Coach your colleagues
We’ve all had inspiring teachers and mentors who have made a lasting impression on us. Employing people who are passionate about helping their team mates to succeed is essential if you want your team to perform well. Alternatively, if you don’t already have colleagues with the coaching skills required, you could hire an external partner. They need to be experienced and accredited but also have the right outlook and ethos to fit in with your existing team.
10. Handle conflict well
Not everything runs smoothly all of the time. A high performing team will know how to deal with any challenges well, whether internally or with your clients/customers. A good team will of care about the issues they face but be able to not take it personally. They will be able to think constructively how to handle the problem and ensure the wider team learn from any mistakes or issues in future.
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