How do you create an environment where a high performing team can thrive?

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Building a high performing team is hard. Maintaining a high performing team is even harder.

I’ve written about building a high performing team: you need to hire thoughtfully, focus on individual and team growth, and prioritize leading your team. These are all specific, targeted actions that a manager can take to build their team.

But keeping that high performing team going requires more than just the manager’s efforts.

In order to attract and retain great talent, you have to create a space where people can grow and learn. Where they feel valued and part of a team. Where they understand what’s expected of them and push themselves to improve. Where they are invested in the team and feel at home in its culture.

One person alone — even if they’re the leader — can’t control all of the dynamics that develop within a team.

However, as the team’s leader, you set the tone. You heavily influence the team culture by what you value, what you reward, and what you penalize.

Put these three conditions in place and watch your high performing team flourish:

• Psychological safety
• Transparent communication
• Team mentality

Psychological Safety

Psychological safety has become a bit of a buzzword in corporate circles over the past few years, and as a result, its definition isn’t always clear and consistent.

Rather than focusing on the definition, let’s focus on what it looks like in practice:

• Encouraging open communication about opinions, concerns, or problems without fear of retribution
• Establishing clear norms and expectations so there is a sense of predictability and fairness
• Creating space for everyone to speak and be heard
• Accepting team members for who they are
• Focusing on lessons learned rather than mistakes made
• Allowing wild ideas to be voiced without ridicule

There’s never any doubt that an employee couldn’t be productive if their physical safety was at risk. Imagine if you asked a team member to give a presentation while walking a tightrope over the Grand Canyon!

Psychological safety isn’t any different. If your team members feel secure, supported, respected, and accepted, they will be free to focus on producing great work, generating innovative ideas, and trying new things.

If you’re not sure whether your team has psychological safety, here are a few things to try:

• Observe team discussions. Are there some people who never speak up, or are frequently talked over? Are some team members shut down quickly when they suggest ideas? Notice the trends and make an effort to address them.
• Check yourself. Have your team members given you constructive feedback on your management style or on the team? Have you led with vulnerability by sharing some of your mistakes and learnings? Do you “play favorites” with your team members? Reflecting on your own behaviors will give you a lot of insight into the state of the overall team. Remember, you model the behaviors for everyone else.
• Ask. If your team members don’t feel safe, they might not answer honestly, but you can try to gather insights or enlist someone external to your team to be an unbiased surveyor.

Transparent Communication

The ability to have an open, honest dialogue is key to any relationship, personal or professional. Clear, transparent communication builds trust and enhances connection.

However, transparent communication can often lead to difficult conversations. Sometimes the honest truth is uncomfortable or not easy to hear. But delivering difficult messages to your team is so much better than avoiding it. They’ll appreciate your candor and that you trusted them with the truth.

A few examples of how you should communicate clearly and transparently with your team:

• What’s happening at the company. At times there will be information that you can’t reveal or aren’t privy to. And you should avoid speaking negatively about the company and its leadership. But organizations go through ups and downs, and it’s okay to acknowledge the challenges. Your team is likely already aware of it. You should also be honest about what you don’t yet know, or aren’t yet able to speak to.
• Role expectations & how to move ahead. Hopefully you’ve already followed my advice on defining and managing performance expectations. A big mistake managers often make is not clearly articulating to their team what success looks like. There are often unwritten rules, or expectations in the manager’s head. If you have an expectation of your team member, they deserve to know it. Additionally, sometimes there are org expectations — for example, maybe your boss’s boss has to approve all promotions, so your team member needs to be more visible or begin networking. Don’t hold anything back — give them the blueprint for success.
• Feedback. You need to master the art of delivering difficult feedback. People avoid giving constructive feedback like the plague. I get it, it can be uncomfortable! But the reality is, it’s going to come to the surface eventually. And it’s much better to directly address areas of improvement early.

Those examples are all top-down communications. To be successful, transparent communication needs to be bidirectional. Your team members need to be transparently communicating to you as well.

This means that you also need to actively solicit upward feedback. It’s not enough to just ask for it. Team members may be reluctant to give critiques. Or they might not have spent a lot of time thinking about your performance. So you’ll need to probe them to get some insights.

You can start by asking questions framed as suggestions rather than criticism. One question I love to ask: “If you could snap your fingers and improve one thing about our team overnight, what would it be?”

The assessment below is another example of how I elicited specific feedback from my team. By asking them to force rank my performance in these categories, and also rank how important it was to them, it allowed me to see how well I was meeting their expectations. (Side note: My team’s feedback from this exercise is what initially helped me to realize how important it was to my team for me to build a clear mission, vision, and strategy for our team.)

Managers should also make space to listen to questions and concerns from the team. Ensure there is enough space for team discussions on challenges, team direction, and the organization. Include team members in brainstorms and strategy sessions about the team’s future.

Asking for input and feedback doesn’t mean that you always have to do exactly what team members suggest or make sweeping changes. The decision is ultimately up to you as the leader. But transparent communication means that you should always be clear about what the decision is and why you’re making it.

Team Mentality

As I often tell candidates during the hiring process: “I’m not looking for solo artists; we’re a band.”

Part of the reason I say that is because it reflects the kind of team I want to lead — collaborative, humble, and supportive.

But the other reason I say that is because it’s an effective way to run a high performing team.

Have you ever heard the proverb, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”?

Teams work best when they work together. If team members are competing with each other, they won’t be helping each grow and they won’t be sharing best practices.

There are times when team members will be in somewhat of a competition with each other. They might be vying for a single promotion spot. You might be dividing up the budget for raises. Some companies require stack-rank ratings of performance. Managers at times have to make these choices.

But as a manager, you also get to set the tone for whether your team members view each other as rivals or partners. Don’t create an environment that feels like a zero sum game.

How can you create an environment where people want to put the team first, and help one another?

• Illustrate the value of team success. Here’s another saying: “A rising tide lifts all boats.” One superstar is impactful; a team of superstars is unstoppable. Consistent success across the team creates a powerful brand. When your team members see the team getting credit and building a strong reputation, they’ll be proud to be part of building it.
• Reward team contributions. Yes, it’s a reality that people are incentivized to do things they are rewarded for. When one team member unselfishly helps another, celebrate that. Include that praise in your feedback sessions. Make it clear that helping to build and evolve the team is part of the great performance that can get you a promotion, raise, or positive performance review.
• Measure individual performance. If you’ve set clear performance expectations, each team member should know what they need to do and which areas they need to develop. They are competing with themselves for improved performance, not with each other. In feedback discussions, never mention other team members as a comparison. Focus on each individual and their journey.
• Focus on development opportunity. If team members are generous about sharing their work and their expertise with each other, it creates opportunity for them to learn and grow. More experienced team members get the chance to coach and mentor others. This requires everyone to contribute, so that all team members can progress.

Conclusion

Maintaining a high performing team requires commitment from you as a manager. You set the tone. You create the conditions. You reinforce positive behavior and prevent bad behavior.

Your team members will be quick to join you. Most people are eager to work in an environment that’s designed to help them thrive. And your team will be on the path to high performance in no time!

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