Collaboration is crucial for a healthy, productive, and happy working environment. Learning to effectively manage a business team is important if you want to cultivate a high-performance team.
If you implement these basic tips into your managerial style, you will be able to promote a strong, collaborative working environment. First, however, we will define a high-performance team and explain the benefits of curating one in your workplace.
What is a High-Performance Team? Why Should You Curate One?
A high-performance team is a group of people – for example, work colleagues – who are capable of collaborating effectively to accomplish common goals. In short, a high-performance team is a team that works well as a unit, precisely because each member works well with the whole as well as being good at what they do individually.
The benefits of creating such a team are many. Such teams provide good results consistently and tend to stay productive under stress, because they trust each other and have a good sense of community. The skills that create a high-performance team include, but are not limited to:
- Communication
- Trust
- Organisation
- Regular feedback
- Goal setting and tracking
If you want to create a team like this within your business, you need to adapt your management style to balance creativity and policy, encourage connections and trust, and create a sense of community among the people in your team. There are some basic tips that can help you to make the most of your team and their abilities.
5 Tips to Help You Effectively Performance Manage Your Team
In order to build a team that performs well, you need to curate effective team management skills. Good teams start with effective leadership; if you manage your employees well, they will thrive. These tips will help you to be an effective team manager:
1. Develop a Supportive Environment in the Workplace
Good teams work together well and know how to pick up the slack when one member is sick or otherwise not at their best. Encourage your team to get to know new members, open channels of communication, and prompt your staff to share ideas and solutions when you have a goal to meet.
Try to schedule times where your team is allowed to lead the way themselves, while you act as a supervisor or moderator. Setting meetings where you can guide the topic without managing the details will allow your team to gain confidence.
2. Give Your Team Some Slack
High performance teams are capable of working independently and with minimal oversight. If you want to create such a team, you need to allow for independence in your management style. Encourage creativity, thinking outside the box, and innovation.
When your staff approach you with an idea about how to meet the goal that you have set, sit down and listen. If the idea doesn’t seem logical, don’t just shoot them down; take the time to troubleshoot and see what you can do to help them find a better solution. Investing a little time and trust into your team can pay off in the long run when they gain confidence.
3. Encourage Constructive Criticism
Being an effective manager is not just about giving feedback; you need to be able to take it too. Setting aside time to discuss your team’s goals and performance is good, but you should also set aside time to discuss what you can do, as a manager, to support the team. A high-performance team requires you, as a manager, to be in step with your team members more often than not.
You could set up an anonymous feedback or request box, so that your staff can give you constructive criticism about your leadership skills and management style. Of course, you should also practice giving constructive criticism and dealing with conflict to ensure that you can defuse tense situations and seek solutions when things get tough.
4. Delegate Where You Can
Just as good teams need to be able to work together as well as independently, good managers need to know when to work with their employees and when to delegate to them. Delegating work to the right employee can seriously increase productivity, and it also shows a level of trust that many people appreciate.
Delegating work will also allow your employees to develop their skills and gain experience. This is instrumental in personal and career development. When you delegate, make sure everyone has a specific role to ensure the whole team is working together to meet a common goal; if someone is left at a loose end, then the team – and productivity – will suffer.
5. Incentivise Rather Than Penalise
The carrot and the stick are old concepts, but recently it has become clear that incentivisation is more effective than punishment. Set motivational rewards and experiences in place when you are outlining your goals for the month or quarter. Your employees will appreciate positive motivation rather than the threat of negative consequences.
Finally, remember that if your team is missing their goals consistently, you may be setting unreasonable goals. Being realistic about what your team can do is crucial to ensuring that they function effectively on a consistent basis. Teams who enjoy their work, have a healthy working environment, and are rewarded for success rather than punished for failure are more likely to remain motivated and effective in the long-term.
If you implement these simple tips in your management style, you will see changes quickly. Bring fun and open communication into your workplace, and you will start to see your team flourish and their productivity levels.
Remember that communication is key; talk to your team about what they need and want in their working environment.
Giving a little can lead to big results, and the most effective teams tend to be those that are allowed to work in a way that suits their skills and unique abilities best.
If you want more business team management tips, why not explore Elliott Training’s courses on leadership and management, including “How to Build a High Performance Team”.