If you have been a part of a high-performance team, you would be aware of the exhilaration of cutting out unnecessary processes and costs, the constant need to innovate, and keeping up with the customer's requirements to produce the best products for them. But high-performance teams just don't appear from anywhere. They must be nurtured in the right conditions and with the characteristics required for the team to thrive. This brings us to the question of "How to nurture high-performance teams?" who not only improve our business but also energize our workers.
What is the Makeup of High-Performance Teams?
Before we talk about the best practices to nurture high-performance teams, let's understand the two basic requirements you will have to consider for creating such teams.
Skillset For every team, you need employees with specific skill sets to support your goals and objectives. However, in a high-performance team, you do not need top-performing individuals with similar skill sets. But you need to include employees with diverse expertise and perspective. Choosing employees with different skills and mindset lands you on a range of ideas, innovative thinking, and creative problem-solving.
Team Structure
To create a high-performance team, the headcount of the team plays a significant role. You might not have realized it yet, but having a team with the right number of members can give exceedingly quantifiable results. Having a smaller team will not give you that depth of skill set and the bandwidth to maximize their productivity. Besides, having too many team members can hamper flexibility, and if you are thinking of creating sub-teams, I believe it is a bad idea. Sub-teams always tend to have communication issues. In my opinion, to hit the sweet spot, your team size should be around 6-8 people. However, ensure to take your scope of work and specific skills into consideration.
Now let’s find out how you can nurture your employees in a high-performance team.
Best Practices to Nurture High-Performance Teams
High-performance teams need a few elements or guidelines from their leaders to be successful. I have compiled a few of the best practices you can implement to nurture your high-performance teams.
Set Your Strategy The team requires a purpose, a goal to give the best results. For this, you will have to communicate what their focus is. Is it about developing a product, process, or business model? Moreover, give them knowledge about the company’s core competencies and how they can be utilized to have the edge over the competitor. Other than this, as a leader, you should also assist your team in identifying where the organizational strength exists to accelerate innovation.
Support Your Teams Creating a high-performance team does not imply that they will never make mistakes. Besides, mistakes help them to grow and learn. Creating a culture of tolerance and learning is vital to bring new ideas to the table. If you do not create an environment that tolerates mistakes, your employees will always play safe. However, if you give them the liberty to make mistakes, they will continue to be innovative. As a leader, you should push your employees to make mistakes, adjust quickly, and try again. https://www.great-answer.com/
Create Communication Channels As teams start working on their goals and targets, the need to have smooth and harmonious communication increases. Along the way, high-performance teams will have decision-making to do, and there can be interpersonal issues as well for which they will require their leader's support. Creating formal and informal communication channels will provide employees the ease to communicate whenever in need. Moreover, for seamless communication, you also need to set up weekly meetings and frequent feedback sessions to increase participation and maintain focus on the goal.
Conclusion A high-performance team is a group of employees with different skill sets and strengths. Such a team can be beneficial but nurturing it is also essential. If you incorporate the practices mentioned above, it will help you bring together a group of motivated, engaged
, and productive employees. If you need coaching on how to nurture high-performance teams feel free to contact me for professional advice.