Building High Performance Teams (1)

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Building High-Performing Teams STRATEGIES
FOR IDENTIFYING AND DEVELOPING TOP TALENT
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INTRODUCTION
Teamwork v/s Individual Work - Which is better?
Much though history has always glorified
lone-wolf entrepreneurs, it is great teams which
contribute significantly in the success stories
of modern conglomerates. Consider pioneers like
Apple, Etsy, Google - they all thrive on
teamwork. New age technologies are transforming
the modern workplace making the work environment
more connected, digital, and flexible. Anyone who
assumed hybrid work systems would have caused the
downfall of teamwork must have changed their
views by now.
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Each individual brings their own unique gifts,
talents, and skills to the table. When these
people work in collaboration towards a common
goal, they become invincible and gain a real
competitive advantage. Though high performing
teams are valued by leaders and investors alike,
it is quite a task to build them.
No matter how brilliant your mind or strategy
is, if you are playing a solo game you will
surely lose out to a team - Reid Hoffman,
LinkedIn
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WHAT IS THE HYPE SURROUNDING HIGH-PERFORMING
TEAMS?

• Before we delve into how we build better teams,
  it is important to understand why some teams
  perform better than others. If all it took was a
  group of talented people with right skills to
  build better team, many more organizations across
  the world would have been in the Fortune 500
  group.
• Why are high-performing teams well-regarded?
• They offer varied skill-sets and diverse range of
  talents
• They are a bunch of innovative thinkers who
  enhance each work day with their ideas and
  suggestions
• They require minimum input from the managements
  end
• They encourage positive employee morale
• Lastly, owing to all of the above, they have
  enhanced productivity

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• Fortunately, characteristics that go into making
  high-performing teams have been researched upon
  for ages and its interesting, the methodologies
  used during the study varied from one another but
  the conclusions turned out to be quite similar.
  They all had one thing in common - social
  capital. Though all teams are different, some
  values of high-performing teams are common. They
  all have -
• Collaborative culture
• Effective work practices
• Open communication
• Mutual respect among team members
• Committed towards the team, their mission, and
  the organization

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WHAT MAKES SOME TEAMS HIGH-PERFORMING?
Effective Work Practices A good plan of action
is a must. Without proper planning and resource
allocation, high-performance teams cannot
be successful. This is the very foundation of
high-performance teams. Ineffective work rules
will cause problems in the long run leading to
decline in risk-taking attitudes, creativity,
and Innovation.
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Mutual Respect Among Leaders and Team
Members All team members respect and recognize
each others strengths and working methods. This
helps to create strong bonds among team members,
they function as a single entity and produce
exceptional results. Committed to their team,
mission and the organization With shared values
and vision, high performing team members work
together towards a common objective without
losing sight of results.
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Open Communicators Open channels of
communication are always present between team
members which leads to creating an environment of
constructive criticism and feedback. Collaborati
on is Key They are experts in their work who
thrive on collaboration and encourage
participation from all team members including
introverts. If everyone is moving forward
together, then success takes care of itself -
Henry Ford
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BUILD BETTER TEAMS
But there are certain rules to building them.
Amid the myriad sources that hint upon how to
build a top team, below are some ideas which have
long proved their worth. Team Composition Team
composition is the starting point. How should you
choose your employees? And how many members
should there be in your dream team? For
starters, you can opt for assessment softwares
like the ones from Talent Titan which assess
candidates on multiple criteria, helping you
choose the ones that fit the bill.
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As far as the team size is concerned, heres what
the e-commerce pioneer, Jeff Bezos of Amazon
states - No matter how large your organization
is, if you cant feed your team with two pizzas,
its too large. The reason is simple. There is no
strength in numbers. More People More
Chaos Researchers state that the teams
effectiveness begins to drop if there are more
than 10 people on it. People form sub-teams.
Although a congenial, here for the team face is
forever present in the meetings, however things
change drastically outside the meeting room.
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• Another research conducted by Professor Ina
  Toegel, IMD Business School concludes that
  high-performing teams shouldnt contain more than
  8 people. She insists too many people translate
  to having -
• Reduced Productivity
• Increased Challenges in Coordination
• More Tension
• Furthermore, she concluded existing team members
  should have a say on the selection of their
  future peers.

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Conclusion
Real-Time Recognition Another important factor
to build and scale a high performing team is to
celebrate their wins, regularly. By highlighting
their achievements, you foster a culture of
recognition and appreciation. It not only boosts
employee morale but motivates them to pursue
excellence, at all times.
Always remember a golden rule while giving
feedback, be generous with praise and sparing
with criticism.
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Continuous Learning The only constant in life is
change. So, it is important to address skill gaps
to stay relevant in these ever- evolving times.
So, organizations are stressing on the teams
ability to regularly skill up. Though quite a lot
of learning happens on the job, it is important
to upgrade the team via regular training
sessions. You can simplify your LD with Talent
Titan's LMS solution which transforms your
training materials into personalized micro-
learning modules and inspire employees with
automated badges and certificates upon
completion.
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Embrace Feedback It is important to create a
culture of continuous feedback for the growth and
development of your team. A feedback-driven
approach helps the team to continuously learn,
adapt, and excel but can backfire if not done
correctly. Feedback giving is indeed an art.
Succession Planning Sustaining a high performing
team is as critical as developing it. Top
performers need reasons to stay and that can
happen only if you facilitate their growth and
development. Build a leadership pipeline by
identifying the skills and competencies of your
top talent who eventually would assume key
positions.
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These changes will help you lay the foundation of
a happy and high-performing team and technology
can help you achieve it. Put together a team that
will work and grow together with solutions from
Talent Titan
Learn how! Shoot an email to us
at sales_at_talenttitan.com
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