Leading effective and high-performing teams

Leading, in opposition to simply managing, is one of the most challenging and most demanding duties a professional might encounter yet the most fulfilling and satisfying one.

When you want to build a new team from scratch or you are joining an existing one, a certain number of actions and procedures might make all the difference between disrupting a currently working team or generating momentum and synergy among its members. There is no magic recipe, still I will list a few I think are must-haves.

Listen, learn, understand before you speak, explain or object any process or procedure currently being done.

As the saying goes “everybody hates the tourists”. Take time, invest it on understanding truly and without doubts what is being done, how, and above all why team members do things the way they do. Try to get fresh and candid feedback. There is always a reason why things are the way they are, either “it was this way when I joined”, “I tried to optimize x,y,z, got bad feedback with no coaching – or even worst no feedback or acknowledgement at all”, “I rather wait and follow the majority, it is safer”, or “it works”.

As mentioned, your next actions will depend a lot on where the team and you stand today:

·        All is good, working, there is very little effort leakage

Dreamlike scenario – Your role as a leader will be challenging your star team to push it into new demanding scenarios while helping them develop additional or new skills (or they will get bored, feel underappreciated and eventually leave)

·        All is acceptable, with little incidents, a bit unclear on the goals and expectations definitions.

Most traditional scenario, when your team got used to “do the job, go home”, usually very few things fail yet they do now and then, and most team members are not clear on what goal they are aiming at or what is expected overall besides 9-to-5.

Roll up your sleeves, you as a leader are responsible on changing all of the above into a motivated, effective team. Start with 1x1’s meetings, skip level meetings, offsites. Get to know them extremely well in the personal and professional level. Every person is different. Listen to their goals, pain points, career plans. Your job is to help them help you and the organization.

·        Helter-Skelter situation

A few team members are taking most of the heat and workload, others are working but cause more damage than results, some are apathic and actively looking for a new job or -even worst- staying only for the paycheck.

Get your helmet on. Avoid blame, find the root causes or the root cause of the situation, work backwards. Plan with the team, make sure to explain why you will engage this or that strategy together. Pay special attention to making it all about the team, not the person.

It may happen you need to make changes to the team structure. Ideally, you should be able to get the team back on track.

On all of the above situations, make sure to celebrate every success and also make sure to analyze and learn from pitfalls, taking the responsibility as a leader for such instances.

Your leader goal is to give the team and each member clarity and focus. Understand what specific qualities each team member needs for each project and make sure they are a match, if not, help them develop them or help them find their right role match on the organization.

Ultimately, and not for this article but for the next one, make sure to engage Succession Planning. That is NOT an HR duty, they will help you find the right team members, but yours as the leader, you need to take the ultimate ownership on planning ahead (with cross-training, bench, etc.). This is part of Risk Planning on a team.

I will try to put out one article a week, please let me know any feedback, I would love to hear your experiences. Also, list any topic you would love to know more about, such as coaching sessions, Agile ceremonies applied to anything team related, stretch teams, you name it, I will write it.

Thank you, leaders. Now go lead. Do not be just the boss. It will pay off, every – single – time.