Effective Leading High Performance Teams Tactics

By Kimberly Sullivan


A high performance team can be defined as a group of people working towards a common goal. When they have the right combination, this group can achieve incredible things. Such a group is founded on the strong principles of productive communication, creation of innovative solutions and delivering results. What are the leading high performance teams tactics that are known to deliver results?

Set goals and provide direction for the team. Each team requires a vision and a mission. Most importantly, its leaders must differentiate the two. The vision should be communicated with clarity for easy adoption. Everyone becomes a leader at his or her level and can therefore drive the vision. This vision will then be translated into priorities, initiatives and necessary resources allocated.

Collect the right resources and allocate them accordingly. You need to isolate the resources of people, money or hard resources and time. Find a balance between these resources in order to be successful. Your plans should be detailed by identifying the resources required for each project so that they are allocated prudently. Only of the resources that are easily forgotten is time and access to leadership. Ensure that people working under you have your ear and can talk to you whenever they need your assistance.

Have the right team to help you achieve desired goals. This arises from planning. Your plans must identify the human resources and skills required to achieve particular goals. Describe the roles to be played by each member of your team. Give room for these team players to grow and demonstrate their creativity. You will be surprised at what some can achieve without micro-management. There are intangible elements like personalities and trust that must also be right.

Move to execute the plans you have as fast as possible. This means making decisions and acting on them in the shortest time. Set SMART targets and make all effort possible to achieve them promptly. Be conscious of the existence of biases and the possibility of personal agendas infiltrating into your vision and causing derailment. This can kill even the most talented team. Make your meetings shorter, fewer and more productive. Most of your time should be spent working on results.

Since people are people, they require a great deal of motivation. The best motivation you can provide is allowing them to be creative in providing solutions. Teach them to be accountable of their actions and responsible of results. Have a feedback mechanism and use the results to both recognize and promote performers.

The work of building a team is continuous. This means that you must identify skills required on regular basis for enhancement. Cross train people and have a succession plan in place. Find a balance between stretching their ability and risking too much. Evaluate the contributions of different persons from time to time and redistribute them across the organization, roles and teams. This keeps skills and ideas fluid.

Teams are only built through deliberate and continuous effort. Their journey relies on a clear vision, taking the right action, having the confidence to execute and being courageous to take risks. It takes solid leadership to drive this process. As the executive, you must provide the right environment and resources as well as be prepared to celebrate winners and reward their efforts.




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