Building A High Performance Team - 5 Simple Steps !!

June 7, 2006

Theres something not quite right at work. Your colleagues are generally a good bunch and work gets done, but yet youre in early, leave late and a full lunch break is a distant memory.

Chances are youve been down-sized or re-engineered so radically theres zero tolerance for mishaps or delays, and you extend your work day to pick up the slack. What you really need is some help on building a high performance team, to regain that work-life balance we all yearn for.

Step 1 - Master your own destiny

Realise you dont have to be the boss to build a high performance team. Its easy to let average performance slip by just because youre not in charge. Always remember - its your life that is being frittered away by all those extra hours at work, so take control of your work-life and be your own boss, managing your own team.

Step 2 - Put your eggs in one basket

Chances are youre a member or leader of many teams at work. Think about which teams work well and which could do with some care and attention. Do you need to improve all your teams or is it just one? Start small and invest your efforts in improving the team that will make the biggest difference to your working life. As they say, Rome wasnt built in a day.

Step 3 - If you dont know its broke, how can you fix it?

Regardless of how established the team is, invite constructive feedback about the team's performance. In the classic "Forming , Storming , Norming and Perfoming " team building model, the Storming part is about disagreement, dissent and dissatisfaction. Ask the teams customers what they think. Ask the team what they think about themselves as a group and individually. Learn to recognise the teams strengths, discuss where performance gaps exist and plan to close them.

Step 4 - Proper practice prevents poor performance

Footballers spend 95% of their time practicing for the big game. How much time do you and your team invest in practicing basic skills and team work? Even if you spend 1 hour in an effective team meeting, planning whos doing what and when, its still less than 3% of your working week. Building and maintaining a high performance team doesnt have to be expensive or time consuming, when you build it into your regular work-life.

Step 5 - A stitch in time

Keep going. Get your priority team functioning well and establish a team-maintenance regime. Then think about the other teams in your life. What is it about the more productive teams that you could replicate in the less effective teams? Behaviour breeds behaviour, and as you develop a reputation for being an effective team leader or member, youll be pleasantly surprised how much easier it is to make improvements elsewhere.

As my grandmother said, dont have a wish-bone where your back-bone should be! High performance teams are not conjured from thin air they are a direct result of thought, plans and action. Follow these five simple steps for building high performance teams and enjoy longer lunch breaks again.

By Lyndsay Swinton

Lucy Doss

Manager - Training Coordination (Singapore)

Oscar Murphy Life Strategists P Ltd

772, 10th Cross, 10th Main, Indira Nagar 2nd Stage

Bangalore - 560038, India

Phone: 91 80 5116 1534 / 35

Email: omls (AT) oscarmurphy (DOT) com

WEB: www.oscarmurphy.com

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