October 13, 2024
October 13, 2024
Building a high-performance team is a challenge many organizations face, and success is often elusive. The good news is that there’s more than one way to achieve this. In this article, we’ll explore how to effectively build such a team and ensure sustained performance in the long run.
The approach to building a team depends largely on the context in which it operates:
- Organization Type: Are you creating a team within a large, established enterprise or an early-stage startup? Startups may focus on agility and innovation, while large organizations may emphasize operational efficiency.
- Team Mandate: What is the team tasked with? Are they responsible for delivering a differentiated product or service? Or is their focus on improving operational efficiency?
- Historical Context: Is the team developing something from scratch, improving an existing product, or revamping an underperforming offering? The answer shapes how you assemble and structure your team.
- Resources and Intensity: Will the team be working in a high-pressure environment with limited resources, or will they have sufficient support and time to execute their objectives?
These considerations will significantly affect your team-building strategy:
- Team Composition and Cohesion: Cohesion is critical for high-performing teams, particularly in high-intensity environments where the team must navigate resource constraints or uncharted territories. To promote this, it’s often beneficial to form a team where all members are relatively new to one another. By starting together, team members are more likely to bond, creating the trust necessary to operate effectively. In larger organizations, this doesn’t necessarily mean hiring externally; it could simply mean creating a team with internal members who are new to the project.
- Diverse Perspectives: Strive for a balance in the team’s composition—bringing together members with deep experience in the domain as well as those with fresh perspectives can spur creativity and problem-solving. Avoid creating smaller subgroups within the team that may become insular and hinder overall collaboration.
- Making Tough Calls: If you inherit team members, assess whether they align with the team’s goals and culture. Sometimes, offboarding members who may resist new ways of working is necessary to maintain team cohesion.
- Hiring Strategy: If you need to hire a significant number of team members in a short period, consider setting up a dedicated hiring task force with HR. This offers several advantages:
i) Synchronized Onboarding: Hiring all members around the same time allows the team to onboard together, building camaraderie early on. It also avoids the risk of overburdening the initial hires while waiting for other team members.
ii) Balanced Decision Making: By having a comprehensive view of potential candidates for various roles, you can make better decisions about balancing experience and skill sets across the team.
iii) Team Buy-in: Allowing team members to interview their future colleagues and managers can enhance ownership and ensure a better cultural fit.
Don’t overlook the option of hiring contractors in the interim. They can provide critical support as you build out the team and may even be considered for permanent positions later, based on their performance and fit.
- Onboarding and Training: Tailored onboarding is essential for new teams to align on organizational culture, processes, and long-term goals. In large organizations, ensure that the team understands key performance metrics and the sub-cultures they are entering. Clear, well-communicated goals over a 1-3 year horizon provide a roadmap for team members and help set expectations early.
- Geographical Distribution: For distributed teams, arranging face-to-face interactions is important for relationship-building. Try to gather team members in a location where they can connect with each other and engage with key stakeholders. Balancing resource constraints by selecting a location with a critical mass of stakeholders can help reduce costs.
- Feedback Mechanism: Teams thrive when they operate with a high degree of autonomy. However, in the early stages, it’s important for senior leaders to be more hands-on, offering guidance to ensure that the team’s output aligns with the organization’s expectations in terms of quality, efficiency, and collaboration. The goal should be to enable the team to operate autonomously as quickly as possible, without sacrificing alignment with leadership.
While your focus may initially be on building the team, it’s important to think about how you will sustain high performance over time. This forward-thinking approach will help you make decisions now that can prevent future challenges.
- Refreshing Team Composition: As the team matures, some members may no longer be a good fit. This can occur for a variety of reasons—team members who enjoy the excitement of building new products may not be as engaged when the focus shifts to maintaining or scaling those products. Changes in personal circumstances may also affect commitment. Leaders must regularly review team composition and make adjustments as needed to ensure continued performance.
- Talent Pipeline: A common challenge when replacing team members is the pressure to hire quickly, which can result in compromising on quality. Proactively building a pipeline of talent can mitigate this risk. Leaders should actively network, both within and outside the organization, to identify potential future candidates and anticipate when they might be available. This also gives the team time to make any necessary adjustments to its mandate or working processes to ensure a smooth transition for new hires.
- Maintaining Alumni Connections: High-performance teams often form strong bonds, especially when they’ve achieved exceptional results together. Keeping in touch with former team members can be beneficial. Alumni can provide valuable insights, mentorship, and a broader perspective, which can help current team members avoid insular thinking. Additionally, maintaining these relationships reinforces the value placed on team members and contributes to a positive team culture.
- Social Engagement: High-performing teams tend to be highly driven and can become consumed by their work. Social events provide a much-needed break and an opportunity to refresh. They can also lead to informal collaboration and spark creative ideas for tackling challenges.
- Mandate Refresh: As a team approaches the completion of its initial mandate, it’s important to refresh that mandate to avoid stagnation. Leaders should work well in advance to identify how the team’s goals may need to evolve and to secure buy-in from the broader organization. Teams cannot unilaterally define their mandate, and ensuring alignment with broader organizational goals is crucial. By preparing early, leaders can ensure a smooth transition and continued motivation for the team.
Building a high-performance team is a process that requires thoughtful planning, adaptability, and ongoing support. By focusing not only on how the team is constructed but also on how it can be sustained over time, leaders can create an environment where teams thrive and deliver exceptional results. Leadership must continuously assess team dynamics, maintain a talent pipeline, and refresh the team’s mandate to ensure the team remains motivated and aligned with broader organizational goals.
