According to a Gallup study, only 10% of people are natural leaders. However, another 20% have the traits needed to learn how to become talented people managers who can motivate their teams to succeed. What all leaders need, though, even those with natural talent, is the ability to identify goals, support performance development, encourage transparent communication and focus on employees’ strengths.
Great leaders must have confidence and skill; however, they cannot succeed alone. Building, leading and managing teams effectively is critical to achieving goals. Gallup reports that highly talented managers enable teams to improve profitability, productivity, employee engagement, customer engagement and turnover. In the online Master of Business Administration (MBA) – Leadership Emphasis program from Southern Utah University (SUU), students learn the strategies that effective leaders use to achieve success with their teams.
Building High-performance Teams
Getting to know the individuals on each team is the first priority when building or taking over a team. The culture of a team has a major impact on performance. In an article for Harvard Business Review, author David Burkus identifies three traits of high-performing teams:
- Ensuring common understanding: Teams function effectively by defining tasks and responsibilities and understanding how each individual contributes unique skills and abilities to work together.
- Providing psychological safety: People will have questions or concerns and may disagree with one another. A positive, open and supportive atmosphere will allow people to feel safe expressing themselves and state their opinions before mistakes occur.
- Cultivating a prosocial purpose: It’s not always sufficient to know why they are working on a task. Employees want to know who their work is serving. Knowing that their work is having a positive impact on others helps them feel a prosocial purpose.
Team-building Strategies
Executive coach Tim Madden states that all executive leaders must prioritize identifying a goal and leading others there safely. A team’s success can have a major impact on the critical key performance indicator of revenue. High-performing teams are more productive and efficient, and they embrace innovation and adaptability.
How do you develop that kind of team? Develop a culture of trust and psychological safety so team members are not just following but are allowed to flourish. Create an environment where individuals are encouraged to take risks, share ideas and express concerns without risking judgment or retaliation. It is also critical to set clear goals and expectations for the team and each member individually.
Great leaders also know that investing in team members’ personal and professional development helps create a culture of learning. Skill enhancement has a direct correlation to revenue growth.
Recognizing and celebrating achievements shows your appreciation and helps build team morale. Acknowledging individual and collective achievements not only fosters a positive and enthusiastic team spirit but also helps keep everyone motivated.
How to Build Trust
Building trust with your teams is essential and results in higher engagement, creativity and productivity. However, as important as it is to establish trust between managers and employees, it is equally important to establish trust between teammates. People who work together on common goals daily need to be able to count on their teammates.
In a survey of 1,000 U.S.-based office workers about their attitudes, experiences and behaviors at work, respondents rated their team’s effectiveness and compared their team’s performance to other teams in their industry. High-performing teams were rare, with only 8.7% of respondents rating their teams as high-performing.
However, they also identified key behaviors related to trust that set the high-performing teams apart. Rather than immediately assigning tasks and beginning to work, high-performing teams began by discussing how they would work together.
Another key to high-performing teams is clear, transparent communication. Teams that shared information among themselves rather than expecting a manager to do it created a culture of inclusion. Related to this is sharing recognition for teammates’ accomplishments. Acknowledging and thanking others builds trust.
Conflict will inevitably occur on high-performing teams, but viewing disagreements as an opportunity rather than a threat influences how people respond. Conflict can be a source of strength. This requires sensitivity to tension among teammates. Taking the initiative to resolve conflicts while embracing a growth mindset about relationships helps team members see that tension is temporary and that even thorny relationships can be salvaged.
Build and Manage High-performing Teams
Gaining and refining leadership skills to empower you to be an effective leader of high-performing teams is what the online MBA in Leadership program from SUU will help you do. Deepen your foundational business knowledge and learn to develop strategic solutions to management challenges in any organization.
Learn more about Southern Utah University’s online Master of Business Administration – Leadership Emphasis program.
