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Transcript

5 Methods to Build Great Team Performance · Enhance.training

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: All managers aiming to build great team performance are helping their team, themselves and the business.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: If your team is performing well and appears happy and motivated, then the chances are you'll be asked to manage more people.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: This is a great way to increase your influence and impact on the business and win promotions.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: How do you build great team performance is the key question.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: Here are five methods to build great team performance no matter where your team is today.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, set clear expectations within the team.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: Secondly, create visibility and measurement.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Third, support and develop team members.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Fourth, take action with those underperforming or being difficult.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: And fifth, use external recruiting to increase the skill levels within the team.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can be very open with these methods to build team performance.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: They will work year in, year out, in pretty much all team situations.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: You are actively helping team members develop their skills and confidence to help them deliver a great team performance.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone wins and success helps everyone's career progress.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: My name is Jess Coles and I've had a 25-year management career in corporate and household names such as Innocent Drinks, Fosters, EY and Peer Consulting, all the way through to SMEs.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I've successfully turned around multiple underperforming teams and repeatedly encouraged better efforts and results from team members using each of these steps to build team performance.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: If you're new to this podcast, Enhance.training shares business and people management expertise to help you improve your performance and that of your team and business.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_00: And do visit us at enhance.training and take a look at the courses and resources for you to improve your management skills and the outcome your team delivers.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: Everyone's idea of a great team performance is different.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: What does your manager and other stakeholders expect from you and your team?
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: What do you expect from your team?
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: What do you as a team need to deliver to meet formal objectives?
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_00: Answer these questions clearly and you have a specific set of expectations.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: The first method to build great team performance is to set clear expectations with the team.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: If team members don't know exactly what expectations are being placed upon them, they are much less likely to meet or exceed those expectations.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: To reach targets, a team needs to collectively meet expectations through all the activities and projects it undertakes, so the overall targets are met or exceeded.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: Fairly straightforward.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Getting each team member to understand, accept and live those expectations is a little bit trickier.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: Two different approaches to setting clear expectations, each with their pros and cons, are.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Firstly, you can tell the team what your expectations are.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: And secondly, you can ask the team to build the expectations with you.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: The traditional approach is for the manager to tell the team what their expectations are and then work to repeat and reinforce those expectations through actions and decisions.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: This method works and is good when quick action is needed, such as turning around performance.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: The expectations remain yours and the team may or may not buy into them.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: A better way of setting expectations is to coach the team, getting their input and collectively setting expectations, which align with reaching the team objectives.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: This approach takes longer and uses coaching skills which not every manager has.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: The benefits are that the expectations belong to everyone.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: The team is much more likely to enforce these expectations among themselves, which makes your job much easier.
• 3:51
  SPEAKER_00: Do take the team through the purpose behind the goals that have been set.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: Giving context and talking to the why is motivational and empowering for team members and is another way to develop team performance.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: The second way to build great team performance is to create visibility and measurement.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: Creating visibility of progress against goals will help the team and the individuals own their part in hitting those goals.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know you are behind, then you won't put in that extra bit of effort to catch up.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know that your colleague Steve hasn't done half the activities he needs to do so the team can make progress, you won't prod him.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know Sarah is miles ahead because of her hard work, put in already, you won't congratulate and thank her.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: Visibility and measurement of performance create significant peer pressure effects.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: No one likes being at the bottom or seen to be not pulling their weight.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: So work out several key performance indicators that capture activity and milestones that will drive your team to reaching their goals.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: Measure your progress against these KPIs.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about progress in your one-on-one meetings with each team member.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about them in your general team meetings.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Put the KPIs on a whiteboard on the wall.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Send an email around sharing progress.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_00: Keep progress visible.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: By regularly talking about the KPIs and the progress being made, you will keep the key activities in everyone's mind and increase the team's confidence in reaching its goals.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: Creating visibility and measurement of progress is a great way of driving accountability.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: The third method to build great team performance is to provide support and development for each team member.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best ways to build team performance I have found is to support and develop each team member.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: As a manager, you have a significant number of skills and a large amount of experience that will directly benefit your team members.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Make the time to mentor your direct reports during your weekly one-on-one meetings.
• 5:55
  SPEAKER_00: Use this time to talk through their challenges and problems.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_00: Help them learn faster by sharing with them what you know works and help them avoid what doesn't work.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: As a manager of a team, you are also in a great position to organise peer-to-peer training, your lunchtime training sessions, organise talks from other managers around the business or any route that you can think of to increase the skills of your team.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Talk through their problems with them.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Help them learn faster by sharing your experience with them.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: Do everything that you can to leverage your own knowledge and skills into the team.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: To get the best performance from the team, aim to help team members become leaders themselves.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Leaders are agents of change and improvement.
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Help them grow in confidence and skills.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: Help them develop their problem solving, decision making and their judgment.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: If your team is truly learning, they will make mistakes.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Be constructive when talking about failure.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: Treat it as a learning experience rather than a reason to criticize or complain.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: Criticizing or complaining will risk the team taking no risks, which will limit change and improvement.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Stay in close to what each team member is doing, and you'll significantly limit the impact of any mistakes made.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Provide support to employees and help them learn in any way you can.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Doing so is absolutely in your interests and a very important method to develop great team performance.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: The fourth method to build great team performance is to take action with those underperforming or being difficult.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Underperformers and those being difficult are a significant danger to team performance.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Outside the direct impact, there is also the impact on morale, your credibility as a manager, and what is deemed acceptable as defined by your actions.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: If you let underperformance or poor behaviour continue, you are signalling that this is acceptable.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Increasing team performance is nearly impossible in this situation.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: You can quickly enter a vicious downward circle.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: The good performers leave for better teams and better opportunities.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_00: Your credibility as a manager is blown.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_00: You get the picture.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: You must take action.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: Making sure that your actions are fair and reasonable without letting individuals off the hook is equally important.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Take action and give the individual a chance and the support to improve.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let them choose improvement or being removed from the team through performance improvement plans and disciplinary processes.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_00: Take action early to reinforce the expectations that you've agreed with the team.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: The fifth method to build great team performance is to use external recruiting to increase skill levels.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: As expectations rise of what is okay performance and what is good performance within the team, some team members will choose to leave.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: They will go to other roles with lower expectations and an easier life.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: This gives you a great opportunity to recruit replacement team members with more energy, a higher level of skills and experience, and those personalities more likely to help you drive improved performance.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: Always seek to increase the average skill level and increase the energy within the team with each new recruit.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: The increasing standards and expectations will push all team members up a little bit, thus improving the overall team performance.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: New individuals into the team will also be much more likely to challenge the status quo and ask valid questions about what is done and how it is done.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: Use these periods to find better ways of approaching the task and projects the team does.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Use new ideas that new people bring to push through positive change.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Use external recruitment to help build great team performance.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: In summary, there is a huge amount you can do to build great team performance through the actions you take as a manager.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: Consistency of your actions and decisions will reinforce the expectations that you have set with the team.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Making the time and effort to develop the team and improve their skills is worth every minute through improved performance, improved loyalty and goodwill from the team.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: Dealing with underperformers and difficult staff in a positive, fair way is a must, and recruitment is another great way of increasing performance in the team.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Put into practice all these methods to build great team performance.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_00: The team's performance is usually a reflection of the manager's performance.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Your team can be a great advert to your manager, to your peers, to the leadership team, etc., of your abilities and skills.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: Make the most of this.