WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO MAKE THEM WORK

Create a culture in which people’s hearts are in their work and they love what they do

HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAMS

A team is more than a group of people who work together. A high performing team is a group of people who share a common vision, goals, results and who collaborate, challenge and hold each other accountable to achieve outstanding results.

You know a high performing team because the members: Each team member puts the team performance and results first.

HPO teams recognise each team member will have different strengths and weaknesses and therefore will promote specialist roles playing to individuals strengths. It is common for each team member to own a particular team objective and champion that part of the plan and subsequent performance.

HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS HAVE THE FOLLOWING IN COMMON

·      Have a clear and vision of where they are headed and what they want to accomplish

·      Are excited about that vision because they took part in creating it

·      Act from clearly defined priorities

·      Have clear measures of success and receive feedback about how they’re doing

·      Maintain open communication and positive relationships with each other

·      Identify and solve problems

·      Make decisions when and where they occur

·      Successfully manage conflict

·      Share leadership responsibilities

·      Participate in productive meetings

·      Have clearly defined roles and work procedures

·      Cooperate cross-functionally

Solid teams are the foundation of a high performance organisation and developing those teams is an effort that requires serious effort and consistent discipline. The modules in this program are not informational. They walk a team, step-by-step, through a process to take responsibility to become a high performing team that takes full responsibility for their business results.

HIGH PERFORMING TEAMS WILL:

Participate in team building activities and learn how teams differ from traditional work groups.

Create a team charter that includes a clear statement of your team’s purpose, operating guidelines, performance objectives, and an ideal team vision.

Clarify team member roles and responsibilities and ensure greater accountability.

Set up systems for measuring your performance, setting goals, and tracking progress.

Create a meritocracy culture rewarding, publishing and celebrating performance results

Gain individual team members business pledges / business forecasts for the up coming week gathered first thing on a Monday morning followed up on the Friday to see if individuals hit pledges. This is known as " born Monday die Friday" and we will cover it in detail later in the course.

Each team member accepts full accountability and responsibility for hitting their own part of the targets and commits to trying new and different things if they find themselves behind

High performance teams generate commitment. They provide the structure and a common vision that inspire people to give their best effort.

10 Tips for Building a High-Performing Team

1) Learn from mistakes: The team must learn as it experiences success and failures to continue to improve. Failures may come across as setbacks, in terms of the teams progress, but they are often also the best opportunities to learn. 

This is based upon the NLP Presupposition There is no failure, only feedback. (What seemed like failure can be thought of as success that just stopped too soon. With this understanding, we can stop blaming ourselves and others, find solutions and improve the quality of what we do).

2) Results-driven: High-performing teams, by definition, deliver results. Thus, it is important for them to always focus on what they are trying to achieve. Delivering Income is always the number 1 priority. Activity targets are common as it is accepted you can't manage the end result however you can manage the activity to get you there. E.G So you cant manage the investment sale itself but you can make sure you have the right level of appointments in place to ensure you deliver your objectives. This is known as a sales proficiency.

3) Support and recognition: It is not enough to set a team a task and expect them to get on with it. Even the highest performing teams require support throughout the project and recognition of their success at the end of it. Support can come in the form of skill development, motivation and recognition in the form of financial reward or career progression.

4) Identify individual strengths: Aligning individual tasks to the skill-sets of your team members is essential in maximising team performance. Often tasks are distributed based on team member status, rather than skills, leading to inefficient performance. 

E.G. The average sales team size is 10. Out of the10 on average there will be 3 superstars delivering 50% of the teams income objective, 4 average performers and 3 under performers. In this situation an HPO would

a - Get the 3 superstars to pick up bigger targets and more of the team plan

b - Get the remaining 7 team members to observe the higher performers and regularly observe and model how they operate so they to can achieve similar results

c - Buddy an under performer with a superstar give them a joint target and encourage the superstar to coach the under performer.

5) Individual Accountability: Ensuring team members are aware of their individual responsibilities is key to maximising performance. It aligns every individuals work to the overall goal of the team and also acts as a tool to assess what went well and what did not. Individuals that feel accountable for their work are more likely to be motivated and produce high-quality work. A useful tool to help raise accountability can be drawing up a Team Contract.

6) Modelling Excellence: This allows individuals to utilise their team mates strengths and experiences to maximise their own performance. An environment where team members feel free to ask for help and express their own opinions benefits everyone.

7) Development Opportunities: Understanding that team members, however well they are performing, can always improve is crucial for continued success. Opportunities should be given to individuals to keep expanding their skill set.

8) Collaborate with other departments: The importance of other departments in contributing to team performance is often underestimated. Knowledge, resources and even finance can often be brought in from other departments, even if the project is outside their expertise. 

9) Leadership: Strong leaders are required to direct the team internally and externally. It is not enough to simply have a strong leader directing individuals below them, all members of the team must demonstrate certain leadership skills and be hungry for leadership development

10) Empower team members: There are a variety of different ways to empower team members. Different individuals react differently to different methods. Regardless of what method you choose, team members should feel empowered throughout the process.

References

Hanlan, Marc. (2004). High-Performance Teams. Westport, Conn.: Praeger, 2004. Print.

Katzenbach, Jon R, and Douglas K Smith. (1993). The Wisdom of Teams. Boston, Mass.: Harvard Business School Press, 1993. Print.

Kets de Vries, Manfred F. R. (2011). The Hedgehog Effect: The Secrets of Building High Performing Teams. San Francisco, Calif.: Jossey-Bass, 2011. Print.