Success and high performance can be considered intangible and subjective concepts. But when embarking on developing an article of this nature, it’s necessary to clearly define what being a high-performing digital team means. While definitions may vary according to who you ask, basically, such a team is the one that achieves the results for which it was created and designed to achieve. The objectives, processes, functions, and roles of your team are the variables you must consider.
For great teamwork, these four things must be perfectly aligned. However, these variables will depend on the team’s synergy generated, so people’s attitudes toward the team’s needs will be fundamental. It’s important to note that people’s relationships aren’t always easy and rarely meet rational criteria.
Research indicates that the personality of each individual member plays the most significant role in digital team synergy, despite other factors such as motivation or education level. Thus, the personnel selection process has a major influence on the working atmosphere, which will ultimately directly impact the remote team’s success.
People with different personalities, views of life, and ways of working are often necessary to execute different tasks, functions, and roles. If you want everyone to perform at their best, you must be prepared to place different demands on everyone and to live with different personalities (In this sense, you can find indices to measure how your team’s performing, and even how you’re performing in life)
You need to ensure that everyone is doing what they do best so that one team member’s strengths can compensate for another’s weaknesses. This approach helps the remote team grow, and the members complement each other, resulting in a properly functioning group that can achieve the previously defined objectives in the best possible way.
Naturally, the group’s leader should devote time and effort to the well-being of their people, know how they feel, understand what can be done to strengthen them, and even try to anticipate future conflicts. From this analysis, we identified a starting point for developing the five most important processes that a high-performing digital team must follow:
Table of Contents
Leading by example
This leadership style is based on behaving the way you want your team members or company to behave. When you lead by example, you encourage your team members to achieve excellence and you demonstrate that excellence yourself. Leading by example is about helping employees solve problems and building key values like connection, camaraderie, and trust. Asana says that a manager who leads by example has these qualities:
- Commitment to all projects
- Puts the well-being of their employees first
- Avoids excessive supervision (or micromanagement)
- Allows for flexibility
- Actively listens to comprehend requirements
Furthermore, Forbes states that the key to being a positive leader is to help employees find their purpose in the company and each project. It’s essential to ensure that the teams are highly motivated and giving their best effort every day.
The article also says that the leader must find better strategies to gain the trust of remote employees since this method doesn’t have physical interactions, which are often crucial for making what you do or say seem credible. To overcome this obstacle, you must consider the following:
- Don’t make empty promises.
- Use two-way communication by providing feedback and listening to your team’s needs.
- Celebrate individual and group achievements.
Onboard the right team members
Finding the proper people for the job is the first step in creating a high-performing digital team. Each team member should have the skills needed for their role, complementing the strengths and weaknesses of the rest team members.
A mindset aligned with the company’s culture, an innate desire to work as a team, and previous experience working in a digital team are all critical factors when considering prospective team members. Additionally, a predisposition to change and innovation is also desirable.
Moreover, when making rules for great teams, you should know that many studies say that the best teams have 4 to 9 members. The team will be less diverse with fewer people, but with too many people, the team won’t be able to work effectively. It truly is a balancing act.
Define clear and measurable objectives for each member and each team
Team members should have a clear understanding of their activities and objectives so that they can focus their time and effort on achieving these measurable goals. It’s essential to measure and analyze the group’s actions to know if the activities being carried out and the decisions being made are the right ones for achieving the objective. However, you should never fall into micromanagement, which is the most effective way to break down a good team dynamic.
Why is it essential to have clear roles?
To be successful, each team member must understand their role, but they also need to understand their autonomy. This can be achieved by having personal goals that add up to the group goal. Although there may be some ambiguity between roles, each person must understand their role in the team.
To achieve this, it’s essential to outline each person’s role and processes with precise logic, and assign them specific functions or deny others. A clear role definition will curb friction among members.
Create a positive working environment by encouraging people to talk to each other
Communication that is swift and agile facilitates decision-making and prevents misunderstandings. Since conflicts are inevitable in any work process, it’s crucial to establish how you will communicate from the beginning and who the decision-makers are. Any disputes must be addressed immediately, to prevent a minor disagreement from becoming a long-term rift within the team.
Creating harmony within the team will help everything run smoothly. To do this, your teams should take a collaborative approach to discussing problems, ensuring that all members are involved in the new agreement. This characteristic is what distinguishes high-performing teams from others.
How to get everyone involved?
You can only achieve high performance and productivity when commitment is sincere and individual, but with team members with a global perspective. The feeling of being part of a team, valued, and working together towards a goal creates motivation and happiness in employees, which in turn makes them more efficient.
Invest in team development
When wondering how to build a high-performing team, keep in mind that team development is a factor that enhances the team’s skill set. It helps employees feel they can expand their careers without leaving the company. Focusing on your team’s future and investing in its growth is the best way to retribute its efforts.
To recompense their value, you have two options: you can train them in new skills or offer them more leadership roles where they can share new ideas or points of view. This final approach will help you make certain decisions more horizontally within the company. On the other hand, training your staff will enhance and improve their skills, giving them the tools and confidence to tackle new tasks. This will make them more committed to your company and, as a result, more likely to stay, increasing your talent retention.
Now that you have these five things to pursue, if you want a high-performing digital team, we invite you to rethink which of these you are currently implementing in your business and which you should start implementing asap. Regardless, leading by example is always the most important step to initiate a healthy revolution in any company, and we invite you to start with that.
