Generally, leaders know that poor teamwork generates poor results, good teamwork generates good results, and exceptional teamwork generates exceptional results.
It’s the exceptional leaders who proactively and strategically develop their employees to become high performers. They know the more developed their teams are, the better their employees will perform—and they’ll get better-than-industry-average results. They also know their people will be more productive because they’re engaged, empowered, and inspired to work at a high level.
How can you develop high-performance teams? Here are three keys:
1. ESTABLISH AN EMPLOYEE ENGAGEMENT STRATEGY
A popular definition of engaged employees is people feeling passionate about their jobs. Committed to the organizations’ goals, they put discretionary effort into their work. As a result, people on the team work extremely well together. Excited to be with each other, they work in harmony; they’re creative; they get things done productively. They also value a work environment in which coworkers to want to contribute.
Leaders wanting a high-performance team must understand, appreciate, and respect the value of having engaged employees. Then they must identify the greatest opportunities to improve their performance and measure the effectiveness.
2. IMPLEMENT CROSS-FUNCTIONAL TRAINING
Understanding how business is conducted helps everyone know and appreciate the performance of others throughout the organization. Cross-functional training gives team members exposure to aspects of the business outside their primary areas of responsibility such as someone in estimating gets exposure training in accounting.
Cross-functional training is about understanding how the pieces fit together. It can also strengthen working relationships, break down silos, minimize turnover, encourage and support teamwork, improve company morale, and improve overall performance and results.
During the training process, exceptional leaders ask challenging questions to ensure cross-department connections are made.
3. CREATE A DESIRED WORK ETHIC CULTURE
To develop a company’s culture, leaders must first identify what the desired culture looks like, then determine what must happen to achieve it. For example, leaders might envision a team of people who exert a tireless level of effort to get the work done. Everyone willingly does what needs to be done without complaining or hesitating—and even without being asked. Next, they identify the traits of people who have the desired work ethic. Here are ways they can follow through:
- Identify people those work ethic other leaders admire and respect and make a list of qualities they possess.
- Think about people whose work ethic is not up to par and make a list of qualities these people possess.
- After refining the list of wanted work ethic traits, recruit and hire only people who possess the majority of traits on the list.
- Over time, develop or replace those who do not possess the desired work ethic.
ONE LAST THOUGHT
Leaders who proactively and strategically develop their people into high performers will have success attracting and retaining top talent.
About the Coach
As a leadership development expert, Randy Goruk works with construction industry leaders to improve employee engagement and business growth. Contact Randy directly to learn how he can help you and your team: randy@LeadersEdge360.com.
Modern Contractor Solutions, May 2022
Did you enjoy this article?
Subscribe to the FREE Digital Edition of Modern Contractor Solutions magazine.
