3 Steps for Building a High Performing Team

When you think about a high performing team, what comes to mind? Fulfilled employees, lots of revenue, happy customers? Yes, all of these are signs of success, but just because you are successful in some of these areas does not mean you have a high performing team. In fact, many profitable companies have very dysfunctional teams. The next question you might ask is, if my company is profitable, why does team performance matter? To put it simply, dysfunctional teams cost you money while high performing teams make you money. Imagine the possibilities – if you are profitable with a dysfunctional team, how much more profitable could you be with a stronger team?

Following are three steps you can take this year to transform your team into a high performing team.

Step 1: Audit your Culture

Hope is not a strategy. In order to create a strategy to improve teamwork, you must first know where you stand. As with diagnosing car trouble, you know something isn’t functioning properly, but in order to fix it you must look under the hood. Auditing your company culture works the same way. Using objective means, you should measure the behaviors and traits of your team. The resulting data is an unbiased blueprint of your culture. Then, take that blueprint and compare it to the traits and behaviors of a high performing team. That comparison becomes your benchmark to build your culture from.

Step 2: Who’s on Your Team?

After you have audited your culture and have a road map of where you want to go, the next step is to make sure you have the right players on the team. Perhaps the most important part of this step – and the key that sets an average team apart from a high performing team – is to make sure each member is in the right position. Simply having great players on your team is not enough to take you to the Superbowl, they must be in a position that most effectively leverages their strengths and talents needed to reach company goals.

Step 3: Create a Training & Development Plan

Now that you have all your players in the right positions, it is time to create a training and development plan. Start by uncovering the blind spots of your team and then provide development opportunities targeting those areas. You won’t be able to build a high performing team if everyone has the same blind spots. It’s important to have variety in strengths and weaknesses to make sure all bases are covered.

Take the time to implement these three steps and you will see more satisfied employees and increased revenue. It’s a win-win for everyone! Here are some great tools that can help you with each of these steps.

1. Emotional Intelligence Culture Audit: This tool allows you to audit the emotional intelligence competencies of your team as well as individual departments. The results will give you the data you need to understand where your culture is and uncover blind spots for development opportunities within your team.

2. High Performing Team Workshop: This three-hour workshop is designed for a small company or a team/department within your organization. The workshop focuses on educating each member of your team on what a high performing team is, how to build and function as one and how to communicate as a high performing team. The second half of the workshop dives into the unique motivators of each participant as well as the whole team.

3. Team Directory Report: The Team Directory Report provides each manager with a summary of each direct report and their supervisor to develop more effective communication and management of their team. This tool helps managers uncover the blind spots of their direct reports by outlining each individual’s unique key motivations and providing a guide on the best approaches for managing each team member based on those motivational factors.

Contact ZERORISK HR for more information about the tools above. Let us help you build a high performing team in 2019!