Building, Sustaining and Retaining High Performance Teams

One of the most powerful leadership and training programs available to reduce turnover and raise productivity and engagement in today’s world is the building and maintenance of high-performance teams.

If you’ve ever been part of a high-performance team, you know just how exciting, fun, and satisfying it is!

Given the fact that less than 20% of teams and individuals worldwide achieve potential*, leaders, teams, and employees at every level can benefit from obtaining insights around best practices and learning how to identify and measure potential areas of dysfunction, maximize strengths, and minimize disruption, interference, and distortion. Assessment and reporting tools can measure engagement, commitment, and capacity at every level, as well as gaps and oversights that can be addressed in training and coaching.

Peak performance levels will be sustained where there is a firm growth mindset baked into the culture:  leadership alignment on mission, vision and direction, a shared commitment to accountability and trackable results, intellectual curiosity, a willingness to disrupt convention, a culture of trust or psychological safety and an unwavering commitment to retaining and growing “high performers” and “high potentials.”

In his 2002 book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni codified those factors that prevent peak performance among teams including lack of trust, fear of conflict, lack of commitment and willingness to assign blame, lack of accountability and inattention to results.

At its core, high performance teams begin with “why.” What is the organization’s real mission and reason for being?  If there’s alignment (and ideally there is), why are teams and individuals drawn to the mission? How deeply does it resonate with their individual sense of identity, purpose, and mission in the world?  When purpose and values are aligned, the spark is ignited that drives performance excellence. And this will be fueled or extinguished by leadership norms and practices. 

As Steve Jobs said, “Leaders inspire people to do things they never thought they could.” Leaders of high impact teams “walk the talk” by being courageous enough to look in the mirror and routinely seek to obtain and grow from honest 360 feedback, knowing that team and organizational impact rides on continuous growth and transformation starting at the top. It’s a job that is never done.  As they are inspired, they will inspire.

A lesser known sideline of this work is the notion that courageous individuals within organizations may choose to pursue a commitment to ongoing growth and transformation on their own, regardless of formalized power, authority, or position. These star players are coined “Chief Example Officers” and can be helpful in shaping culture, buy-in and alignment insofar as they operate from a place of curiosity and respect, leaving space for differing viewpoints and perspectives.     

The journey towards peak performance with high impact teams is not a sprint – it’s a series of marathons that will be repeated many times through the life of an organization. In this exercise, consistency trumps perfection and training and coaching facilitate endurance.

As we move through the 2020s, there will be an overarching need for employees to find meaning in their work regardless of disruptions or unpredictable systems that arise.** Predictive data suggests that many teams will increasingly operate across silos or functions depending on organizational needs and priorities at any point in time which may present a disruption to previous convention insofar as positions evolve and change to optimize fluid organizational priorities and performance objectives.

Regardless of structure, function or hierarchy, teams of the future will need to collaborate and work together effectively to manage common threats such as new competitors, products, or services with the potential to erode market share. Where foundational standards of trust, growth mindset and resilience are operationalized, teams will be set up for mastery in the face of the inevitable storms that arise, and leaders will be able to stay focused on the tools, skills and opportunities that allow their teams to reach new summits while having some fun along the way!

For more information on peak performance coaching, training and/or workshops for building or rebuilding high impact teams, please email laura@bydesigncoachingcenter.com

*Chamine, Shirzad, Positive Intelligence, 2012.

**Deloitte, “Building The Peloton” Jan 31, 2020