4 WAYS OF ENHANCING TEAM'S PERFORMANCE ( ETP )

It's a new financial year, performance appraisals must have been done previous year Q4. Productivity bonus came with a cutback; it's obvious for poor performance. The song on the lips of management team is 'We need to improve productivity' Improving productivity whether employee, managerial or technological borders on the people that drive the business or operational systems. These systems are the configuration of activities and resources allocated to individuals, groups or teams, or departments. And more than often the common grid or closed loop  mandates individuals to work as a team.

What is a Team?

Perhaps it is needful I define what a team is for those who have not seen a football team or music orchestra before. I pretty doubt that! Together Everyone Achieves More acronymed as TEAM doesn't define the word.That only emphasizes the resultant of unity of behavioural preferences, diverse personalities, common purpose and connected passion. Unity doesn't come cheap. The product of it is wholesomely attractive. I am yet to see a successful business with just an individual. Someone said it  better: High-performing companies increasingly believe that teams, rather than business units or individuals, are the basic building blocks of a successful organization. Pardon my digress. A team is a group of people organized to work cooperatively for a purpose and a goal within a frame in time. This goal  or the objectives must be well defined and understood, and broken into do-able chunks of tasks- either operational or strategic functions. These tasks become the integral or wholesome parts of the metric for evaluating or appraising individuals or the team's performance. Appraisal is one thing as a precondition to enhancing team's performance. I also often consider building an effective team as a strategy for high-performance of a team.

Effective Team Building

 

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Building a team can be cumbersome for reason of divergent personality compatibility. This can be a damper or danger to team performance and consequentially productivity. You know why? Incessant conflict and friction. Hence, doing the personality assessment of members or employees before joining any team or the company is contributory to the success of the team.You need to know the role you can play in a group. If your company hasn't done that for you, go online and do it yourself. I did mine in 2004. Permit me to recommend Meredith Belbin's team role for behavioural preferences of your team members. This can guide the kind of projects you take up and the role you'd play in a project team.  To know the role each member of your team can play download the Belbin Team Report. 

Recruitment Process,Training and Reorientation

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The professional competency level of the HR team mirrors the crop of staff the company hires. It is simple! That's the Law of Reproduction- everyone reproduces after its kind. HR must choose and develop the team leadership wisely.Certain leadership competencies must be in place for every team leader. This determines or defines the type of relationship the leader has with other members of the group or department, and invariably the team's performance. Some departmental heads have lost high- performing team because they just aren't trained in communication and occupational conflict management. Henri Fayol said," dividing enemy forces to weaken them is clever, but dividing one's own team is a grave sin against the business." Asides other technical training, such reorientations help to complete the competence. To read for 60 seconds on completing your competence, click here. It is also the duty of HR to collaborate with the departments and their respective teams to identify areas of training needs of the subordinates in such teams and train them.However for the reason of cost, the company cannot afford the specialized training outside the company, it is brilliant for the company to institutionalize a learning system within the organization maybe in the form of an academy( train the trainers), knowledge sharing or an online training portal on your intranet or the internet. You can't imagine the magic this will do- enhancing team's performance across board in terms of service delivery. Invest in your human capital yourself if your employer is not a learning company. Eventually it adds up to competence.

Reward System

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Aside Human Capital Development, the organization culture along the direction of reward system( how they reward good performance) must be considered. Individuals in a team can cultivate this culture, too - especially team leaders. I got a lesson on the shop floor from a British septuagenarian boss some years back: touch a person's heart, you'd move the hands to work for you. It has always worked for me. Don't let ego get in the way of getting a better result from your team. If you are quick to find faults in your team members, you also should be generous with praise when they have really performed excellently. Even if they are yet to hit the peak performance, enhance their efforts with ' well done', 'thank you' , 'keep it up' or a pat on the back. Do it sincerely and you will see how better they'd get on the job. Even President Obama ' chops knuckle' on the street. I mean he engages in fist bump. These are a part of non- monetary incentives to reward performance.
As much as the organization appreciates,applauds and rewards individual brilliant efforts which could motivate employee to being innovative or intrapreuneurial, it is cautionary to encourage cooperation or collaboration in order to prevent unhealthy competition,rivalries and unproductive point-scoring among employees or departments. In short, reward excellent group. Publicly in your end-of-the-year party give each member of the group, team or department a Peak Performance plaque. Please don't give one plaque to a team of seven  employees. The question is: Who keeps it?

Tools & Technology Supplies

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If you have worked in the factory before, you'd hear "we're downing tools" or you querried the  double-digit waste rate from a particular machine, and the operator says, " the machine broke down three times today, Sir." Right, functional tools and updated technologies cannot be compromised if you intend upping productivity. They are performance enablers. Or you have given your marketing team a target of getting 50 new customers this quarter. So they are tossed into the hot, scorching sun everyday with no result in the first month. How about ehancing their performance with some marketing automation software with the capabilities of attracting strangers, converting them into visitors to your website and generate more leads and customers for your business. Supply your team with the right tools, appropriate and needed equipments, software  and technologies to enhance their performance. High performance amounts to higher profit and revenue for the business.

Final Word
Effective team building, recruitment process, on-boarding, trainings and reorientation, tools and technology supplies, and many more add up to increase team's morale because they empower the team for better decision making on the job. Their skill sets are broadened invariably, and they also contribute to creating a better working ecosystem.

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