photo credit - Shopify

Building a high-performing team takes intentionality. It is not enough to bring brilliant people together and expect the magic to happen.  Here are some of the skills and attitudes that will enable you to build and sustain high-performing teams

1. Freedom

   Team members are most productive and engaged when they are not being micromanaged. This means giving them the autonomy to make decisions and manage their own time within the organisation's framework

   
   

   For example, when setting objectives for your team, consider allowing your team to set their objectives. Give them your objectives and the wider business goals, and let them take the lead on outlining how they can ladder up to these. This gives them the freedom to lean into their skill sets, take ownership of their work, and be accountable for their results.

   
   

2. Trust

   Trust via effective delegation is an essential ingredient for high-performing teams.  Giving team members the freedom to set their objectives and take ownership of their work based on their strengths builds trust and discourages competition. When team members trust each other, they are more likely to collaborate effectively, share ideas openly, and give and receive feedback constructively.

   
   

3. Psychological safety

   Psychological safety involves creating a safe and supportive environment where team members feel comfortable taking risks and expressing their thoughts. This is key for the growth of any high-performing team.  As a manager, you can enable this environment by being transparent and honest with your team and giving them credit for their contributions and ideas.

   
   

   Another key to building psychological safety is ensuring that constructive criticism is always done in private. When people are shamed, they are less likely to speak up.

   
   

4. Growth mindset

   Encourage your team members to view challenges as learning opportunities. When you are in the middle of a storm, it can be hard to see anything beyond the obstacles in front of you. By shifting your focus to the progress made each day instead of solely on project completion, you can celebrate marginal gains, no matter how small, and keep the team motivated.

   
   

5. Black box thinking

   Black-box thinking (reviewing what went wrong and what you can learn) helps you learn from mistakes. Regular retrospectives help identify strategies that are not working well, as well as those that are, so you can intentionally incorporate or eliminate them from your processes.