What do high-performing teams have?

You are on a boat that starts taking on water. How do you and the people around you respond? Do you all come together to agree on a plan to get back to shore or do some put their own interests ahead of the group? Can you trust one other to do what needs to done? What happens when the tide shifts and you have to adjust your plan?

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So how do you create a safe environment?
What is culture and how does it influence a team?
Are your teams’ behaviours productive or counterproductive?

Suddenly a high performing team makes all the difference and it’s the same in the workplace – to achieve optimum results, you need to have high performing teams: ones that work with purpose toward a shared vision and that leverage member’s unique skills to achieve superior results.

In high performing teams people trust one another, they agree on a common mission, everyone understands their role and responsibilities, they collaborate, they are flexible and they are committed to growing and developing. Lets look at these characteristics in more detail.

Trust is First and Foremost
Employees on high performing teams work from a foundation of trust and respect. In fact, trust is what underpins everything they do and it is a necessary condition for all of the other characteristics of high performing teams.

Here is how trust helps create the foundation for these teams:

People bring their best self forward knowing differences are valued
People take risks and express their opinion
Challenges are worked through respectfully
Communication is transparent

Goals are Clear and Aligned
High performing teams are focused. They have a shared vision and every person understands what they need to do to accomplish the goal.
Every member of the team is focused on the objective and they have a deep connection to the mission.

To achieve this:

Team members know how their goals fit into the larger picture
There are no competing priorities
They understand success means working together
They celebrate wins together
Recognition systems balance individual and team recognition

Roles and Responsibilities are Well Defined
To perform at the highest, teams need to be crystal clear on who does what and when. This is often accomplished through the organization’s values and sometimes a team charter that contains guiding principles and expectations. It also depends on putting the right people together including leaders.

Considerations include:

Guiding values and principles are developed and applied consistently
Members understand the norms for communicating
Decision making rules are agreed upon
Conflict is managed using the norms and principles established
Roles are filled by diverse people
Roles are assigned purposefully, making sure they are congruent

Collaboration is Essential
In high performing teams everyone brings their best to the table and this necessitates high participation and engagement. Leaders are accessible, communication is open, honest and transparent and innovation flourishes.

To encourage a collaborative culture:

Leaders are engaged and they encourage feedback
Leadership is often shared through a self-management approach
Micromanagement doesn't exist – the team shares responsibility
Questions are asked regularly and problem solving is shared
Team building that leads to camaraderie is part of the team’s culture

Flexibility Rules
Members of high performing teams understand the need to be agile and adaptable. Because their focus is on the purpose or the mission, they are able to shift their attention as needed. So rather than being laser focused on a particular task they’ve been assigned, they always have an eye on changing priorities.

Members of high performing teams regularly:

Assess and reassess priorities and shift gears as needed
Willingly help their teammates anytime, all the time
Ask ‘why’ am I doing this and resist falling into a routine
Take risks and ask “what if” to encourage growth
Encourage each other when change causes stress or discomfort

The Culture Encourages Learning
High performing teams know that learning and growing are essential to achieving their goals. They have an innate desire to learn and acquire new skills and knowledge and this cycle of perpetual growth keeps them striving to be better and to achieve more.

Learning is encouraged through:

Strong investment in employee development
Linking learning with reward and recognition
Regular feedback from a variety of sources
Ensuring mistakes are seen as an opportunity to learn
Regular reviews and debriefs to discuss opportunities for improvement

Unless it’s sink or swim, high performing teams don’t just happen by putting a group of people together and asking them to accomplish something.
High performance requires a thoughtful process to establish the necessary conditions for success – this means bringing the right people together for a common purpose, helping them establish effective norms for operating, and supporting their growth and development all while building and maintaining a foundation of trust.

Great Place to Work® is the world leader in building high-trust, high performance workplaces. Whether you are just getting started on your journey or you’re already well on your way, we can help you build more trusting relationships at work and achieve better business results.

About Great Place to Work®
Great Place to Work® is the Global Authority on Workplace Culture. We make it easy to survey your employees, uncover actionable insights and get recognized for your great company culture.

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That depends on what you are trying to achieve. Every team, and every member of a team, will have their own version of what being high-performing means, but in general the team will reach its goal in the most efficient manner by producing superior results.

Reach its goal?

Yes, when you look at the defining characteristics of a high-performing team they always have a clear goal (where they’re going) and purpose (clarity on why they exist). When you can set clear objectives for your team and communicate what role each of your team members plays in achieving this objective you set up a clear pathway to success. This ensures that you are achieving outcomes of all sizes with optimal efficiency.

The purpose of the banks is to return profits to shareholders, but imagine how different their culture and behaviours would be if they had the purpose of “helping their customers get rich”.

The high-performing team reaches its goal by fully utilising the expertise and skills of every team member by:

Collaborating – working together
Innovating – finding ways to remove barriers
Supporting – helping other team members solve issues or take advantage of opportunities
Continually improving – not only learning from each other but willing and open to challenging each other to be better

Creating a high-performing team requires the creation of a safe environment in which to operate. Members feel free to contribute and provide feedback to the team. Doesn’t that sound like harnessing the diversity of your team?

So how do you create a safe environment?

Start by having strong relationships.

This doesn’t mean everyone has to be best friends but knowing what makes someone tick and understanding how they look at the world will mean that you are less likely to make incorrect assumptions about their behaviours. It also means that you are better placed to support them or help them learn, because you can put yourself in their shoes.

Speaking of behaviours, a high-performing team has agreed behaviours or values. If everyone agrees with each other that the team will be “supportive”, then it’s much easier to reward supportive behaviour. At the same time, if someone in the group isn’t being supportive, it’s much easier for anyone to say, “we said we were going to be supportive and I felt you weren’t when you did XYZ”. This removes the personal attack and is much easier to deliver.

In a high-performing team every team member works not only for themselves, but also for the betterment of their team mates and the team itself. The sum is greater than the individual parts.

What is culture and how does it influence a team?

Within organisations and teams, culture is the major driving force behind outcomes.

There are two complimentary sides to how every team gets things done.

The processes and systems that help us do the work

The processes and systems aren’t the culture. These are the mechanics of how a team works and they can impact the culture.

How you work together is culture. Simply, how do you behave as a group of people trying to achieve your goal. What is the way we do things around here?

First, you need to look at what behaviours you accept from members of the group? An easy example – is it ok be on your phone or laptop during meetings?

Are your teams’ behaviours productive or counterproductive?

Once you start thinking about the behaviours your team accepts you must think about why they are accepted? Which behaviours are rewarded? Who are you rewarding in your team? Not just through promotion and career progression, but whose projects get attention, how much time do you spend with each member? If the people getting rewarded are exhibiting poor behaviours, what do you think the other team members of your team are going to do?

Once your team has a healthy culture, where team members feel valued and are all exhibiting productive behaviours, imagine how they’ll drive the processes and systems that allow your team to go about its work.

We facilitate face-to-face conversations using a framework to support cultural change, teamwork and leadership.