Building your high performance team

With businesses looking to enhance market share, increase profits and provide a stable foundation for future growth, accelerating the success levels of your business means not only leading with the focus and determination required to stay ahead of your competition, but surrounding yourself with a team that will drive this through their own desire for personal and collective success.

Obviously, high performance individuals do not make up the entire market. Today, as the best talent is becoming increasingly mobile, and somewhat of a rarity in some industries, the first challenge when looking to build a high-performance team is to determine exactly how to engage the right people.

Before advertising a role, decide on precisely what you require in line with the goals of your business. High performance individuals work best when they can align their personal goals for growth with those of their employer. Ensuring you have a strong and transparent strategy in place prior to going to market means you will only attract those high performers who feel a connection with your company mission.

You should also look to extend your interview process to include scientific methods such as psychometric testing. This will enable you to delve into your potential new hire’s mindset, help you to predict future behaviours and ensure they are on the same wave-length as you.

Learning how to drive your new high performers requires strong leadership to transform a team of high performers into a high performance team. While high performers deliver ongoing outstanding results, their high intensity can often mean they are difficult to manage over long periods and can be more demanding than other employees. To get the best out of your high performers and to build a truly exceptional high performance team, I recommend looking at the following:

Recognise, reward and challenge

Business leaders need to encourage their teams by providing genuine and regular recognition. Build in new goals once existing goals are close to being achieved, provide new challenge and competition, and introduce tangible rewards for milestones.

Set the goal and let them achieve it

High performers often have different and innovative methods of approaching tasks and goals. Don’t trying to manage it, just reign it in, set a clear direction and goal for them, and then step away. Don’t micromanage — let them achieve.

Align business and individual goals

High performers need to strive towards inspiring goals that are achievable but may be just out of reach. Put the company or task goals in place, and then allow your high performers to set their sights on their own personal benchmark, often enabling them to far surpass expectations.

The key thing for employers and leaders to remember when managing this vibrant and evolving group is to recognise the top individuals in your organisation, and tailor programs to inspire them. Understand what drives them, reward their efforts and allow their passion for success to flow throughout the organisation.

Karin Clarke is the Regional Director, Singapore & Malaysia for Randstad. Randstad is a Fortune 500 Company and one of the world’s largest recruitment & HR services organisations. www.randstad.com.sg