How to get started in creating high performing team
In this blog, I will share how young managers can get started in creating a high performing team.
Every young manager want to build a team which is high performing as it will help to keep up with the deliverables without any delays and quality compromises.
There are many ways in building a high performing team. But there is a start which fuels the process.
Many young managers struggle through this process as they are not sure the right place to start.
In this blog, I will share the steps that you can take, which will put you on the path of building a high performing team.
Roadblocks for team not becoming high performing
In my opinion, there are 3 main roadblocks for a team not being a high performing team.
▸ Roadblock #1 : No alignment
Many teams don’t become high performing because they are not aligned to common objectives.
For example, let’s say, one of the objective for the team could be, automation of manual tasks to improve turn around times.
If the entire team is not aligned to this, then you will see only few of them attempt to do automation and the rest won’t.
When only few team members are aligned to common team goals, then obviously the whole team cannot become high performing.
▸ Roadblock #2 : No common tools
In a team, different sets of tools will be used. If there are many variations in the tools, then standardising the way team use the tools will not be possible.
For example, few team members uses Apache spark and another group uses SQL procedures to achieve almost the same thing.
In this case, the best practices for Apache spark code will be different with that of SQL procedures. There could be some overlaps but not all of them.
Because of this you will end up creating two kinds of best practices. The management of multiple such practices will start becoming difficult as problems and projects becomes more and more complex.
And the skills will become specific to only certain group of team members; cross training will start becoming a problem; hiring specific skills will start becoming an overhead and in-turn the whole team will be disjointed.
▸ Roadblock #3 : No well defined process
As a manager, if you want to run things smoothly in the team, there must a process that is commonly used by the team. There must be alignment on the process from the whole team.
For example, the project which involves Apache spark has one process and the ones with SQL and SQL procedures has another. This is not maintainable.
When there are multiple processes, the team again becomes disjointed. As a manager, you will not be able to continuously improve the process since there will be only few common areas for improvement.
When there is no alignment on the general process that should be used, the team will struggle to become high performing as each one of them may be operating differently.
What should you do as a Manager?
If you want to get started on the path of creating a high performing team, then you should take following 7 steps.
✒ Note 1: The steps mentioned below will take time and need preparation. So don’t just jump on everything at a time to create more confusion. Take one step at a time and slowly you will start seeing the results.
✒ Note 2: For the steps mentioned below to work in your favour, the team must trust your intentions. If you see there are trust issues, then start building trust immediately.
▸ Step#1 : Remove silos
As a manager, team members cannot be working in silos. The first thing is that they should feel they are part of the bigger team and should work for the team.
By engaging the team members in team building activities will help in removing the silo to an extent.
The next steps will help you to bridge the gaps further in the context of tech stack and processes.
▸ Step#2: Use situational leadership to understand your team
For building a high performing you need to understand where each team member stands on their skills and motivation levels.
The situational leadership style helps you to understand the team better. This leadership style will help you to curate your management for each team member.
Checkout the link [1] in Further reading section for more information.
▸ Step#3: Start using common tools
As a manager, audit the tools that are used by all team members. If there are multiple tools solving the same problem, then start eliminating the duplicate ones.
The tech stack should be same for all the future work. The existing and ongoing can continue with whatever they are using. But for any future work the team should use from the selected list.
Make the decision with the team on which tools should be used going forward. Once the tools are selected and finalised, plan for up-skilling on tools as needed.
▸ Step#4: Define a simple common process
When the tools are set and when you have removed the silos in the team, it is time to define a process that is common to all projects.
At start, define a simple process that is easily adaptable by all team members. The objective of the simple process should be to build the rhythm of following a common process by the entire team.
Before you start defining the common process, make sure you have a meeting with the team to explain the purpose, advantages and how it will help in bringing more transparency.
If there are special cases, then handle it case to case basis, so that there is no impact to any project.
▸ Step#5 : Define common goals
When you have the common process in place, common tools and removed silos, it is time to define a common goal to the team.
While defining the goals, start with the ones that resonates with the team well. At this stage, your focus should be to create an environment for the team to follow the common process using the common tools for achieving the common goal.
In my opinion, start with 2 goals which makes sense. And at this stage, it is okay if the team do not achieve the goal.
If step#1 to step#5 has gone in the right way, then you should start seeing change in the way team operates to achieve the common goal.
▸ Step#6: Create a culture of automation
The steps from 1 to 5, sets up the stage for your team to operate in a consistent way.
Before you start this step, spend as much time as needed in the previous steps to refine it, until there are small wins.
The next level would be to improve the efficiency. This can be achieved by creating a culture of automation. When automation is in place, the turn around times will gradually start reducing and in-turn improvement in efficiency.
As a manager, before you take this step, it is important to define a purpose for automation and educate the team members that it will not take away their jobs.
Without clarifying the necessity of automation, you will not see any results from it.
▸ Step#7: Create a culture of continuous improvement
In general, high performing team improve consistently on the areas of process, tech stack or tools, automation and team objectives.
As a Manager, if you want to build a high performing team, you need to start looking at opportunities for continuous improvement. You cannot define once and leave it.
Every 3months mandatorily review the processes, tools or tech stack, goals to make sure they are still relevant. If there is a change needed, then have discussion with the team to agree on the changes and adopt it.
As a manager, if you are able to embrace the culture of continuous improvement, then you are in the path of building that “dream team”.
Final thoughts
Building a high performing team is possible if you take an account of what are the roadblocks which is making the team to perform inefficiently.
Once you identify the roadblocks, start taking steps to gradually to improve or change it.
As a manager when you adopt continuous improvement culture, your team also will start seeing opportunities for continuous improvement.
When there is a culture of continuous automation and continuous improvement with reduced silos and common goals, the team will start moving toward becoming a high performing team.
This is possible, because the efficiency, turn around times, quality of the work will keep improving consistently.
A journey to build a high performing is an experience which all Managers should embrace.
Happy management!
