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How
To Build A High Performance Team
By Dennis Sommer (www.dennissommer.com)
Teams represent a very powerful mechanism for getting
significant results in organizations today. Much has been
learned about the development and implementation of teams
over the past few years. We have seen what works, what
doesn’t and the best approach for developing and
nurturing teams. A new class of teams are evolving that
have the potential of replacing traditional hierarchical
organization structures with a flat, self directed, cross
functional, process oriented structure. High Performance
Teams are a special class of team that has the ability
to easily adapt in a rapidly changing environment and
is an essential element for highly successful organizations.
The first step for building a high performance team is
understanding the essential team ingredients that create
a recipe for success.
Meeting organization goals is a top priority for leaders
today. These goals include increasing business efficiency,
creating competitive advantage, improving internal customer
satisfaction, controlling costs and leveraging intellectual
assets. The first question asked is “How”
can this be accomplished. Many organizations have struggled
with this answer and very few have found an answer that
is successful.
For those organizations that have been successful, it
all started from the bottom up, developing a strong team
to develop and implement a solution that will meet the
organizations goals. These unique, highly productive teams
are now commonly referred to as “High Performance
Teams” and are essential for meeting critical organization
goals.
Therefore, building high performance teams is a top priority
for many leaders. The benefits and value produced by these
teams are very clear and being viewed as essential tools
in their business strategy.
High Performance Teams produce the following benefits.
1. Increased productivity
2. Improved customer service
3. Ability to do more with less
4. Increased innovation
5. Ability to quickly adapt to change
6. Ability to solve difficult, critical problems
Team Essentials –
The Ingredients
So where do we begin? Like a great chef making the perfect
souffle, we must follow a recipe that will deliver the
best possible outcome. This recipe includes the ingredients,
preparation and the process for making the perfect souffle
If you forget an ingredient, add too much, eliminate preparation
steps, or change the process you will not end up with
the results you are expecting. For leaders, this translates
into ineffective teams that can not meet critical business
goals.
For today, lets look at the ingredients necessary for
building a high performance team.
Trust
Trust in your team, their trust in you and the trust between
the team members is the core ingredient that holds everything
together. You develop trust by setting guidelines for
team behavior and decision making, where the people have
certain freedoms to make decisions, take risks and speak
their minds. They will also have certain obligations to
always speak the truth, work with other teams, be accountable
for decisions and actions and to learn from the their
mistakes.
Leaders who have rules and policies for everything create
an environment of bureaucracy and stifle team performance.
The environment is orderly and structured, but leaves
little room for team members to use their own judgment,
take ownership or be motivated to complete tasks quickly.
On the other hand, leaders who have no guidelines for
the team run the risk of leading a team in chaos. Neither
of these work.
Implementing guidelines where people are trusted, promotes
an environment where team members will give their best,
produce more and with improved quality.
Vision
High performance teams share and support a “Vision”
of what the team will accomplish. Team members are highly
focused on meeting their goals and objectives. Leaders
work with the team to develop a vision that brings real
meaning to the work that is being performed. The vision
defines the future state and is clear, defined and concrete.
The team needs a winning, inspirational vision that will
motivate them to go above and beyond when the effort is
required. Lets look at a few great vision statements:
Rid the world of AIDS, Triple the productivity of every
manufacturing plant, or Increase customer satisfaction
to 100%.
Optimism
The next key ingredient is “Optimism”. High
performance team members have dreams for achievement.
These dreams are fueled by the leaders optimism. It is
true that team members will flourish when they have hope
and they will give up when they don’t. High performing
team members thrive on accomplishment and recognition
they get when working through difficult problems and persevering.
This perseverance requires optimism.
The responsibility of a leader in an optimistic environment
is to be realistic and optimistic at the same time. Realism
is important because it acknowledges the facts of the
situation no matter how unpleasant they are. An optimistic
environment dictates that given the facts of the situation,
the team will continue to work toward their goals. When
teams lose optimism, it is the responsibility of the leader
to coach the team to get them back on track. Together
the team acknowledges the situation and begins to generate
ideas for solving the current problem.
Enjoyment
A leader must make the environment enjoyable to work in.
Team members perform at their peak when they enjoy what
they do and with whom they do it with. Enjoyment doesn’t
mean you play cards all day long. Real enjoyment comes
when the leader and team are deeply involved in working
a critical problem and they persevere together as a complete
unit.
The leader sets the tone for the team. Setting the tone
for an enjoyable work environment is accomplished by showing
that you enjoy your job, that you like the people you
work with and that you appreciate their hard work. Thank
team members for working through the weekend. Let them
take a long lunch if they worked 12 hours the previous
day. Praise them for new ideas. Never blame team members
for mistakes, laugh and learn from the mistakes. Keep
the team focused on winning instead of failing.
Empowerment
High performance team members are self directed. When
empowered to accomplish a goal, these team members take
ownership of their responsibilities and are committed
to succeed. Leaders of high performance teams work to
focus the “Team” on “What” needs
to be achieved. The “What” is defined as the
vision, goals, objectives and milestones for the team.
The “How” work is to be accomplished must
remain the sole responsibility of the team. When leaders
start telling teams how the work is to be done, the team
becomes de-motivated and performance drops dramatically.
Opportunity
The final ingredient for a high performance team is developing
an environment where team members can grow. Top performers
need to learn new skills and be permitted to develop and
implement new ideas to work at their peak. Creating an
environment where team members can experience different
roles, cross train, work with diverse teams and learn
new specialties will develop team members who are more
self assured, who listen, and are more open to new ideas.
This strategy of continuous learning will keep the team
energized and motivated to perform at the highest levels.
A Final Word
As a leader, you have the power to influence the people
and performance of the team. If you truly believe in creating
an environment where Trust, Vision, Optimism, Enjoyment,
Empowerment and Opportunity are encouraged, then you will
build a solid, sustainable and high performing team.
About The Author
- Dennis Sommer
Dennis Sommer
is the founder and CEO of Executive Business Advisers,
a management consulting firm specializing in business
growth, sales and profit improvement. www.executivebusinessadvisers.com
Dennis helps companies increase sales revenue, reduce
sales and marketing costs, improve marketing ROI, and
drive new business growth by improving and optimizing
their sales, marketing, company strategy and financial
health.
Dennis is a highly sought after business keynote and seminar
speaker www.dennissommer.com
and author of several highly popular sales, marketing,
leadership and professional development international
articles and books www.advisersecrets.com
.
Contact Dennis at 800-627-6512.
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