What is a high performance team?

Today, from large corporations to startups, especially in technology teams (but not just in technology teams), we hear this term “high performance team”.

But what exactly is a high-performance team? What kind of profile or special skills does this team need to be considered high performers? What kind of deliveries does this team need to make? Can this team be born in high performance or is this the result of the natural maturation of a team?

Anyway, a lot of questions, a lot of answers, a lot of interpretations, but I’m going to bring here my view on this and what I’ve seen during my career climbing tech teams.

High performance teams

When talking about a high performance team, we have the synergy between employees as a basis. But it is also necessary to have as a reference the valorization of people and results, the compatibility of profiles and the process of individual and collective evolution.

The concept of high performance teams, say that they are teams that are more effective and productive working with more quality and optimization of resources.

In other words, it is essential that employees who make up high-performance teams present complementary skills and use them to ensure the best results.

As a result, a high-performance team is one that performs well together.

But after all, what characterizes a high performance team?

Perhaps the main characteristic of a high performance team is the constant quality result.

But, in my opinion, based on years of experience in assembling teams, among the characteristics of professionals who integrate these teams, we can highlight:

• Empathy in relationships and ability to manage conflict;
• Flexibility and adaptation to different environments and circumstances;
• Understanding and alignment with the company’s values;
• Curiosity and emotional intelligence, to understand feedback and constructive criticism;
• Decentralization of skills, shared knowledge;
• Transcend the normal goal. High-performing teams usually don’t “just” have the goal of delivering something, but they want something more;
• Commitment and proactiveness.

It is also worth mentioning that a high performance team requires clear objectives. Therefore, it is necessary to have functional, transparent, asynchronous communication with a focus on written culture, especially in this new world in which we work remotely.

Teamwork and leadership

Team performance is achieved when there is good leadership, and each team member works on self-management.

The leader is responsible for managing people and helping team members evolve, while each team member needs to be autonomous and work well with their co-workers.

High performance teams share all their knowledge amongst all the members, so that they can work towards a common goal.

Leadership plays a big part in this process, helping to guide the team, promoting and encouraging high performance, and making sure that the team members are well taken care of.

Lean teams (Headcount x Headquality)

What is the ideal size of a team? How many people should we have on a team to ensure it has maximum productivity?

Smaller teams are more productive than large teams. I can say that I’ve seen teams of three people do the same work as a team of eight in almost the same time and with more quality.

There is no scientific explanation for the difference, but when you have many people, the tendency is that the cost of communication will rise and even then it will not be assertive communication which will lead to waste.

Small teams are more cohesive, better managed and more collaborative. In addition to having a much more assertive and clear communication.

Final tips

• Have cross-functional teams with a horizontal structure;
• Teams with autonomy without external interference, decision-making power with knowledge of the business, error culture and “Fail fast” concept;
• Mono-task concept, that is, start finishing things little by little;
• Motivate the team! Do you know the people on your team? How do you motivate them? How do you help them to grow and evolve?;
• Promote Continuous Improvement and always do better;
• Continuity and regularity will generate results.

Enjoy :)