According to research done by CB insights, 23% of startups attribute their failure to a lack of having the right team.
Being an entrepreneur this stat may be alarming for you!
With fast-changing business scenarios building, high-performing teams have become increasingly critical for startups.
The success of your startup hinges on your ability to assemble high-performing teams; the better the team performs, the better your company performs — and the more successful the company is as a result.
In this blog, we will discuss the key attributes of high-performing teams, particularly in a start-up scenario.
So let’s begin…
What is a high-performing team?
A high-performing team is a group of individuals who collaborate and work together cohesively to achieve outstanding results and consistently exceed expectations. They exhibit strong communication, trust, and respect for one another, and they leverage their diverse skills and talents to deliver outstanding performance.
High-performing teams are characterized by their ability to adapt to challenges, maintain a positive and supportive culture, and consistently exceed expectations while driving continuous improvement.
Key attributes of high-performing teams in start-ups
“Everyone is comfortable showing up authentically. They are able to be vulnerable with each other, discussing mistakes and lessons learned without blame or retribution.” – Karen Eber, CEO and Chief Storyteller of culture transformation consultancy Eber Leadership Group
Trust among the team members is very crucial for high-performing teams. Norms of behavior within the organization demand truthfulness, integrity, and transparency.
Trust within the team has a direct impact on productivity, engagement, and profitability.
“Passionate and committed people are at the heart of every high-performing team,” – Edie Goldberg, author of The Inside Gig
If you think hiring all the over-achievers from the various fields will eventually lead to a high-performing team. We are sorry to say, you’re wrong.
When you hire developers for the startup, the right way is to diversify your team. Your team members should have different strengths, opinions, and experiences.
Hiring different types of people will allow you to leverage each of their unique strengths, perspectives, and experiences to build the strongest team possible.
One crucial point to remember here is every individual you hire should have an understanding of the interpersonal styles of teammates to improve relationships and manage conflicts.
One of the crucial components of a high-performing team is assigning clear roles and responsibilities to team members.
Any overlap in this can lead to an unbalanced workload and lack of authority.
Assigning specific roles and responsibilities to all the team members ensures clarity of thoughts. Further, it also helps in avoiding overlapping of work, or friction arising due to it.
Clarity makes it easy to streamline the next set of actions. Defined roles also impact hiring by filling the gaps.
Also, individual training and uplifting become easier as weak points can be deciphered. This simplifies the feedback process by specifically pointing out the lagging areas.
This makes it possible for the smaller teams to achieve big targets.
If team members lack a sense of team mentality they may perform excellently on an individual basis but may fail as a team.
High-performing teams have a high sense of collaboration, coordination, and creativity. The work they do is not seen as a solo effort; it is a team effort – one that is much better than any single contribution could ever be.
The Harvard Business Review states that Companies strongly rely on teams that can collaborate instantly, even over long distances. A team that gets along easily, even under high pressure, helps a business to succeed.
Collaboration helps in sharing ideas and boosting creativity. It can be achieved by assigning smaller projects to break the ice.
Frequent interactions foster better relationships and help avoid bias. As a team-building exercise, it escalates productivity. It enables recognizing team leaders in a larger scope of things.
There are four factors that make any collaboration successful. They include support from the executives, Human Resource Practices, Team leaders, and team structure.
Communication serves as a tool to avoid conflicts and boost performance. That is why it is a key attribute of high-performing teams.
All team members work very hard to ensure the plan – and progress towards it – is understood by all.
Sharing information within an organization is facilitated by leaders and managers through formal and informal mechanisms.
The ultimate target of maintaining a dynamic team is to manage its work. A good team ensures that the work is delivered well before the deadline making sure that the quality of work is not compromised.
The O.C. Tanner Learning Group through their research found that 79% of employees who left their jobs did so because of a lack of appreciation.
This stat makes clear that in high performing teams, team members appreciate each other’s contributions
They celebrate every little victory toward achieving their goals. Team members support one another. Each is committed to the growth and development of each member.
Through constant learning and development, the team strives for excellence. They are never satisfied with their learnings and crave for more knowledge.
Leadership and decision-making are decentralized in high-performance teams. Decentralizing the execution of tasks and duties complements the centralized planning process and keeps it focused on the big picture.
Planning and execution are done using standard operating procedures and proper mechanisms followed by all members of the team. All opinions are considered during the planning process.
Each member of the team performs a regular after-action review to determine how the program can be improved and how knowledge can be shared with other members.
After action reviews are conducted at appropriate intervals and documented.
Every team member passionately takes part in every task where their contribution is required. This leads to team engagement and high participation.
Members of the team jump into the breach as weak points or gaps are discovered. The team leader changes based on the expertise needed.
Conclusion :
Building a high-performing team takes time and effort, but when you combine the right skills and experience and nurture these fundamental attributes of an effective team, the results will be worthwhile.
