5 Useful Ways To Build High Performing Teams

People thrive when being part of the right team. Even an otherwise average employee can perform their best work when working with high-performing teams. Thus, we must understand how to build and support such effective teams.

There is no shortage of challenges for a growing business. Poor teams fall under such pressure and disassemble. Even good teams barely deal with it. However, high-performing teams not only adapt but learn and thrive in adverse scenarios.

A high-performing team is defined as a group of people with unique skill-sets, roles, and responsibilities that can align themselves to achieve a common goal or business results.

Such teams consist of team members who have a strong sense of commitment to the team over their own gains.

These teams flourish because of this quality and various other qualities that set them apart from regular teams. Let’s have a look at some of the attributes of high-performance teams.

Main Characteristics Of A High Performing Team

1. Mutual Trust

Any effective team requires high levels of trust among its team members for achieving their goals. Such teams build trust through a combination of respect for everyone’s contributions, peer-appreciation, goodwill, and a common goal.

A team lacking trust is far more likely to fail even if the team members are highly skilled. When people feel like they can trust one another, they develop a strong sense of understanding.

As a result, the efforts of their collaboration show the intended results.

2. Open Communication

The one factor that facilitates excellent team performance is its communication practices.

High-performance teams necessitate the culture of openly expressing ideas, practicing active listening, and building transparency among team members. You’ll often find that great teams are attuned to each others’ thought processes and actions. Such familiarity is built upon clear, concise, and frequent communication.

3. Strong Sense Of Purpose

Team success is interrelated with the team goals. A team where individuals have only their own plan to accomplish will hamper the team’s success in the long run.

Creating, communicating, and upholding a standard set of team goals is necessary for consistent performance. It delivers a purpose that unites the team members against obstacles.

4. Adaptability

Adaptability is the quality of conforming to challenges as they come. It requires quick thinking, decision-making, and changing direction when necessary.

Adaptable teams are agile in their daily work life. Thus, such high-performing teams are used to operating in an environment of risks and uncertainty.

5. Employing Diversity

An effective team will have people of varied backgrounds working together at close quarters. If your units are from a single demographic, you are most likely missing out on unique viewpoints, ideas, and solutions.

However, suppose you do have a carried selection of people in your team. In that case, it’s essential to ensure that it’s not only diverse but inclusive as well.

6. Strong Leadership

The levels of hierarchy in a team should be carefully controlled.
If a team gets too fixated on the level of positions, roles, and responsibilities, the performance will invariably suffer.

Resentment, toxic work ethics, and miscommunication will become an everyday norm.

However, if there is no hierarchy, it might cause problems with accountability. Thus, as a manager, it’s essential to balance out both sides.

5 Effective Ways To Develop High Performing Teams

Now that we have looked over the essential characteristics displayed by high-performance teams, let’s look at how you can build one.

The following points will be actionable tips on how to help regular teams to enhance their team performance.

1. Appoint A Team Leader

As mentioned earlier, managing teams should come with a delicate balance of power hierarchy. It’s vital to ensure accountability but not allow role-shaming. An excellent way to do so is to appoint a team leader.

A team leader plays many roles. Mediator, crisis manager, friend, mentor- are just to name a few. Under the tutelage of a capable team leader, even the most average of teams will see a productivity boost.

A good team leader can be considered the captain of a ship. While everyone’s contributions are necessary for the overall team success, the team leader is the one who will ensure that the day-to-day activities run smoothly.

Additionally, team members might hesitate to directly approach the manager or supervisor in case any problem arises. In such scenarios, the team leader will bridge the gap between the management and the team by ensuring that they have everything they need.

2. Use Quality Communication Tools

To encourage open communication practices, the medium to do so plays a crucial part in it. Be it a small or large team, communication should be quick, instant, and properly distributed. A manual communication plan would most likely fail, considering that most teams are cross-functional and remote.

2020 has driven across the fact that a useful communication tool is one of the most integral features of any business. Without it, teams would be out of sync and result in eventual business loss.

Thus, leaders should strictly evaluate their teams’ needs and select appropriate communication tools that would help team members streamline their workflow.

Different teams would have additional requirements. Subsequently, various communication tools grant different functionalities. Make sure that you take every team’s roles and responsibilities into consideration and make your choice accordingly.

3. Performance Management

It’s vital that the team goals are set, measured, and tracked periodically. However, try to avoid micromanagement since it will eventually do more harm than good for the team’s performance.
The most useful way to track team performance is through a combined KPIs, OKRs, and a proper goal setting system. It’s also crucial that every team member knows, understands, and gets on board the expectations that you have from the team.

However, a team’s development will be primarily hampered if you focus only on the team goals. Every employee has individual aspirations and, if left unaddressed, will garner feelings of negativity towards the organization.

As a leader, it’s essential to have regular one-on-ones or performance reviews to recognize and address every individual’s expectations from you, the team, and the organization. Such double-way communication promotes transparency and builds trust.

4. Diversity And Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion are not just corporate buzzwords. They are an organizational necessity.

It has become imperative that your company prioritizes and endorses the need for a diverse workforce. Diversity-oriented company cultures are not only more likely to retain employees but also to attract top talents.

Thus, to attract star players to your teams, here are some crucial tips to be a more diversity-friendly business:

• Diversity based hiring should be the prime focus to ensure that everyone gets an equal chance to interview for a role.
• Diversity is not enough. Ensure that your organization is inclusive too.
• Set company policies that take severe actions against discrimination in the workplace.
• The leader and senior management should openly advocate being a diversity-friendly workforce.
• Ensure that employees are given regular diversity and inclusion training.

5. Team Building Activities

Understandably, a team can’t be a high performance from the get-go. It requires effort, time, and patience. An excellent way for new and old team members to get to know each other is through certain team-building activities.

Team building activities are an easy, fun, and effective way to make team members bond with each other. These activities require a combination of strategic decision-making skills, thought processes, and clear communication to facilitate a fun yet informative session.

Additionally, these activities provide a respite from the daily grid. When team members can rejuvenate, bond, and have fun, it enables them to work better together.

Finally

Do you have any additional tips that’ll elevate a regular team to a high-performing team? Do let us know in the comments below.

This article is written by Barasha Medhi who is a part of the marketing team at Vantage Circle. Barasha can be found either searching for interesting HR buzzwords to write about or looking at pictures of cozy Bel Air mansions. For any related queries, contact editor@vantagecircle.com.