How to build high performance Teams

"Leaders Care about Their Employees"

Strong leaders must be able to get people to do their jobs and have the capacity for empathy when required.

There is a complete spectrum of employees from those that work hard and never complain to those that hardly work and always complain. If you are lucky you'll have a few at each end of the spectrum and a lot in the middle. (I just hope to have enough of the hard workers to offset the excessively needy.) The needy are insatiable there is nothing you can do to ever change the situation. You just have to slowly replace them. Unfortunately it seems like these people suck up more of your time then all the other employees combined. If this happens you are operating very inefficiently. You are spending time on a situation that will never get better and forgoing the opportunity to be working on something meaningful.

The true art of leadership is knowing when to show empathy and still get the work done. All employees, good performers and poor performers, will watch and observe how you handle issues with other employees. They want to see fair and consistent treatment for everyone. The temptation is to dismiss or ignore issues that poor performers may have. If a manager does this, doubt is cast into the eyes of all employees because they fear how issues may be addressed when they are personally imvolved.

It is always better to error on the side of the high road. But this does not mean you can't be firm and demand the work gets done. You just have to be reasonable, fair and consistent.

To create a high performance team one needs to spend the time with all the people in the middle, because those are the ones that do most of the work and are responsible for most of the profits. The high achievers will take care of themselves for the most part, and the people at the opposite end are opportunity cost-ers.

When we waste time with the useless employees we are less patient with the ones that matter, and incorrectly send the signal we don't care. This is a roadblock to team building, teamwork and high performance teams.

When we talk about caring about your people, you should only care about the ones that contribute. Have empathy and compassion for the others, but focus on the majority of your employees. Those are the ones that will make up the high performance teams.

Employees know what's going on in the company. They already know, probably more then you do, who works, who complains, and who should be fired.

Don't confuse a genuinely lousy employee with someone who is a victim of circumstances or structure. Great employees working for horrible managers will become very frustrated. Great employees working for average managers will also be frustrated. Given those circumstances who is more important to the company two to five years down the road. Usually you are better off retaining the great employee and moving the manager somewhere else.

Employees want what everyone wants in life, to know managers respect them, care about their well-being, and are interested with helping them along in their career. They want to feel like they are a person and not just a tool that you use to advance your own career. They also want to be part of a high performance team. You have to let them know that you are more interested in their well-being and aspirations then your own.

It's this approach that will make employees go through walls for you. They know if you care that much about them, they will do what ever it takes to help you. That is commitment, and what you need to turn a business around.

You need people to put forth a lot of effort without having to be asked. At times you may have to ask them to tackle some unpleasant tasks. You would like them to willingly go at it and do a good job. In turn-around's, leaders need to have employees rally behind them. Winners take pride in beating the odds. That's the type of people you want to develop.

A leader that has a lack of concern for employees will only get employees to comply and do the minimum required. Maybe less if things are really bad, because no-one else is trying either. This is a real impediment to high performance teams.

Employees, no matter how good they are, will always test your good nature. Sometimes believing that they are deserving of special treatment. That's okay, you like to see the type of relationship where people are not working in fear and are willing to challenge the status quo. This is the area managers can have trouble with, if employees respect you, they will accept your explanation.

Starting with your first day on the job, it is important to let everyone know that you are all business. One needs to show that whatever decisions you make are for the benefit of all employees. When confronted with the choice, if you have to make a decision between what is good for one individual or the whole company, you will always make the decision in favor of the company. If an employee feels that they should receive special treatment and hinder the teamwork you are trying to create, then there is no place for that employee. They may be the top billing salesperson. It doesn't matter because in the long run you will do fine without them.

For the sake of teamwork and the high performance team, it is more important to maintain the harmony of 100 employees then pacify one. Those 100 are going to play a much more important part in the future growth of the company.

So what do you say to the special employee? Be straight, forward and be respectful. Let them know that you are responsible for the livelihood of every employee in the company and if you show preference to one, the performance and paychecks of hundreds will suffer. That wasn't what you were hired to do.

High performance teams are all about caring for each member equally, no more, no less. The bottom line is treat everyone well, with respect and let them know you are happy to be able to work with them.