The Anatomy of the High-Performance Team
"To reach the mountain top, you have
to aim for the stars."
Obviously no team will be perfect. The goal, therefore, is to create a "high-performance team":
- In business terms, a team that has the highest possible output at
the lowest possible costs given market conditions and the company's policies.
- In personal terms, a group of people who freely help each other accomplish
tasks and feel personal investment in the team's success.
For a better idea of what this looks like—and thus, where your team stands—consider the following characteristics drawn from the scientific literature on teams.
Performance
The team performs better than others on:
- Surpassing targets for task due dates and quality.
- Labor and materials costs.
- Customer satisfaction.
- Making consensus decisions without conflict or "groupthink."
- Worker morale, motivation and satisfaction.
- Meeting management expectations.
- Absenteeism and turnover rates.

Members
Do:
- Make sacrifices to help other team members.
- Volunteer for team tasks and do them as promised.
- Praise and actively support other members.
- Disagree openly with the team without making personal attacks.
- Freely admit mistakes as soon as they're made.
- Practice active listening.
- Mediate internal and external differences on their own.
- Keep disagreements within the team.
- Keep the team up-to-date on information or skills it needs in their
specialties.
- Keep the group focused on its values, objectives, and criteria for
decisions.
- Handle many, if not all, of the team's administrative tasks.
Don't:
- Refuse to share information.
- Avoid (constructive) conflict when it's necessary.
- Dominate group discussions.
- Talk negatively about the team outside team meetings.
- Resist or sabotage group efforts.
- Refuse to compromise.
- Put their own agendas ahead of the team's agenda.
- Lose self-discipline in dealing with team members or stakeholders.
- Blame others.
- Have more concern about recognition of their individual efforts than
about their teammates' success.

Manager
Leads by:
- Giving the team its direction and boundaries, but not telling it
how to achieve goals.
- Making sure it has the same resources he or she would want to achieve
what he expects of it: human, financial, equipment, materials, information,
and training.
- Staying out of day-to-day operations and decisions.
- Encouraging the team to solve its own problems and conflicts.
- Letting the team make mistakes to learn.
- Involving the team early and often on all strategic decisions that
might affect it.
- Learning the team's values, and modeling them when dealing with the
team.
- Taking on team tasks when asked.
- Keeping colleagues and superiors informed on the team's progress.
Has time to:
- Think about strategic issues.
- Question assumptions.
- Learn.
- Coach others on teaming and technical skills.
- Champion customers, quality improvements, or teaming across the enterprise.
- Take on special projects.
- Perform line work he or she enjoys.

Meetings
Before and during meetings:
- An agenda, meeting notes from the previous meeting (if any) and handouts
related to the agenda are sent out in time for participants to review
them before the meeting.
- The meeting starts precisely on time—neither early nor late.
- The agenda is followed closely, but allows for new topics to be addressed
at appropriate times.
- Rules to eliminate time-wasting are gently but firmly enforced.
- The meeting ends early or on time with all agenda items covered.
After meetings:
- Participants feel their views were heard and valued.
- Participants support the decisions of the group.
- Participants feel their time was well spent and want to attend the
group's next meeting.
- Actions are taken as a result of every decision.

Contact TeamTrainers to start your team toward
this kind of performance.
What creates a high-performance team?
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