7 Simple Secrets to Building a High-Performance Team

How do you rate your team on the scale of 1 to 10 for its performance? Apart from successful projects, does your team make work fun and exciting each day? That’s the sign of a high-performing team. It is a blend of success and enjoyment. And that’s the direct impact of a good team leader. Research reveals that poor team working is associated with increased clinical errors and fatal numbers. Also, a study in the NHS found that only 53% of staff said they worked in a well-structured team while 96% of staff reported they worked in a team.

If you’re stuck in the mud with the success of your team, here’s the ray of light. In this article, I’ll introduce you to some secret ingredients to lead a group of people in the right direction and to make them feel engaged, heard, and appreciated.

1. How Confident Is Your Team?

Somehow, leaders need to inflate their teams’ confidence because that’s what makes a strong team. Confidence comes in a mind free of doubts. The actions that your team takes are directly related to its confidence-level or the mindset (self-doubt) that hold their actions back. It’s the confidence that allows them to take risks, that’s keeping them from taking a step out of their comfort zone. What do you do to improve your team’s confidence? Building confidence requires a real conversation. It includes understanding what’s really going on. Interpersonal empathy is one significant factor. Your people should be aware of each other’s skills and personality. What else?

• Treat them with due respect and be attentive to what’s going on
• Be specific to each individual when talking about them
• Boost their best skills and gifts so they can teach other team members
• Celebrate incremental improvements to give them a lift to stretch competence levels that leads to growth
• Encourage them through mistakes
• Treat them like winners

So, from now, be aware of how confident your team is and see how it affects the performance.

2. Build Trust on Your Team

Paul J. Zak, a Harvard researcher, Founding Director of the Center for Neuroeconomics Studies and author of “The Trust Factor: The Science of Creating High Performing Companies,” studied on the neurological connection between trust, leadership, and organizational performance. Trust is one inconstant thing that takes time to develop. But once it happens, your team will feel they are smart enough to have the authority to take actions. Show up your team with an open mind and respect for whatever they do. Get the team to embrace stretch goals, build positive relationships, trust them on their knowledge or expertise, maintain the consistency.

3. Strong Support System

It is true for a reason that companies with strong support systems have more impactful cultures as a result. In a supportive work environment, employees feel valued as people and it becomes easy to keep productivity high. But what it is a supportive work environment? It is a place where people care for each other. Likewise, the team leader meets teams regularly, discuss progress, and ideas for improvement, talk about their objectives as an individual, and talks about development. As a leader, be the chief storyteller, talk to people in a vulnerable, honest way.

For more: Happy Work Culture — What It Is, Why It Matters, and How It’s Built

4. The Technology For Success

Terms like collaboration, communication, team management, teamwork, time management, etc. are usually considered when talking about team success. And technology is playing well. It is being securely attached to our lives both personally and professionally. There are many things to do, like sharing files to hundreds of people, confusing email threads, and many more and tools like Slack communication tools, shared calendars, etc. are taking care of it. Technology is a simple and successful way to define the hows and whys to the teams. So, get along with the right tools to empower your teams to do what they want, how they want, and when they want. Pick a platform where stuff can be done quickly, easily, and securely.

5. Socialize With Employees (Without Getting Into Trouble)

Simple, casual birthday lunches or beers after work have a lot to do to foster a spirit of closeness. You got to encourage this kind of culture because it is something that doesn’t come naturally. Any kind of social event, social connections, recognition in public and other things can be a big boost to team spirit. This socialization can be powerful and positive, it is essential to wellbeing and to build a winning team that shines in every aspect.

6. Encourage Timelines

While timelines and deadlines are the responsibility of every individual on their own level but it’s also up to a leader to keep everyone on track. Because timelines is a part of project success and for a long-term reputation of the team. Leaders need to find ways to encourage team members to make a timeline that works the right project management software will let you and your team highlight important deadlines. With it on point from the start, it’s more likely that everything will run like clockwork.

7. Celebrate Success

How often do you raise a glass to celebrate the achievement? Many leaders don’t realize the importance of celebration. When you can celebrate anniversaries and birthdays, why not celebrate the success? There will always be a reason to celebrate. It is totally normal to celebrate achievements. When you don’t recognize your team, it will make them want to do less. They’ll be uninspired and apathetic. Your people want to know that their hard work is paying off. They deserve to know they’re doing a good job. Make noise about successes. It will ultimately boost your bottom line. Mark every success with an appropriate celebration: team party, bonus and raises, thank you notes, including on social media, gifts, etc. Let everyone know your success story.

Last Few Words

I absolutely hope the above plan will help you set up a team for greater success. Let your team be a team full of star performers. What you do today will continue to evolve in the future. Just do it!

Do you have some good ideas? Let us know in the comments below!

About Author:

Vartika Kashyap runs the marketing team at ProofHub — a project management software for teams of all sizes. She is a seasoned marketing professional who is an expert in digital marketing and entrepreneurship. She’s been featured among LinkedIn’s Top Voices for the year 2017 & 2018. Connect with Vartika on LinkedIn, Medium and Twitter.