Stop Sucking as a Leader. Do These 6 Things Instead.

Adapted from interviews with James Davermann and several other leaders, here are 6 things you can do to create a high-performance team.

Shifting from an individual contributor to a manager to a leader is extremely difficult. Use this framework to make that transition easier.

Music Credit: Maarten Schellekens - Riviera

Six Steps for Building a High-Performance Team

[00:00:00] Dr. Jim: welcome to today's episode of Cascading Leadership. I am your friendly neighborhood talent strategy nerd, Dr. Jim. And today's episode is gonna focus on the sixth. Steps that you can take to build a high performance team. What we are gonna focus on in this episode is uncovering some of the keys to get your team moving in the right direction.

[00:00:19] Dr. Jim: It's one of the trickiest tasks as a manager or leader of an organization to marshal all of your team members. Fight towards the pursuit or execution of a single goal. And this is our effort at helping leaders within those organizations build a framework that's gonna help them be more effective when it comes to building that high performance team.

[00:00:41] Dr. Jim: So let's get right into it. So the first thing that you can do from a manager or leader perspective is get to know each person on your team at a deep and genuine level. This is not gonna be something that happens overnight, but one of the great ways that you can use your one-on-ones is to help set the stage for building that relat.[00:01:00]

[00:01:00] Dr. Jim: So if you're gonna be very intentional about that, and that's gonna help you advance the ball in terms of building a high performance team. The next thing that you can do is to identify, define, and understand the vision of each person that you have on your team.

[00:01:15] Dr. Jim: Now, this might be a little bit tricky because oftentimes team members might be so wrapped up in the tactical, they haven't really thought about what's the bigger purpose of what they do or what do they want to achieve in the big picture. And it's your job as a leader to go ahead and connect at that level and have them build out a vision for themselves over the next year, two years, five years, and whatnot.

[00:01:38] Dr. Jim: And sometimes this is something that provides a great opportunity for collaboration because it's not. Your job to go ahead and decide the vision for them. It's each individual at the desk needs to determine their vision, because that's gonna be the north star that defines how they move forward in their career.

[00:01:55] Dr. Jim: The third thing that you can do to build a high performance team [00:02:00] is based on the vision that each person at the dust level has. You should be collaborating and building a detailed and tailored action plan that ties to that personal, professional vision of that team member. That should be a collaborative exercise.

[00:02:16] Dr. Jim: And this should be something that's you're, doing every year. Each, like an element of your one-on-one needs to be focused on how are you tracking against those personal professional goals that's tied to the vision that individual has? When it comes to team dynamics you're, managing and leading a group of individuals that have their own agendas and their own things that they want to accomplish.

[00:02:40] Dr. Jim: And if you're not tuned into how that ties into the bigger picture or if you're not tying that into the bigger picture essentially getting to the why of what is it why we do what we do. There's a big opportunity that you're missing when it comes to your team effectiveness efforts. Fourth thing that you can do is you need to [00:03:00] have a clear view into what does the resourcing within your organization look like, and from a resourcing perspective, you should be regularly engaging with.

[00:03:10] Dr. Jim: Your team to find out what they need, what's getting in the way, what can be done differently where's the support that you could use to get you more effective? That should be a regular part of your conversation with the intent of providing to the extent that you can, the support that's necessary to excel in the function that you're in.

[00:03:31] Dr. Jim: The fifth thing that you can do is. Lead with trust. That sounds pretty straightforward, but here's how you erode trust. If you're focused too heavily on the tactical, on the inputs instead of the outcomes you get pigeonholed or put into that bucket of a micromanaging leader, and that's not where you want to be.

[00:03:52] Dr. Jim: The conversation should be focused on, Hey, this is where we want to go. What's getting in the way of you getting to that [00:04:00] goal? If you're spending too much time focused in on the Inputs, the calls, the emails the, all of that granular, tactical stuff, and you're looking at it as an input output equation.

[00:04:12] Dr. Jim: You're not going to move very far in terms of getting that team built the way that you need to build it for, optimal results. The idea. Is to lean in to the creativity that each person on the team has and encourage them to figure out the solution that gets them to the goals that they want. So make sure you're focusing in on that.

[00:04:39] Dr. Jim: You hired these folks for a reason. You got excited about hiring them for a reason. So once they're in, the. Keep that in mind so you're not missing out on tapping into all of that potential that you saw during the interview process, and that's rooted in a trust-based leadership and management style.

[00:04:59] Dr. Jim: The sixth [00:05:00] thing that you can do is you should regularly be doing temp checks and pulse checks on, Hey, what are the things that we can be doing to help you? Your capabilities, what's the next thing that you want to achieve in your career? And how can we put you in a position to get some experience doing that thing to, move your career forward?

[00:05:21] Dr. Jim: So when you look at being intentional about identifying stretch opportunities that should be a regular part of your conversation. So when you look. Solving or answering the question, how do I build a high performance team? A lot of it is rooted in in what are you talking about During your one-on-ones?

[00:05:39] Dr. Jim: To recap, if you're looking at building a high performance team, the six things that you need to do, one. Know and understand everybody at a deep and genuine level on your team. Two, you need to identify, define, and understand each person's vision.

[00:05:52] Dr. Jim: Three, you need to be able to build a detailed action plan that is tailored to the vision that each person at the [00:06:00] desk has. Four. You need to be keenly focused on proper resourcing and making sure that everybody on the team has the resources that they need to be successful. Five, you need to lead with trust.

[00:06:10] Dr. Jim: Remember the reasons that you hire. The, people onto your team. Those are the same reasons that you want to lead with trust and trust them to figure out how to get to the outcome. And if they're stuck have an open door policy so that you can collaborate in working through those those blockers.

[00:06:26] Dr. Jim: And last but certainly not least six, you need to identify and be intentional. About deploying stretch opportunities that will get that team member to the next level in their career. So those are the six things that you can do to build a high performance team. Let me know what you think of that framework.

[00:06:44] Dr. Jim: The things that we've seen time and time again prove out to be very successful. Thanks for joining us on this episode of Cascading Leadership. We hope you enjoyed the, show. Make sure you leave us a review.

[00:06:57] Dr. Jim: And subscribe and follow us on all the, all of [00:07:00] the different platforms where you can find the cascading leadership handle tell a friend. We'd appreciate your support as we continue to grow our show and continue to help more and more people move their careers further faster. Until next time we're looking forward to hearing your thoughts

[00:07:16] Dr. Jim: on this episode.

[00:07:16] Dr. Jim: And until then, we'll talk soon.

[00:07:18]

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Stop Sucking as a Leader. Do These 6 Things Instead.

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Six Steps for Building a High-Performance Team

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