Five Strategies for Building a High-Performing Team
Albert BarraMay 30, 2022 · 4 min read
1. Achieve the right chemistry
Many leaders create teams that lack diversity and are too large. It is natural to hire people like ourselves, but this creates a team of clones. This does not help the team leverage the wide range of different skill sets available. In addition, when a team is too large, it can be difficult to build trusting relationships with colleagues. Teams need strong chemistry between individuals. A team flourishes when every member understands one another and everyone is clear about the role they play. Just think of a football team. The world's best players do not have to look up before passing the ball. They simply know where their teammates will be. This certainty that team members have each other's support creates a safe and comfortable environment in which to perform.2. Create the right rules of engagement for the team
One challenge for leaders when forming teams is how to manage the rules of engagement. The best rules of engagement identify the team's purpose, establish operating guidelines and define where responsibilities lie. However, many leaders struggle with the dilemma of how to define these rules. Do we avoid team rules so the team can be agile, flexible and autonomous, or do we impose a set of rules and risk stifling creativity and innovation? One challenge with the former approach is that no one takes the initiative, as everyone is waiting for someone else to act. This can create paralysis and has exactly the opposite effect to the one intended. Teams that develop rules of engagement are always more agile, behave more proactively and achieve their goals more often than teams that do not bother to do so. Moreover, the process of developing rules of engagement improves team cohesion and effectiveness.3. Build trust and be vulnerable
A lack of trust is the main reason why teams fail. So, how do you build trust? Being vulnerable and sharing honest stories about yourself and your experiences helps build trust. This enables team members to connect emotionally with one another and is a quick way to build trust. As Thompson noted:"Bringing up our worst moments from the past six months can genuinely help our team. Almost all of our intuitions are wrong."
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4. Stop wasting time in meetings
While meetings are a useful vehicle for quickly sharing information with several people, many are poorly structured and rarely achieve the results they were designed to deliver. Why? Because most meetings are designed to generate ideas rather than evaluate and build on them. Approximately 25% of your team will excel at generating ideas, so encourage brainstorming before the meeting and get all the ideas on the table; then, during the meeting, simply focus on analysing, enhancing and developing them. In addition, meetings tend to fill all the time available, so focus on holding shorter meetings with agreed outcomes. Often, four 30-minute meetings can be more effective than one two-hour meeting.5. Encourage team members to challenge one another
Great teams challenge one another, and this fuels their creativity and innovation. However, for this challenge to be productive, every team member needs to feel that they have a voice and can be heard without fear of consequences. When this level of trust and culture exists, the team can perform at a high level.This article ends here. The archive does not.
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