What makes high performing teams tick?
As a manager, you always want a team that comprises motivated individuals with innate creativity and drive to work together to achieve company goals. Well, who does not want a self-driven dream team and can deliver the results every time, without fail?
While this may sound too good to be true but remember that the industry leader in your niche has reached the top by creating ‘A-Teams.’ So, why can’t you create your very own A-Teams and take affirmative steps towards achieving your organisational goals?
Creating A-Teams: Challenges Galore
Different individuals have varied expectations in terms of their career pathways. As a manager, you need to align all these expectations with building a robust foundation for the organization.
As every individual employee has a Unique Motivational Profile (UMP), the concept of “one size fits all” is just too lazy to deliver any considerable results.
“Unique motivational profile is used to assess motivational drivers, emotional functioning, energy fluctuations, defence mechanism and various other traits specific to a person for the purpose of development and learning.”
While some team members seek creative satisfaction from their job, others may be looking for honing their problem-solving skills. You might think that the best way to create a result-oriented team is acquiring the best talent.
Well, it surely is the first step in the right direction, but it is by no means the ‘secret sauce’ for your enterprise’s success. Various steps must be covered for creating high performing teams that tick. Let’s discuss.
Transparent Goal Setting & Purpose
In the frenzy of sales targets, profits, budgets, and deliveries, we sometimes forget the true meaning behind everything that we do. For teams to keep their momentum, they need an extra push now and then.
To bring all employees on board, you must communicate the enterprise’s goals and purpose in simple words. They must feel that they are one of the most important stakeholders in their company’s success. When they feel that their work makes a difference, they are motivated to work better.
How do you establish purpose within the team?
- Help your team member to recognize his/her strengths and how they can help with the team’s success.
- Help them align their job responsibilities with the overall goal of the organization.
- Respect each individuality and demonstrate care by regular check-ins and support
- Leaders should focus on moments that really matter to the employee
This approach will allow different teams under different departments to be on the same page when executing plans. They will be able to get rid of any possible operational conflicts. It also helps individuals in finding a deeper meaning in their jobs and results in better results.
For instance, to ensure happy customers, the leading online retailer of Netherlands, Coolblue communicated the enterprise’s mission to different teams in simple words ‘Everything for a smile.
This simple, yet powerful, the statement became the uniting factor for all the different teams in various departments allowing the company to acquire appx. 40% market share and feature in the list of 40 most inspiring companies in the country.
Trust Your Team
When we trust our teammates, we achieve unimaginable goals.
You can not expect to have ‘A-Teams’ in your enterprise if there is a trust deficit between the team members and different teams. It is your prerogative to nurture trust and a feeling of camaraderie between your team members. They must feel that they are in this together especially during the remote working times.
This can be achieved by building a psychologically safe zone that allows individuals to share their concerns and get rid of any apprehensions that they might have. After all, not even the most expensive cars can take travellers to the destination if all parts do not work in sync.
Importance of trust
When teammates trust in each other’s abilities, they can rely on each other, and complete tasks more effectively. They are also able to share information freely, collaborate, and also take appropriate risks. When they feel safe, they can put their energy into innovation, better decisions, and strategy.
“Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by a team of people.” — Steve Jobs
How do you enable stronger bonds amongst your team members?
- Enable transparent communication channels and ensure that you, as a manager, are approachable.
- Write a handwritten gratitude note to your team members, click a picture and send it over. A simple “Thank you” note goes a very long way.
- Allowing everyone an uninterrupted turn to speak at the very least, will allow people in your team to feel listened to.
Know Each Other
For your team members to work in sync, they must be acquainted with each other perfectly. By knowing about each other’s strengths and weaknesses, they will able to step up or step back as per the demand of the situation and deliver the best results for the company.
Personal connections between different teams and individual team members can be strengthened through different team-building exercises. Informal non-work-related activities can be planned to help individual team members shed their inhibitions and foster a bond of trust between each other.
When team members know each other personally, they can communicate and understand each other better. It also helps in creating deeper bonds, understanding work styles and the team members can work more effectively.
How do you get to know each other remotely?
- Connect with your team members informally over zoom or good old voice calls.
- Take time to know their personal and professional goals.
- Sharing a pint of beer virtually after work hours will help you form a deeper bond with your team members.
- Use external tools to facilitate team building activities like virtual board games, karaoke and drinking games with your peer.
Protip
With tools like Wobo, you can make serendipitous connections with your team over virtual water cooler moments, coffee connections, new hire team introductions directly on your Slack or MS Teams.
Collective Decision Making
To build high performing teams’ characteristics, you must enable your team members to put forth their concerns or suggestions freely.
In a survey by management consulting firm McKinsey, only 28 per cent of executives touted the quality of their company’s strategic decisions, while 60 per cent reported that bad decisions are about as frequent as good ones.
One way to increase your likelihood of success is to include your team in the process. By bringing people from different background and disciplinary, you enable creativity and gain a new perspective on the task or a problem
Managers must create a fear-free atmosphere in your organisation to empower all individuals to communicate without fear of a backlash.
How do you enable decision making within teams?
- Run brainstorming meetings to encourage your team members for inputs, insights, and discussions.
- Democratize the suggestions provided and put it to a vote for the final decision.
- Build a pros & cons list and rank the possibilities
- Managers should step in and use the Delphi technique to compile the ideas and narrow down the options
Collective decision-making makes all team members feel valued. They, therefore, are likely to strive hard to collaborate with others and make concerted efforts to achieve organizational goals.
We’re almost there…
The best leaders are the ones who know that it is not possible to create ‘A-Teams’ without creating a shared vision and defining clear values. If you dedicate adequate time and resources to do so, you will ultimately be able to effectively enhance the performance of your team.
