[2025] Building High-Performing Teams: Masterclass

Before we get into the nuts and bolts of team building, let's look at how and why it's important for you to understand the role your personality and leadership style have on the overall success of the team.
It goes without saying that as a leader, your behavior and demeanor will be judged so it's helpful for you to understand how you appear to others or how you show up.
Knowing how you show up to your team is as crucial to success as knowing what to do with the team.

As a leader, your job is to use your personality and skills to help transform a group of individuals into a functioning team.
The best thing you can do to improve your chances for success is to become more aware of what drives you and your own decision making.
Several sources name high self awareness as one of the strongest predictors of leadership success.

One of the best-known team development theories was developed by Bruce Tuckman, who suggested that teams evolve through a series of stages, beginning when they're formed and ending when they split up or complete a project.
He identified four distinct phases of team development: forming, storming, norming, and performing.
Let's start with the forming stage.

In This Section we will review the storming phase

After passing through the ups and downs of the storming segment, a team enters the calmer waters of the norming stage.
Here the group begins to look and act like a team with an identity, maybe even a nickname.
Because a shared vision has been achieved, team morale is likely to be high at this point.

Performing is all about high level implementation as the team works towards being the best it can be.
A performing team is characterized by noticeable harmony among the members, high levels of productivity, effective conflict management, appropriate pivoting, and maximum development of potential, both of the group and the individuals in the group.
If the stages were factors in an equation, then a plus b plus c would equal d, with d being the performing stage.

Natural teams, also called work groups, are built around a common product, process, or service.
A customer service department is an example of a natural team.
So is the mix of people responsible for giving you a good experience at a restaurant, as are assembly line operators, or the people who work in a regional sales office.
 

Cross-functional teams are made up of people with varying expertise, experience, perspective, and background.
It might include representatives from accounting, human resources, marketing, production and engineering and sales.
They're all working on a common goal, problem or objective, such as how a new computer system will impact each department.
 

A virtual team is a group of individuals often spread out across different time zones, from different cultures, with different languages, who are united by a common goal.
In fact, one study found 79% of knowledge workers were occasional or frequent members of a virtual team.
And overall, about 46% of organizations use virtual teaming.
 

An effective mission statement clearly, and concisely, communicates the purpose for your team's existence.
It motivates people to take action and guides their decisions.
It's your team's source of inspiration, and lets others know what you're team's trying to achieve.

Your team likely fits one of two categories.
Either it was pulled together for a specific project, and has a limited lifespan, or its work is ongoing.
Both kinds of teams benefit from a transparent performance evaluation system.

You know, like it or not, meetings play an important part in your team's development.
If it's true that opportunity plus preparation equals success then how you prepare for meetings contributes a great deal to their success or failure.
Successful meetings are opportunities for attendees to share key data, brainstorm, problem solve, and build relationships.

So, your meeting is set to begin soon.
You've developed an agenda, sent pre-meeting notifications to attendees, and planned the overall logistics.
You're all set, right? Well, no.

Action plans make your teams work more deliberate, requiring a clearly defined problem and an objective to pursue.
Having a written plan with the tasks to accomplish this helps minimize distractions while offering team members an objective way to hold each other accountable as they work toward their targeted goals.
The goals are the destination and the plans are the vehicles you board to get to the destination.