Are You Leading a High Performing Team?

FMP is excited to announce that our very own Stacy Cook has been selected as the keynote speaker to present “How Great Teams Can Work Together” at the Public Affairs Council’s Advocacy Conference, a two-day event on February 6 and February 7, 2018 in Orlando, Florida! Her presentation will focus on the qualities of high functioning teams, best practices for collaborative communication, and ways to deal with different types of working styles.

So, what makes a team “high performing?” As Stacy will highlight, high performing teams are groups of people that have specific roles, complementary talents and skills, a shared commitment and alignment to a common purpose, and high levels of collaboration and innovation.

What can you do to foster a high performing team in your organization? As a sneak preview to the event, here are a few of Stacy’s top tips:

Set a Clear Vision

Leaders at all levels are responsible for crafting visions: It is not just up to management or senior leadership to create visions. Team leaders should develop visions that are specific to their team and resonate with each member.

Connect personal vision to team and strategic vision: Inspired leaders and inspired teams see their own drivers and goals realized in the team vision.

Achieve clarity by creating focus: Vision statements must be clearly crafted in order to be effective and communicable. Get to this level of clarity by keeping a narrow focus on what you want to achieve with your vision statement.

Create Alignment

Leaders foster communication in all directions: One challenge organizations face is maintaining clear communication in all directions. This requires delivering feedback to leaders, sharing information laterally across departments, and providing direction down the chain.

Leaders can link all team activities to the team vision: A team will only be aligned to the vision when they see how their work directly serves that vision. A leader should help teams connect their daily activities to the success of the vision.

Leaders offer truly motivating incentives to team members: Inspiration and motivation go hand-in-hand. A team that has achieved alignment will understand how the team vision supports their personal vision, and how it furthers their own personal or professional goals.

Leaders work with team members to develop their alignment competencies: Ensuring alignment requires attention and upkeep to maintain. Leaders work with their teams to refine communication skills, deliver feedback, and work collaboratively.

Execute

Leaders at all levels work to instill vision into each project: Successfully executing a vision is an achievement, and each step that takes the team closer to that vision is its own success. By tying project tasks back to the vision, leaders help teams see how even day-to-day progress counts as a victory.

Leaders champion the momentum of the project to ensure delivery: Ensure that concrete strategies are developed to demonstrate to the team how the vision will be achieved

Leaders monitor all project developments including changes in resources, evolving team dynamics, and shifting circumstances or priorities: By supporting the details of both practical and emotional requirements, the leader communicates that they are going to see the project through to the end.

About the Author: When not at work, Sabrina enjoys hanging out with family, event planning, mentoring teens, HGTVing, bleeding BLUE, singing and dancing, working on cars, or babysitting any of the 13 grandkids (soon to be 14 by next month)! At home, Sabrina goes by “Superwoman” and has an awesome support team. To reach out to the author directly, feel free to email scooper@fmpconsulting.com.