A521.6.3.RB - High Performance Teams

A521.6.3.RB - High Performance Teams

by

Terrance Le Shore

An ePortfolio Blogger Assignment

Submitted to the Worldwide Campus

In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements

of Course MSLD 521, Leadership Communication

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
November 2015

A521.6.3.RB - High Performance

            A team is descripted as a group of people who are interdependent on each in order to accomplish a common goal. High-performance teams are a concept within organization development referring to teams, organizations, or virtual groups that are highly focused on their goals and that achieve superior business results. Companies waste time and resources trying to make a team out of a group of independent workers who think they are doing just fine on their own.

            I feel that I currently work on a high performance and efficient team. My team member’s work to make certain that every member of the team is involved. It is human nature to make judgments about the capabilities, intelligence, and motivation of our fellow team members. But when we do so, we limit the possible accomplishments of team. Every team member has a unique insight or contribution it can make towards team goal achievement. It is the responsibility of each and every High Performance Team member to search out and discover the capabilities of all the other team members.

            Members of high-performance teams trust one another to pull their own weight and get their jobs done to the best of their ability, within the time frames set out. When team members don't trust one another to successfully complete their tasks, time gets wasted monitoring others' working habits, which can take away from other tasks and lead to animosity in the work environment. It is a good idea to give new team members work of greater importance as they get acclimatized to the team and its projects and after they have proved themselves by producing quality work that is less critical to team project goals.

            Clear goals and timetables drive high-performance teams, as does knowledge of professional expectations. To have multiple people work toward a common goal objectives must be clearly understood by all team members, and each person must know exactly what his responsibilities are in relation to the achievement of team objectives. Progress toward goals should be measured at regular intervals to ensure the different elements of the project are progressing together in a timely fashion.

            High-performance team members are empowered by a sense of ownership for what the team produces; they feel they have a stake in the success of team projects. Encourage this by asking for the input of team members in the design and development stages of a project or when major decisions are being made. Including team members when setting goals and objects for a project also can be effective in these respects.

            High Performance Teams take the time to celebrate small victories toward goal achievement. This activity builds a sense of team success as the work of the team progresses. Sometimes, the celebrations are over new team learning's or insights, other times the team celebrate the completion of a small task. Together these celebrations build-up the team's morale and increase the teams determination to achieve the ultimate goal.

References

Abdallah, E., & Ahluwalia, A. (2013, December 12). The Keys to Building a High-Performance Culture. Retrieved November 27, 2015, from Gallup: http://www.gallup.com/businessjournal/166208/keys-building-high-performance-culture.aspx

Denning, S. (2011). The Leader's Guide to Storytelling. San Francisco, California: Jossey-Bass.

Holbeche, L. (2005). The High Performance Organization. In L. Holbeche, The High Performance Organization (pp. 21-22). New york: Routledge.