In today’s episode of the Leader Fluent Podcast, I’m talking about “Five Keys to Build a High-Performance Team.” Today’s episode gives you a very small taste of a brand new coaching cohort I’m launching that’s focused on building highly effective teams. You can learn more HERE. 

If you’re not already a subscriber, I’d love for you to subscribe to Leader Fluent today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Android, Pandora, or your favorite podcasting platform. And as always, your RATINGS and REVIEWS are deeply appreciated. 

Every leader wants his or her team to excel at the highest level possible. But building a high-performance team doesn’t happen just because we want it to. It requires a lot of work and intentionality with five foundational keys. 

Author Jim Collins once said, “If I were running a company today, I would have one priority above all others: to acquire as many of the best people as I could [because] the single biggest constraint on the success of my organization is the ability to get and to hang on to enough of the right people.” 

According to a study released by Leadership IQ, the reason for 89% of job failures is due to Attitude Issues, and 46% of them failed within the first 18 months. But here’s the kicker: 82% of managers in the study said that, in hindsight, the failed hires elicited subtle cues DURING the interview process that they would fail.

So, how do you pick up on those subtle cues that indicate whether a candidate is or isn’t a good fit? You have to create an effective hiring process. Here are three tips to start with:

• Multiple Candidates – Do everything you can to secure multiple candidates to interview. In my experience, only two out ten resumes are actually worth looking at. 
  

• Multiple Interviews – Your interview process cannot be one interview. We use five different interviews including a screening interview, experience interview, deep dive, candidate and spouse interview, and team interview. 
  

• Multiple Interviewers – If possible, involve other members of your team in the interview process. This will help you see the candidate from different perspectives and catch any potential red flags. 
  

Again, there are multiple stages to an effective hiring process, but these three keys will help you get started. 

Onboarding is how you set new team members up for success, and that’s the job of the leader. A good onboarding system should answer several questions including:

• What basic steps does the new team member need to take to be employed here? 
  
• What equipment, software, technology, and training does the team member need to successfully do their job?
  
• What does the team member need to know about their role, expectations, and areas of responsibility?
  
• What do we need to share with the team member about the organization’s DNA to help them successfully acclimate to our culture (things such as vision, values, culture, history, and common questions asked by new employees)
  
• What does the team member need to know to successfully work with their supervisor?
  
• Who do we need to introduce the team member to (including staff, key leaders, and key volunteers)?
  
• What does the team member need to know about our facility and their budget?
  
• What demographics and data would help the team member better understand who we’re reaching, the community we’re located in, and the growth trends of the organization? 
  
• What training, resources, and coaching does the team member need during their first 3-6 months to help them successfully integrate into our culture and maximize their performance on the job?
  

John Maxwell often says, “The only thing worse than training staff and having them leave, is not training them and having them stay.” So, as leaders, it’s our job to invest in our team’s growth regularly and systematically. By regularly, it should be weekly or at least monthly. And by systematically, it might include conferences, coaching, resources, one-on-one meetings, and staff meetings.

No matter how great your team is, you must be intentional about cultivating and protecting healthy teamwork. Teamwork requires a team, and teams are made up of team members. Therefore, for teams to exhibit healthy teamwork, team members must exhibit four ingredients:

• Character – Do they model integrity and spirituality?
  
• Competency – Can they do the job with excellence?
  
• Chemistry – Do they connect well with the team? 
  
• Culture – Do they fit the DNA of the organization? 
  

When a staff member has a gap in any one of these four areas, it will disrupt teamwork. So, what happens when there’s a gap? Both the supervisor and the team member have three responsibilities. 

When a performance gap appears, the supervisor’s role is to create awareness of the gap, provide appropriate coaching, and then hold the team member accountable to get better. The team member’s responsibility is to own the gap, be teachable, and then make improvements.

Engagement and culture have to do with your work environment. So, what’s the difference between an engaged employee and a disengaged employee? An ENGAGED EMPLOYEE has a positive attitude and enthusiasm for their boss, their role, and the organization’s vision, values, and culture. They love what they do and feel an important part of the organization. A DISENGAGED EMPLOYEE has a negative attitude toward the organization, their role, and their boss. They feel unenergized by their work. They punch the clock, but their heart, mind, passion, and energy are elsewhere. 

Clarence Francis, former chairman of General Foods made a great observation about employee engagement. He said, “You can buy a man’s time; you can buy his physical presence at a given place; you can even buy a measured number of his skilled muscular motions per hour. But you cannot buy enthusiasm…you cannot buy loyalty…you cannot buy the devotion of hearts, minds, or souls. You must earn these.” 

Here’s what you have to understand about engagement. In their book, Everyone Deserves a Great Manager, authors Scott Miller, Todd Davis, and Victoria Ross Olsson make a great observation. They said, “Leaders don’t, in fact, create engagement. People choose their level of engagement. Leaders create the conditions for engagement—for better or worse.” 

It’s our job as leaders to model the behavior and create the systems that cultivate a healthy work environment. 

We must also create culture. Culture is the shared values, expectations, and practices that shape what an organization does and how an organization feels. So, what shapes culture? Lots of things do. For example, the leadership you emanate, the wins you celebrate, the behaviors you tolerate, and the language you articulate shape culture. Whether positive or negative, leaders shape culture. 

As you focus on these five areas, I believe you’ll take your team development efforts to an entirely new level.

The “Building a Highly Effective Team” coaching experience includes five-sessions that will help you create an effective hiring process, maximize your onboarding system, invest in your team’s growth, cultivate healthy teamwork, and improve engagement and culture. In fact, here are just a few of the things you’ll learn: 

• The 7 stages of an effective hiring process
  
• The 5 interviews of a great interview process, and the questions to ask during each interview.
  
• How to create an org chart, role descriptions, set compensation, and make hiring decisions.
  
• The 3 characteristics of a healthy onboarding system, and the onboarding checklist to equip new team members for success.
  
• The MAPP system to lead effective one-on-one meetings and provide helpful coaching to staff members.
  
• How to help team members create a personal and professional growth TRAC to accelerate growth and maximize potential.
  
• How to lead effective staff meetings that improve communication, collaboration, and staff development.
  
• How to address conflict, improve teamwork, and foster healthy team dynamics.
  
• A goal-setting template to help staff set goals that are aligned with job responsibilities as well as the organization’s strategic priorities.
  
• The 6 keys to increase employee engagement and 12 ways to create a healthy organizational culture.
  
• How to administer performance reviews that evaluate leadership competencies, job performance, and alignment with team values.
  

PLUS, in each session, you’ll receive in depth training notes, have the opportunity for Q & A, and you’ll receive copies of my hiring process, interview questions, position profile, onboarding system, goal-setting template, performance reviews, one-on-one coaching MAPP, and more that you can CUSTOMIZE TO YOUR CONTEXT.

If you’re a pastor, executive pastor, manager, team leader, or non-profit leader, I want to invite you to sign-up for this coaching experience HERE. 

If you haven’t subscribed to the Leader Fluent Podcast, you can do so today on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, Android, Pandora or your favorite podcast platform. Plus, a RATING or REVIEW will help us spread the word to other leaders. Thanks for your help.