Going from Good to Great

Tips for building high-performance teams

I am writing this article to provide tips to you and your team on how to make good teams great.

I admit that plenty of books, articles, blogs and podcasts already give advice on such things. Everyone claims that they are an expert.

So, I openly confess I am not. I am merely a 28-year military veteran who enjoys helping individuals and teams perform better!

Most importantly, I have gained my knowledge through experiential learning, reinforced by tertiary studies. The tips I will provide in this article are not exhaustive, but they are a brilliant place to start!

I will begin with observations from my time in the Army and in my role as Aurora Marketing’s Performance and Organisation Leadership Coach.

Observation 1:

Many clients understand the benefits of teaming training and are willing to pay for it. However, they are less inclined to sit through it.

Observation 2:

Organisations want high-performing teams, but time is money. ‘Teaming’ training is the first ‘extra’ to drop away when time tensions arise.

Observation 3:

Communication is king. Understanding purpose, method and end state is critical in developing and fostering high-performance teams. In other words, clear goals, defined roles and responsibilities must be communicated clearly.

As simple as this sounds, it doesn’t always happen, however.

Observation 4:

Almost every leadership and performance article mentions trust, for excellent reasons.

The quickest ways to throw trust away are: avoiding accountability, exhibiting a lack of commitment and showing the unwillingness to make a decision for the team. Increasingly, I am finding that leaders will not make or embrace decisions for fear of being held accountable if the outcomes of their decisions do not meet expectations. In worst case instances of this, leaders resort to blaming their teams. ?

Therefore, I would like to offer some thoughts on the opposite: How to produce, develop and foster high-performance teams.

So, what is the definition of a high-performance team?

A high-performance team is:

An interdependent, stable, role-defined group that shares responsibility, mutual trust and values, while having a strong leadership and a clear focus on a common goal.

?How can I create a high-performing team?

Tip 1: Building trust is critical for all high-functioning, high-performing teams. Teams are dependent on team members to complete projects and perform. So, communication is key: say what you mean and mean what you say. A few years ago, I embraced the power of vulnerability; and I discovered that being open, honest and authentic is a fundamental leadership superpower!

Tip 2: Develop clearly defined roles and responsibilities. It is essential for individuals to understand their roles and responsibilities and understand the roles and responsibilities of others, including how the team members complement each other. High-functioning and high-performing teams thrive on mission command. What is mission command?

Mission Command: This is a style of military command derived from the Prussian-pioneered mission-type tactics doctrine, which promotes a relatively decentralised subsidiarity of command, freedom and speed of action, and initiative - with certain constraints. Subordinates, understanding the commander's intentions, their own missions and the context of those missions, are told what outcomes they are to achieve and the reasons why they need to be achieved. They then decide on how best to achieve their missions within their delegated freedom of action. Orders provide only enough detail to establish intent and objectives, whilst allowing freedom of action. Mission Command is closely related to the civilian management concept of workplace empowerment. Mission Command is advocated, but only used sometimes by the Chain of Command.

Tip 3: Develop, foster and clearly understand the team and organisational goals: goal setting motivates the individual and the collective towards an objective. Goal setting creates a road map for success and gives the team the organisation’s intent.

“In the absence of clearly defined goals, we become strangely loyal to performing daily acts of trivia.”– Author Unknown.

Tip 4: Use DISC Profiling to build a diverse team of individuals whose personalities complement each others’; at the very least, the profiling assessment will help your team understand each others’ strengths and weaknesses. The process will help your people understand each other better!

Tip 5: Learn to fix conflict in a team. Firstly, remember that not all conflict is bad. Conflict can lead to productive and creative ideas in strong, high-performing teams, where trust already exists. In teams where trust is strong, people feel comfortable sharing different opinions and ideas, which can produce more informed views and better ways of doing things that improve a project overall. Always deal with negative conflict quickly and openly, and don’t let it fester as it will undermine the team and the people in it.

Tip 6: Coach the team, not the individual. When you talk to the team, it is beneficial to address everyone in it as a whole team, not just as a group of individuals. This creates a sense of unity and makes everyone want to work together more efficiently. Positive feedback and acknowledgement makes members feel valued on the team. However, if members exhibit traits like interrupting others, which affects the whole team, then it is important to communicate to them that you would like them to improve in this area, so that the team can flow more smoothly.

Everyone on the team must be prepared to follow the same rules. People are more willing to adhere to standards if they see that others doing the same. You can create this environment by being the team member you wish others to be – by respecting others, actively participating in meetings and contributing positive ideas!

As I mentioned, this is not an exhaustive list. There are plenty of articles and podcasts, which provide similar views. My simple advice is to educate yourself and write down and communicate any plans to your team, as having everyone on board and understanding your intent will speed up the good-to-great process!

About the author: Jason is a natural, inquisitive leader. He is intensely fascinated by what makes people who they are and how to get the best out of them. During his 28 years of military service – the last 14 as a Sergeant Major – he has crossed paths with men and women from diverse backgrounds and capabilities. He has countless examples of supporting people to find their authentic selves and grow them into positions of responsibility and leadership. Jason has developed a teaming program at Aurora Marketing to help educate and develop teams towards understanding and achieving high performance. Jason is Aurora Marketing's Performance and Organisational Leadership Coach. For more on the services Aurora offers, visit here.