Checklist: Five Secrets of High-Performing Teams

If you know the secrets of team leadership, you can specifically influence the group dynamic processes of a team and, as a team leader, build your employees into a high-performance team. Claude Heini, an organizational and social psychologist, is not only the author of the Beobachter book "Plötzlich Chef" (Suddenly the Boss), he will soon be holding a seminar on the topic of "Building and Leading High-Performance Teams" in his versatility as a consultant, lecturer and coach.

In advance, five secrets of the seminar leader, who would like to encourage participants in a sympathetic way to change perspectives at the management level:

Secret No. 1: Taking risks together

Team members behave passively and do not bring any new ideas? Everyone is working in "safety" mode? This may be because you, as the team leader, are not taking any risks either. And the team members are not sure of your backing. ➜ Tip: Create an atmosphere in which mistakes are allowed and your team members feel safe. Avoid reproaches in the event of a flop and give free rein to the joy of experimentation.

Secret No. 2: Clear and distinct communication

In successful teams, there is no such thing as a lone wolf. Going it alone is perceived as ignorant or arrogant and disrupts the atmosphere of a team.

➜ Tip: Regularly ask yourself the following questions: "Are we communicating too much - or too little?" "Do we know who can help whom with what?" "Does everyone have all the information they need to do their job to the maximum?"

Give all team members the opportunity to express themselves and take them seriously.

A study conducted by the Google People Operations group on team effectiveness found that when team members had an equal opportunity to express themselves, then:

•    they were less likely to change their job
•    were more likely to integrate different ideas into their work
•    they achieved more sales
•    they were twice as likely to be rated as effective by their supervisors.

Secret No. 3: Making sense

At the top of successful and effective teams is this phrase, as found by Standford University: "Goals are considered significant and important by every team member."

➜ Tip: It is your task as a manager to ensure that everyone is working toward the same goal with which they can also identify. This is the only way to create a sense of togetherness and camaraderie - an enormously important factor.

Secret No. 4: Clearly define expectations

Among the reasons teams fail and members are frustrated, these two items are cited most often:

- unrealistic project goals

- unclear distribution of tasks

➜ Tip: Give feedback regularly and proactively. Be clear in your expectations and communicate them. In this way, you help keep teams on the right course. This allows each team member to continuously improve.

Secret No. 5: Looking beyond the end of your nose

A team becomes stronger when it is composed of different personalities. Diversity strengthens the power of innovation. Different perspectives provide new solutions.

➜ Tip: Allow existing processes and structures to be questioned. Take new paths sometimes to promote creativity.

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