Five Keys to Build a High-Performance Team

In today’s episode of the Leader Fluent Podcast, I’m talking about “Five Keys to Build a High-Performance Team.” Today’s episode gives you a very small taste of a brand new coaching cohort I’m launching that’s focused on building highly effective teams. You can learn more HERE. 

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SHOW NOTES:

Every leader wants his or her team to excel at the highest level possible. But building a high-performance team doesn’t happen just because we want it to. It requires a lot of work and intentionality with five foundational keys. 

1. Create an Effective Hiring Process

Author Jim Collins once said, “If I were running a company today, I would have one priority above all others: to acquire as many of the best people as I could [because] the single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and to hang on to enough of the right people.” 

According to a study released by Leadership IQ, the reason for 89% of job failures is due to Attitude Issues, and 46% of them failed within the first 18 months. But here’s the kicker: 82% of managers in the study said that, in hindsight, the failed hires elicited subtle cues DURING the interview process that they would fail.

So, how do you pick up on those subtle cues that indicate whether a candidate is or isn’t a good fit? You have to create an effective hiring process. Here are three tips to start with:

• Multiple Candidates – Do everything you can to secure multiple candidates to interview. In my experience, only two out ten resumes are actually worth looking at. 

• Multiple Interviews – Your interview process cannot be one interview. We use five different interviews including a screening interview, experience interview, deep dive, candidate and spouse interview, and team interview. 

• Multiple Interviewers – If possible, involve other members of your team in the interview process. This will help you see the candidate from different perspectives and catch any potential red flags. 

Again, there are multiple stages to an effective hiring process, but these three keys will help you get started. 

2. Maximize Your Onboarding System

Onboarding is how you set new team members up for success, and that’s the job of the leader. A good onboarding system should answer several questions including:

• What basic steps does the new team member need to take to be employed here? 
• What equipment, software, technology, and training does the team member need to successfully do their job?
• What does the team member need to know about their role, expectations, and areas of responsibility?
• What do we need to share with the team member about the organization’s DNA to help them successfully acclimate to our culture (things such as vision, values, culture, history, and common questions asked by new employees)
• What does the team member need to know to successfully work with their supervisor?
• Who do we need to introduce the team member to (including staff, key leaders, and key volunteers)?
• What does the team member need to know about our facility and their budget?
• What demographics and data would help the team member better understand who we’re reaching, the community we’re located in, and the growth trends of the organization? 
• What training, resources, and coaching does the team member need during their first 3-6 months to help them successfully integrate into our culture and maximize their performance on the job?