New-Highest Performing Teams: A Potent Combination of 12 Proven Team Best Practices!

A lot has been written about the value and virtues of truly, 

actually high-performance teams. The following does not come

from what I have read, but what I, my colleagues, and client

CEO's and their teams have lived and done over time.

This list cherry picks, absorbs, includes all the best from all

the best, and is our current model used with clients, as recent-

ly as...last week, with  leadership teams of a Fortune 200 com-

pany. 

Teams are like fingerprints – no two of them are the same. 

Their size, scope, structure, mission, timeframe, constituents,

 stakeholders, stakes, cost, financial upside, business criticality,

 etc., are as varied as a chef's spice rack!  However, each of the

 following super-principles apply across team demographics 

 and psychographics. 

                 Don't get me wrong, most of the time you cannot find all 12

                 of these concurrently operative in a team, but to be a HIGH-

                 PERFORMING team, it helps to get out of one's own way! 

                 That is why the highest of the high-performing teams are re-

                 latively few in number. But oh, the wake they make!

 One other quick point: I am assuming for these purposes that

 the basic, already okay to pretty good team is in place that has

 the raw materials to qualify for big-time performance, like 

Collins said: 1) the right bus, seats on the bus, and persons in

 the right seats. I will leave it to other articles how to get to

 "pretty good." The brain and brawn I am assuming are there.

 The raw materials are in place, including time and necessary

 capital resources. If any of the above are not in place, “Do not

 pass go; do not collect $200!” Go get those qualifying resources!

This article does not fit for that team yet! 

1. Think and Be ONE TEAM: not we-them.

Division is defeating and self-depleting. True, there is no“I” in 

teamwork, but also there is no “his”; there is a “we” in

teamwork, but you have to work to find it. The petty, siloed,

provincial, parochial, selfish, fiefdom stuff can be rationalized

by the mediocre teams that justify and defend their positions

of non-greatness, who die for, or at least staunchly defend

their short-sighted comfort zone in the Land of Average or

Pretty Good. They have become numb to the agony of defeat. 

High-performing is sacrificed on the altar of selishness. Sorry 

to be blunt, but I have seen too many of these! Being one com-

pany,one team, has a price, but it is the entry ticket to high

 performance!

2. ONE/SAME – One Vision/Message; Same Playbook/Page

Proverbs says that “Without a vision, the people perish."

Another translation uses the verb “run wild.” It makes sense:

For the human body to walk, all of the body's parts must work

in total, spontaneous coordination, governed by the unifying cog-

nitive signal under a unified vision: “Walk!” So there cannot be

blurred vision, double vision, or no vision. Just one governing

vision! Accordingly, the playbook is written according to that

 vision. And at any given moment, every team member must

 be on the same page! Hence, “ONE and SAME!”

3. ALIGNMENT: Vision/Roles/Responsibilities/

Accountability

With this Vision, alignment must follow, cascading like a spinal

 cord from brain stem like a reinforced bar straight and tall.

 Each person's roles and responsibilities must be crystal clear

 under this vision, and they must embrace it and whole-heart-

 edly dispatch their best efforts accordingly, and be accountable

 to him-/herself and colleagues/team for results. It is so simple

 and clear when done in good faith; and it is so murky and un-

 tenable without clarity and ownership.

4. COMPELLING CULTURE: Open/Honest/Respect/

Pro-Active...

You know it when you see it: teams with championship cul-

tures! They are open and honest, welcome constructive criti-

cism, freely admitting mistakes, and they are naturally motiva-

ted and hard working. Morale and energy is high. They perform 

smoothly under pressure. They look out how to help each other,

how to recover together. It is "we succeed or we fail as a team",

not as an individual. No member should feel great in being

league MVP if they have a poor team or if he scores 40 points

but the team loses!

5. EASY TO DO BUSINESS WITH: Flexible

In a high-performance team each individual and the group cul-

ture is flexible in attitude, style, and work mode. A good client

friend of mine is a retired US Army Colonel, who said that the

most intricate, cross-functional and scenario planning is done

before battle, but immediately after the battle begins, they fly

into rapid-fire change and adjust mode. Why? The actual bat-

tle never happens exactly according to plan. These are rigorous,

highly trained, and disciplined, great  military leaders, but don't

hold onto their preconceptions. They hone their skills of 

adaptability and adjustment. This is not a lack of discipline, but

 rather a strategic understanding of the mission objective, with

prompt, pinpoint calibrations made accordingly. High-perfor-

mance teams work that same skill well!

6. 100% 1/1 LINKAGES: No Intra-Team 1/1

 Dysfunction/Breaks

That verity about the chain being only as strong as its weakest

link is significant in its relevance to highest performing teams.

Each team member is linked 1-1 with every other team 

member. If one of those links is broken, it affects the perfor-

mance of the team. For example, if a point guard, responsible

for setting plays and making passes, hiddenly resents the high-

est percentage and brilliant scoring function of his or her power

forward, and makes 3 or 4 unnecessary passes to other players

out of that imperceptible jealousy, those 1 or 2 misses

instead of makes could be a hinging point in a 2-point loss. The

highest performing teams have members who manage them-

selves higher than their private, selfish motives for the greater

work and result. Their individual stat sheet is secondary. This

edge is often imperceptible, a real  x-factor, yet no less real

and powerful!

