Want a high performing team? It starts with you

We often talk about building high-performing teams as though the answer lies in finding the right people, setting the right targets, or introducing the right systems. While those things matter, before looking at the team, it is worth looking at the person leading it: you.

Throughout this article, I will ask you questions about the quality of your vision, your own personal wellbeing, and the environment you are creating for your team.

These three areas are important as you consider: What are you creating around you that makes high performance possible? 

QUALITY OF VISION

Before you can give your team a clear direction, you need to know where you are actually going. A vision shouldn't simply describe what the business will look like. It should give people something worth moving towards. That includes you.

Ask yourself:

·       Does the vision inspire me?

·       Does it challenge me?

·       Does it motivate me?

If you aren't clear about where you are going, it is difficult to expect clarity from the people around you. Your team needs to understand what you are trying to achieve and why it matters in order to align their areas of expertise with the bigger picture.

PERSONAL WELLNESS CHECK

Leadership carries a workload of its own. You are making decisions, dealing with uncertainty, managing competing priorities and, often, carrying the emotional weight of the people around you as well. To lead effectively is not for the faint of heart.

So here is my next question: Am I mentally well enough to carry the leadership workload I have created?

An effective leader needs to be able to stay connected to their team without becoming overwhelmed when things become difficult. That doesn't mean being relentlessly positive. In fact, pretending everything is fine when it clearly isn't can undermine trust.

What is essential when challenges arise is realistic optimism: being able to acknowledge what is difficult while still helping people believe that there is a way forward. If you are already personally struggling, the pressure of providing this can contribute to burnout.

Here is a tougher question: Do I have a strong enough sense of self to allow other people to be better than me at something?

A genuinely high-performing team should be capable of producing outcomes that one leader could never achieve alone. That sounds obvious. It isn't always easy in practice. If your identity is tied to being the most knowledgeable, most capable or most important person in the room, the success of your team can start to feel like a threat. You may find yourself holding people back without even intending to. But for an effective leader guiding a team of high performers, your job isn't to remain at the top of the pyramid. It is to create something bigger than you.

Sometimes a team member will outgrow your original vision. When that happens, you can either expand the vision or celebrate their growth as they move on. Either way, their development is not a failure on your part. It is proof that something worked.

ENVIRONMENTAL WELLNESS CHECK

Understanding how your team is interacting is a good indication of the health of the culture you have created. Intentionally sitting back and observing, or seeking feedback from a good observer, can help identify both healthy and unhealthy patterns. A good place to start is with meetings. Take some time to observe your key meetings without immediately trying to change them.

Look for:

·       Who talks?

·       Who doesn’t?

·       Who challenges?

·       Who agrees?

·       Who asks questions?

·       Who looks engaged?

If you are doing most of the talking, it may be because your team is disengaged, doesn't believe they have anything useful to contribute, or isn't sure whether it is okay to say what they really think. If one or two people dominate while everyone else looks increasingly disengaged, the problem may be the meeting itself. Too many people, too many topics and too little relevance can make it difficult for people to contribute meaningfully.

Another key thing to look for is healthy disagreement. If everyone agrees with you, don't automatically assume you have a very harmonious team. They may genuinely agree. But they may also have learned that it is easier to be agreeable than to disagree. They may not feel safe enough to challenge. Or they may simply have stopped caring enough to bother.

The absence of challenge can be dangerous. When people don't feel able to question assumptions or raise concerns, organisations can become vulnerable to groupthink and poor decisions. A healthy team isn't one where everyone agrees. It is one where people can disagree without damaging the relationship.

Another, often overlooked, element of a healthy culture is laughter. Friendly banter and genuine laughter in a meeting can tell you something important. It can indicate that people feel sufficiently safe and connected to relax around each other. It can show that relationships exist alongside the work. Of course, laughter alone doesn't make a team high performing. But neither does seriousness. People bring more of themselves to a team when they feel safe enough to be human.

So, how is your team doing?

Before deciding that your team needs more accountability, better communication, more training or a new performance system, take a look at what you are creating as the leader.

Ask yourself:

·       Is the vision clear and compelling?

·       Am I healthy enough to lead well?

·       Have I created an environment where people can contribute, challenge and grow?

You may discover that your team doesn't need you to push harder.

It may need you to create better conditions for people to do their best work.

And that starts with you.