10 High Performance Team Traits

There are certain traits that high performance teams exhibit and leaders need to recognize and emphasize to improve the success of their teams. Leaders can encourage high performance out of their teams but it is important to know traits that are exhibited by teams to help nudge team members in the right direction. A high performance team is a unit that acts as one entity while performing tasks with ease and a seamless quality. A team that exhibits such behavior can be said to be in “flow” or in the “zone”. This is commonly witnessed in sports where a player can perform incredible feats that have never before been accomplished. Read the ten traits of high performance teams given by the folks at Talent Dynamics. 

1. Leadership. Instead of ‘I tell, you do’ the team members participate in the leadership of the team.  Each team member reflects the purpose and values of the team.  The team members use their skills and experience to solve problems.

2. Decision making. We make decisions in two ways, reason and intuition.  Both have strengths and weaknesses.  Reason is detailed and slow.  Intuition is sketchy and fast.  Different circumstances require different decision making processes.  High performance teams not only display a balance of both but they also know when each is needed.

3. Communication. Team communication needs to be open and transparent.  The goals of the team are regularly reflected upon, progress is fed back and problems addressed quickly.  High performance teams recognise that each member communicates differently and use the best communication channel for the information AND the team member.

4. Diversity. High performance teams embrace the diversity and difference in the team’s collective background and experience.  This leads to many viewpoints and a greater understanding of problems.  High performance teams use this diversity to make better decisions and create solutions faster.

…More at Traits of High Performance Teams | Talent Dynamics

Leaders can use this list to their advantage and start improving their success today. A high performance team is one that “clicks” and can be very difficult to attain. People are inherently different and diversity is a positive advantage when team members understand their role and responsibility but ego and a whole host of other emotions can impede the achievement of developing a “flow”. Leaders need to recognize when a spirit of competition rather than cooperation crops up and take action to alleviate this tension before it affects output. A team cannot achieve high performance without an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect. Leaders can recognize these ten high performance team traits and emphasize improvement in key areas to increase their own success.