Trying to Build a Successful and High-Performing Team? - Here are Three Good Starting Points

I've been in the product development, operations and technology space for almost 31 years now. I've worked for Fortune 50 companies, small start-ups during the "dot-com boom" in the late 90's and a little bit of everything in between. I was lucky enough to start my career with a company that was led by one of the most influential leaders of our time; Jack Welch. General Electric was a breeding ground for great leaders in the 80's and 90's, and I was hoping to be one of them... one day. I don't think I'm perfect at it yet, but one thing is for sure, I have had a lot of first hand experience how not to manage.

For whatever reason, I woke up this morning feeling compelled to write about what I think drives success. I'm not Jack Welch so bear with me. Here goes...

I'm going to align what I want to say with some of the most inspiring "Jack" quotes I remember from my GE days. They've really stuck with me through my career and are still as relevant as ever;

"Face reality as it is, not as it was or as you wish it to be."

It's amazing to me how many managers and leaders still avoid or distort reality. Some, refuse to adapt to new environments and change while others continue to repeat the tactics that had worked for them in the past - regardless of the results they are getting. Some managers refuse to admit failure and are afraid to make mistakes. I've come to realize that in order to build a high-performing team, you need to be honest with yourself and with them. It begins and ends with trust. Teams are made up of people, and people respect honesty and humility. Regardless if your team is made up of seasoned professionals or "Millenial" trailblazers trying to prove their worth, they need to know they can trust their manager and that they can react to and call out the realities they face.

"The biggest cowards are managers who don't let people know where they stand." As managers, it is our obligation to give feedback, good or bad. On countless occasions, I've found myself trying to pick up the pieces of a poorly managed team member. I believe all people want to be successful in their role and it is their manager's responsibility to clear the path and support them towards that goal. There is no "magic" to this. The key here is honest feedback, often. Unfortunately, in most cases, you don't find out about a poorly managed employee until the exit interview or termination. It is disappointing and embarrassing to hear, "I had no idea I wasn't meeting my objectives!" or "I thought I was doing a good job" but it happens all the time. It's crucial that you interact with all levels of your team and determine if they are receiving feedback on their performance. You don't need to create a formal performance review process if your managers are in tune with their team and they've created an open and honest environment. Most importantly, don't ever be afraid to give constructive feedback or comment on "poor" behavior or execution. In my experience, people appreciate this type of feedback more than the positive stuff and they require it to help them grow and learn. Of course, positive feedback is critical as well and it doesn't have to be recognition in the form of a formal "award" or company-wide announcement, in most cases, a simple "you did that very well" in a one-on-one setting goes a long way.

"If you pick the right people and give them the opportunity to spread their wings and put compensation as a carrier behind it you almost don't have to manage them." This is the one I believe in the most. I remember as a first-time manager, I would spend hours preparing my team "dashboard". It was a collection of "productivity" metrics that used to measure the effectiveness of the team. The dashboard included metrics like throughput, hours worked, # of lines of code, revenue generated, features deployed etc. It was no different than the collection of metrics most businesses use to measure "productivity". I was set up to measure everything I needed, or so I thought. What I have come to realize is that traditional productivity metrics are actually "lag" metrics and only paint half the picture. Before I continue on this, let me explain lag and lead metrics... Franklin Covey uses the terms "lead" and "lag" metrics to describe two different types of business measurements. In simple terms, a lead metric measures behaviors or states that influence an outcome. A lag metric measures the outcome. The analogy commonly used to help illustrate the difference is someone looking to shed a few extra pounds. The lag metric in this example is the person's weight itself. Most people looking to lose weight are religious about jumping on a scale everyday to determine the progress they've made towards their target weight, unfortunately, this is a lag metric and doesn't really help them plan and achieve their goal. What they should be measuring are "lead" metrics like, calories consumed per day, fat intake, carb intake or time spent exercising per day. I've come to the realization that although my "productivity" dashboard measured valuable things, it didn't give me line of sight of where I was headed... It was telling me where I had been.

Having led the transition to Agile development at Workopolis, I have become even more aware of the importance of lead metrics. We started measuring things like team velocity, planned interruptions, unplanned interruptions and story point completion ratios to predict our throughput and the number of features we could deliver in a two week cycle. These lead metrics were extremely valuable and provided our team with a view of our capabilities driving better predictability and results however, they were still dependent on the most important lead metric of all - employee engagement. Many managers and leaders still underestimate the importance of employee engagement and culture on team performance and overall productivity. Influential leaders like Richard Branson (founder of Virgin) and Tony Hsieh (CEO of Zappos) believe that happiness is key to success in business. In a Richard Branson post on LinkedIn, he says that "a happy workforce makes for a more successful and productive team". I couldn't agree more.

There are still a lot of people that snicker at the term "work-life" balance or find it odd that companies continue to encourage work-from-home. Some used to say things like "Sally is a hard worker, she is here at 7am and leaves at 7pm". I don't believe I have to prove the point that the number of hours in the workplace is not an indicator of productivity. Some of the most incapable people I have ever worked with spent up to 12 hours in the office, mainly to catch up on what they couldn't do during normal business hours.

Just to be clear, I am not saying that "work time" isn't important - I'm saying, it's a lag metric. You would be far better served focusing on empowering your team, giving them a sense of autonomy, making sure they are in the right role and that they are enjoying what they do. In other words, focus on engagement. "Work time" will look after itself because your team will actually care about what they are doing and how they are contributing to the success of the organization.

At the risk of stating the obvious...

To drive ultimate success in a sustainable way, you need to create an open environment that encourages honesty and is built upon a solid foundation of trust. You need to hire the best people you can find and manage them well by first and foremost, trusting them and giving real and unfiltered feedback frequently and often. You need to help your team by knowing when to get out of their way and when to step in to give them the boost they need. Perhaps most importantly, remember to have fun - measure engagement formally and informally and constantly keep the pulse of the team's emotional state.

If you do this right, you will foster an engaged team creating a culture and environment that encourages innovation, autonomy, extreme business results and overall success. Easier said than done under the real-life pressures of the business world I know, but no one said building a high-performing team is easy. You can do it ;)