The recipe for the dream team

You have just finished your annual goal setting with your boss. His one expectation from you is to build a high-performing team to ensure the volume of incidents and problems are brought under control. It is easy to see where he is coming from. Ever since the organisation embarked on the massive transformation program, the changes it necessarily involved have caused a massive influx of teething problems.

Of course, first you would define what exactly is ‘high performing team’ in this scenario? Your first instinct is to get work horses who can anticipate and power through that high volume of tickets. Thinking further, you decide to balance this with an ace team who first analyses the issues, identifies patterns, resolves the root cause and prevents the issues from arising in the first place?

You reach home still mulling over the problem and soon it is time to prep the evening meal. As you start gathering the ingredients and preparing the method, a recipe for the high performing team also starts forming in your mind.

You recall hearing that culture eats strategy for breakfast. You decide that culture is going to be the main ingredient that will hold the team together and make it thrive in the company. Identify what is the organisation culture first. You may or may not like the culture. That is the environment you will need to create your team in. Recognise the culture that exists, decide how you and your team will engage with this culture and then define what your team’s unique culture you want to foster. You need to constantly curate and cultivate the behaviours that are most beneficial to the team in the long term.

Next comes the core of the dish – the people themselves. When you start building the team and selecting the candidates, look beyond qualifications and experience. Look for the growth mindset and the learning aptitude and the ability to get along with others. If you hit the right balance, you will form a team of people who not only excel in their roles, but also evolve with the team, adapting to new challenges and constantly pushing the envelope.

That final ingredient that will leave a sweet or sour taste, that right amount of spice or burning palate, bland or tasteful is going to be remuneration. Do the right thing by the team at the very outset when hiring the team by setting a clear and fair compensation structure. This hygiene factor is what decides the longevity of team and avoids burnout as well as heartburn. Especially if you are working in a large corporate, you will have much greater flexibility while recruiting instead of trying to adjust remuneration later. Ensure everyone feels valued instead of holding out promises of rewards in future based on performance and proving their worth.

Once the right ingredients are assembled and the team is in place, you start to cook up that high performance within the team. Setting clear expectations will go a long way towards truly creating a high performing team. Their performance after all will be measured against these expectations and goals that you set at the outset. This is most crucial to whether you are setting up the team for success or not. Articulate what success looks like and how each member of the team contributes to this vision. Productivity will be a byproduct when everyone is aligned and focused on the same goal.

As you keep an eye on the dish that you cooking for the evening, you will be monitoring progress with frequent check ins and regular stand ups. It is important to keep a regular cadence of team meetings as well as one on one meetings with the key leads in the team. This allows you to provide support as well as course correct where required.

Continuous learning and development has to be a core activity for the team and not an after thought. Every member of the team should be keeping themselves updated with the latest technology, regulations and market forces, process improvements in the industry. This is achieved with a mix of structured and unstructured learning.

As you sit down for a relaxed dinner, you realize, here you have the ingredients and recipe for creating that high performing team.