How To Build An Elite Performance Team

Building – and maintaining an elite performance championship team is critical to your success. If you’ve recently had one of the following thoughts:

- “No one can do this as well as I can.”

- “It’s easier to just do it myself than to explain how to someone else.”

- “I don’t have time to train anybody.”

you may have trouble delegating and relying on your team’s help in managing your business.

What’s in a Team?

A team is a group of people with complementary skills who are mutually committed to working together toward a common goal with shared rewards. They share the following traits:

Great teams keep the vision in mind. Highly effective teams keep the vision in mind and driven by the big picture goal in all their actions and decisions. This promotes collaboration, increases commitment and improves quality. Each team member knows the greater goals of the organization and understands the context of their own (and each others’) roles and responsibilities toward those goals.

Great teams give their members common stepping stone goals. Effective teams know what their intermediate goals are AND know how to determine if they’ve reached them (or not).

Great teams collaborate. Effective teams are all about interdependency. Collaboration reduces the need for playing “the blame game” while encouraging opportunities for learning and improvement.

Great teams celebrate all successes. Celebrating everyone ‘s successes, not just your own, raises team spirit and inspires each individual to raise their game. The positivity and drive it inspires is contagious and often will keep team members going through the toughest times.

Remember, as a leader, you must…

1) Give clear tasks and goals.

2) Ensure that the team has the necessary support, resources, structure and training to do their jobs.

3) Put a deadline on everything – whether it “needs” it or not. Remember, the task on hand will expand to fill the time allotted.

4) Over-communicate. Better to have the information and not need it than to need it and not have it (including timely, constructive and consistent feedback).

5) Promote problem-solving within the team. How? By seeing mistakes as opportunities (and encouraging the team to do the same). Instead of hiding mistakes, people become proactive.

6) Focus on structure. Poor performance is sometimes due to poor team structure, not individual performance. Poor structure leads to negative, ineffective behaviors in individuals and impedes communication. If team members feel that they are misunderstood or competing against each other, they’re more likely to hold back information or resources.

Invest adequate time to find the right people and put them in the right position for their skill set. Finding the right team is not about finding the perfect team, and it doesn’t guarantee success. Team members need consistent and ongoing support. Remember, nurturing a championship team takes time and effort but the rewards will come back tenfold.

p.s. If you would like some strategies on how to find and grow your championship team, plus, how to keep your team invested in your success, reach out to me via www.LeenaPatel.net for your free consultation and brainstorming session.

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