7. TEAM LEADER Criticality

The saying goes: “a fish stinks from the head down.” That is by

way of saying that a poor leader undoes surrounding potential

and greatness. Poor leadership can grab defeat out of the jaws 

of victory. Strong leadership coalesces the team, often times 

entering a tenuous or dangerous situation to pull victory out of

the jaws of defeat. There are few things more demotivating

than a leader who is not up to the quality of their team. He/she

may be jealous, insecure, a politician, not a performer, weakly

skilled technically, or lacking those necessary project and 

people skills that are critical to building and sustaining peak

performance.

 Executives, pick your team leaders wisely! Or

even better, do what Israeli military soldiers have done at key 

points in history – elect their own leader – the one they will fol-

low, live and die for. Now THAT is a high-performance team 

mind-set and cultural practice. My friend Moshe said that is

 how he came to be Captain of his Israeli unit. It resonated with

 me – he is one you would pick first to be in your foxhole.

8. UP-LINE EXECUTIVES – Support/Backing

To keep the yiddish theme going, “Oy Vai!” How often does 

senior management really mess up an otherwise highly-

performing team! As an outside consultant working with 

CEO's and leadership teams, it is my bound duty to feed back

privately when I believe it is the CEO or the leadership team 

that is getting in the way of great performance. This is not

something they want to hear. They “kill messengers” for

doing that kind of thing. However, I feel it is my moral obli-

gation to allow my “firability index” to hit the red-zone, or I am 

not doing my job. Who else is in a safe position to tell the king

he is without apparel? The higher one's elevation in a com-

pany, the more they need to check with their people: “How

am I doing? How can I or we support you better? Where

are your frustrations? How can I help you achieve and main-

tain peak performance?” You may think this is unlikely. Sta-

tistically, maybe. Actually, there are good and great leaders

who lead this way. No wonder their teams win championships!

      9. NO RUN-AWAY TEAMMATES

This point is clear -- it bears the least need for amplification.

But the angle is not about the 1/1 relationships that are critical,

or the leader or upline or group culture that are key enablers

to super performance. It is about the “gun-slinging cowboy

or cowgirl" who, like the bull they ride, tears up the war room

and the project by their lack of discipline, obliviousness, 

independence, immaturity, or out of control ego. That kind of 

person needs to be coached from the get-go, on a “measured

mile” of clear behavioral expectation, and taken off the team

if they will not be a complete, contributing, compatible pro-

fessional. 

There are the reckless firebrands who move the team 2 feet

forward in energy and 3 feet back in reckless disregard for

others. Or there may at times be the over-hardened veterans

whose advanced cynicism of “been there, done that, it doesn't

work” is so set in stone that they sink the team in negativity –

3 feet forward in great experience and knowledge, 4 feet back-

ward in the battery-acid effect poured down the pipes

of the aspiring high-performance team. They would better be

by themselves on their own, behind their moat surrounding 

their fortified castle of Itwillnotwork. It is such a shame when

super-talented, knowledgeable, experienced people cannot or

will not play inspiring, all-in team ball. Forget about winning,

much less championships, in that scenario.

    10. “EDGE” BEST PRACTICES: Individual/Team/

Informal/Formal  

This is another obvious point, but the key is proactively and

aggressively doing it! I use the word “Edge” not as in “bleeding

edge” but “leading edge." Best practices are about a mind-set

for perpetual improvement, determination to look through-

out the company, the industry, the best companies in the

world and see how they do it. Learn, review with the team,

and apply what helps. Even more basic, and no doubt every 

reader's experience, is the need to get the timely, exact train-

ing and development, formal or informal, individual or group,

 to meet a need, fill a gap, or shore up a lack on a timely basis.

Again, this item is an attitude, a consciousness and habit to 

continually look, learn, and improve.

    11. TIGHT COMMUNICATIONS

There are several helpful articles in this series on Communi-

cations best practices, and I will not repeat them here. The

high-performing team needs to establish, as needed, daily, 

weekly, monthly, quarterly, annual, etc. best channels (e-mail,

telecon, voice mail, meeting, report, text message, etc.). Practice

the agreed upon methods consistently and well. Communica-

tion is the life blood of the team. If it flows well, the team

and its performance can excel. If there is poor circulation,

performance is directly affected. Always ask yourself and

yourselves, how can we communicate better? Be specific. 

Be responsible and accountable, individually and as a group!

    12. ULTRA-EXECUTION: Higher/Faster/Better/

  Morphing/Repeating

Since 1987, I have either been running companies or consul-

ting companies. Over time I have developed this philosophy:

5% of the final grade is Planning; 95% of the final grade is Exe-

cution! Without execution, the great DNA and preparations of

the team go unrealized and unrewarded. With crisp, timely,

accountable, measurable implementation, plans are “hard-

wired” to results! Give me a pretty good plan executed bril-

liantly over a great plan executed in a mediocre way! Cham-

pionship teams consistently master and mobilize the game plan 

through doing the basic, building block methods and proce-

dures better than anyone else! Consider these 12, and do them. 

The results are so real and bankable, as to be exhilarating! 

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