Building a High-Performance Team
Influencing others to put aside their personal interests and work collaboratively takes some time and planning. High-impact leaders realize that forming a clear vision that everyone can adopt makes all the difference. When people don't share a common goal, they can't act as a team. When you use language that everyone understands, actions can be taken promptly without ambiguity. Follow these steps to build your high-performing work group, particularly when there's a lot of change going on with competing messages.
Conduct a Kickoff Meeting
Gather everyone together and start a candid discussion about your mission. Allow people to speak about what they feel about the situation. This exercise should reveal fears, expectations, and aspirations. Then, you should assess if you have the right resources in place to do the work assigned. Set clear milestones and deadlines, and schedule regular checkpoints. When you radiate energy and enthusiasm for the task ahead, you get people to join you more easily. If you have a negative attitude, people catch that too.
Get Buy-In
Make the team members accountable for goal achievement by clearly defining the desired organizational business results, team objectives and personal activities. Instead of assuming that everyone agrees with your ideas, ask for validation. Make sure each team member understands the roles and responsibilities, and make sure each member truly believes in what the team is setting out to do.
Express Empathy
High-impact, charismatic leaders aren't afraid to put aside their personal viewpoints and listen to other people. Take a genuine interest in your team's concerns by asking questions and listening carefully to responses. Balance inquiry (open-ended questions) and advocacy (support). Spend the bulk of your time attempting to learn what's going on with the team. Dysfunctional teams' leaders ignore issues and let them fester. Avoid this pitfall by building trust with your team members so they can approach you with any misgivings.
To keep the team on track, you need to measure results and communicate them back. If areas need improvement, reassign team members who lack the skills, experience and capability to get the job done, and find the right resources to get the job done. When you're confident and dependable, people typically want to work with you. If you make promises, keep them. Building a high-performance team doesn't happen overnight, but the long-term benefits are worth the effort.