BUILDING A HIGH PERFORMANCE TEAM: 5 WAYS TO DO IT

Ask the winning organisations, they better understand the value of a high performance team and the significance of keeping it up and running. Nothing builds a well-motivated and high performance team in an organisation like a culture of co-operation. The following are strong tips to help your organisation build and maintain a high-flying team:

1.Celebrate each member's unique ability (Capabilities) and leverage them accordingly. What makes a rounded team is when every of its member brings different talents, skills and capabilities to work on the team. Respecting each individual's make up and harnessing it appropriately would widen the operational perspectives of the team, thereby, making it multi-perspective capable of tackling and overcoming challenge from many dimension. For example, in a soccer team each player has different talent that is suitable for different wing. The job of a good coach is to fix each player where he can optimally deploy his skills to help the team achieve its objectives.

2. Never do an Open comparison between your team members. " A good team leader measures the performance of his team member against his strengths and not against someone else's". Unhealthy competition leading to strive is born in a team when its members are compared to each other. Your team will break apart faster when members realise that you often engage in comparism between them. Everyone begins to work for how to outshine the other at the expense of promoting the team's success. It may seem to bring result in the short run, but the sustainability and long term success of the organisation is being jeopardised.

3. Celebrate your team's success more than individual successes. What keeps your team a team is the fact that it has a corporate interest to serve and a corporate vision and goals to pursue. You cause the team a setback whenever you celebrate an individual team member's success rather than that of the team.

4. Grant everyone equal opportunities. Every member of your team desires and deserves a level playing field. Opportunities to contribute and be rewarded should be equal across board. Everyone's opinion should be as valid as the other. Opinion or views expressed on subject-matter should not be tied to personalities.

5. Reward and motivate for every milestone achievements in the organisation. Rewards come as a way of expressing your gratitude for a job well done by your team, while written or verbal recognition addresses your team's need for attention and gives them credit for their accomplishments. The two combined are a powerful source of motivation. Many leadership classes teach the concept MMFI (Make Me Feel Important), It's a valuable tool to keep in mind to build a high performance team. To motivate the team for milestone achievements, the reward may not necessarily be monetary, but some sort of tangible acknowledgement can go a long way. A celebration certainly helps too, but remember to leave them with something tangible for their efforts. It is also important to reward everyone who contributed to the success of the team's accomplishment, not just the immediate team member. This sends a message that you quite understand a team's success depends on the collaborative efforts of various groups. People will clamour to support your team's projects if you provide visible and lasting rewards and celebrate frequently.