9 strategies to unlock high-performing teams

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9 strategies to unlock high-performing teams

High-performing teams—streamlined, powerful, and productive—are an easily achievable goal. Organizations can access these potent forces by following a few key directives. How? We’ve delved into real-life experiences of several experts, asking them what they found successful in strategies they’ve implemented.

From professional leadership coaches, speakers, and authors, sharing the wisdom gained from years in the trenches, to CEOs, executive consultants, and other high-ranking officials, each thought leader brings a new perspective on how you can build a diverse, harmonious team.

Read more below to discover their recommendations, ranging from maximizing information gained from interviews to ensuring opportunities for leadership are available.

ADDRESS FEARS THROUGH INDIVIDUAL INTERVIEWS

One thing I love to do is to interview the team 1:1 to start. I make sure they feel heard and give them the space to really expand on their own personal point of view. I want them walking into any team sessions feeling confident that their perspective has been part of building whatever we’re talking about. This up-front work can take some time, but it’s so worth it down the line in terms of engagement and the trust you’re given to then talk about the genuine issues quickly.?

When the team is together, I like to have a few key “fears” or “elephants” I’ve uncovered from my 1:1 interviews written up as statements on the board. We talk through each one by one. The team can agree or disagree, but the “big scary thing” is named by me, the facilitator, and not them. We’ve done this loads with teams and seen yearslong feuds be popped like a bubble when the real “thing” is finally addressed safely.

Aimee O’Malley , senior organizational development consultant, Google

FOSTER SELF-AWARENESS AND MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING

The most effective strategy when working with teams is to ensure they have the opportunity to raise self-awareness for themselves and awareness of others. We achieve this by using inquiry while sharing their lens, which is influenced by how they were socialized and their culture. Self-awareness and awareness of others decrease blame while increasing productivity, trust, and collaboration.?

The team I was working with did not communicate, yet they expected others to “know.” They were stuck in their assumptions, which created barriers resulting in blame. One member said, “She should know what is important, what to do.”?

As a team, we dug deep, using inquiry to unpack assumptions. The team learned that they were all making assumptions. Each team member became self-aware of how and why they made decisions to withhold their communication and contributions. They learned how their reactions were about them and how they expected others to behave. As a result, we created a team charter that reflected their core values and best practices.

Melanie Jones , senior learning and organizational development consultant, BOxD?

BUILD BLENDED TEAMS

Burned out and afraid, team members aren’t able to innovate, drive positive culture, or curry trust, but that’s the reality for many folks today. Instead, we’ve seen the incredible value of building blended teams of employees and non-employees, centering diverse ideas and fostering skills from anywhere, keeping critical folks in our workforce.?

In my experience, one of the best teams we’ve seen built included 20 full-time employees, five of whom were on the leadership team, and 13 consultants. This blended team was all oriented toward the major business objectives at hand, with folks appropriately scoped to work in their “highest and best use.” We saw them achieve their 300% annual growth goal in three quarters with no attrition, which is incredibly rare in this industry.

Brea Starmer , founder and CEO, Lions & Tigers

PRIORITIZE ACTIVE LISTENING AND CLEAR COMMUNICATION

One of the goals of teamwork is to pool ideas to achieve better outcomes. This inherently means that people are hearing each other’s ideas, which necessitates active listening—an essential element for high-performing teams.?

Team ground rules should include explicitly stated agreements for how the team will communicate with one another, so the expectations are clear. Active listening includes asking clarifying questions, reflecting back, or summarizing what has been said, while withholding opinions. Giving people the opportunity to share their ideas without interruption or fear of judgment provides the safety needed for people to speak up and offers a practical way to practice inclusiveness.?

In working with a team recently, they found that by being curious and querying individuals a bit more for their meaning, they could better understand one another. This opened up dialogue, which improved productivity and helped clearly identify problems, which made solving them easier.

Julie Donley , executive coach and author

CONDUCT QUARTERLY IN-PERSON MEETINGS FOR REMOTE TEAMS

The intentionality to meet up in person quarterly for a remote workforce is crucial to fostering teamwork. Over the past few years, we have gathered cross-functionally for AOP planning, leadership retreats, and an annual all-hands meeting. The intentional time together allows us to grind through difficult topics, business plans, and challenge each other for the optimal results.?

These meetings must always have a component of fun, and the result after the meetings is a more cohesive workforce that has bonded further and elevated our communication in the organization.

Jason Bronstad , CEO, Malk Organics

ESTABLISH A CLEAR, SHARED GOAL

A key strategy to foster trust, teamwork, and collaboration among diverse team members is to establish a clear, shared goal. This goal should be relatable to each team member at a personal level, regardless of their functional background.?

During the pandemic, I led a cross-functional project to commission an augmented reality-based learning center for a large corporation. This project involved diverse members from IT, L&D, field, facility, and vendors. This diversity led to different understandings among members about the deliverables and the definition of success.

I began by setting a shared goal in terms of the exact experience the learners should have at this training center. Then, I needed to create a pride-worthy, relatable goal by describing how it would be the first of its kind and the world’s first training center with stated capabilities. They could derive a sense of achievement while extending their diverse expertise and striking great collaboration. The result was building state-of-the-art AR training facilities in record time.

Raman K. Attri , coach to chief learning officers, GetThereFaster

LEAD BY EXAMPLE AND SHARE THE WORK

One absolutely essential tool in my management toolbox is a willingness to do anything I’m asking my team members to do. By leading by example, I clarify that even team leaders and project managers have a role to play in making sure the job gets done. It does a lot to help put us all on equal footing and set a clear performance example for new hires. The more that people actually share the work of generating and publishing our content, the more they’re going to trust each other, talk to each other, and connect with each other.

I’ll always be the first person to pilot new platforms and tools, and when an employee is struggling with anything, the first thing I’ll do is spend some time working alongside them to get a feel for where their struggles are and to earn their trust.

Nick Valentino , VP of market operations, Bellhop

UTILIZE STRENGTHS ASSESSMENTS

Gallup’s CliftonStrengths is my go-to platform for ramping up trust and productivity within an executive team. Yes, there are many other assessments and approaches, but I have found that highlighting the strengths of everyone on the team accelerates team engagement like no other.

I worked with a client last year that had members of its leadership team located all over North America. A few had never even met in person. Exploring their individual and collective strengths gave the team a language to celebrate each person, as well as better understand themselves. “We are still talking about and have adopted much of what we learned during those sessions!” raves the organization’s president months later.?

The key is to run the CliftonStrengths assessment, chart it out, and then bring the team together for a few hours to explore what it all means. The momentum created by a team operating in its strengths is hard to beat.

Brent Hafele , executive coach and president, Vibrancy Unlocked

PROMOTE DIVERSITY IN LEADERSHIP

Ensure leadership is diverse. A diverse team can only be as successful as they’re set up to be, and narrow, homogeneous leadership teams will struggle to understand how to unite diverse employees and model celebrating and embracing differences rather than assimilating.?

When we create genuine opportunities and promote diverse teammates into leadership roles, it shrinks those invisible (and sometimes visible) lines between cultures. Normalizing diversity in leadership roles is one of the most important ways you’ll build a team environment that values diversity of thought, experience, and more. Trust is built when a company lives those values by putting diverse people into power positions as a rule, not an exception.

Robert Kaskel , chief people officer, Checkr

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