________

What are the secrets to a #highperforming #team?

There really is no secret to building a high performing team.

At the risk of making this sound too simplistic, here are 3 things that you may wish to look at when you want to build a high performing team:

1. #Clarity – Clarity of purpose, direction, instructions.

2. #Communication – Effective communication is the bedrock of psychological safety and inclusiveness. Everyone needs to be able to voice their thoughts, concerns, and their opinions. I often hear that communications need to be a 2-way street. But I beg to differ. Communication is multi-directional – everyone needs to be communicating with everyone else – to learn from one another, and to support one another.

3. #Cognitive #diversity The term “Diversity ” has become a cliche these days. Most think that diversity is about education, race or nationality. And I beg to differ here again. It is much MORE than just education, race, nationality. It is about embracing people with different backgrounds, beliefs, experiences AND Thinking Styles.

And here’s the catch: All the above 3 Cs are interconnected. You can’t have one without the other for a high performing team.

And I ended the post with this question:

There’s one more C. Do you know what it is?

__________

And I received a number of responses. Here are some of the answers I received:

• Culture,
• Connection
• Compassion
• Collaboration
• Character
• Competency
• Customer
• Caring
• Coordination
• Co-operation

All very good answers, however they weren’t the answer I had in mind.

So here’s the fourth “C”:

#Civility

If you want to build a high performance team, then you will need to ensure discussions, arguments and disagreements remain civil.

Being Civil means respect – even if you do not agree with what is being said.

It doesn’t mean a high performing team is one that has no disagreements or arguments. Far from it.

In fact, a high performing team would be expected to have more disagreements.

However once a decision has been made, the entire team will align itself behind that decision to make it work – putting differences aside.

Civility creates a certain #climate around the team – one that is respectful, authentic, and candid.

About the Author

Steven Lock is the Founder of FutureTHINK! Training & Consultancy LLP.

He is an Author, Facilitator, Consultant and a Coach. Steven has more than 20 years of corporate experience.

Steven is passionate about helping organisations transform their teams into high performing teams. He does that by first helping organisations identify and hire the right people, and then training their leaders and managers on how to manage and lead their people to achieve peak performance consistently.

Steven is the developer of The CAAP® High Performance Model. The model focuses on Culture (cultural fit), Attitude, Aptitude and Personality dimensions of their employees and job candidates. It is a highly practical, effective and proven approach.

Steven believes that for organizations to be truly successful and perform at their highest levels, they need to shift their mind-sets to having the RIGHT people on-board – and not necessarily the best or the brightest.

Steven is the author of two books:

• “Hiring for Performance: The CAAP® Model to Hiring and Building High-Performance Teams.”
• “The Right Talent: The Agility-Focused Interviewing Approach to Hiring the Right Candidate Every Time.”

He is the developer of The Leadership STYLE Report that is based on Dr. Daniel Goleman’s research on leadership styles.

Steven has been interviewed twice on MediaCorp’s live radio show The Breakfast Club on 938FM, and has contributed numerous articles to Singapore Business Review, ST Recruit, SHRI Human Capital, LinkedIn and other publications.

His comment on Team Collaboration has been quoted in the Harvard Business Review OnPoint Magazine.

Steven is a Certified Solution-Focused Coach (CSFC), Associate Certified Coach (ACC) with the International Coach Federation (ICF), and MBTI® (Step I & II) certified practitioner.