Photo by Jeff Cadestin on Unsplash

Ask just about any business owner about the most dynamic and challenging aspects of their work and you’ll likely get an earful about managing people. When you, the boss, are aiming high, but your team just can’t seem to manage everything there is to do, it can make highly productive days and goal achievement seem like a distant mirage.

When we regularly have to keep things on-track for our teams, it makes prioritizing working on our business especially difficult. If you’re over-functioning for an often under-functioning team, it may be time to make adjustments.

As business owners, we must be sensitive to people’s needs, recognize and optimize their strengths, and empower them for high productivity. Our focus must be on job performance even when life is, well, messy for us and our team. How you as the leader offer productive guidance and maximize your team member’s individual’s strengths (while not exhausting yourself in the process) really matters for your business’ bottom line.

If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together – African proverb

I’m beyond proud of the consistent high-functioning level at which my small work team operates. (Yay!  Big shout-out and virtual high-fives to Sonja, Shannon, Rita and Team Arco.) Sure, we have the occasional bumpy day (that’s to be expected), but dysfunction seldom drives down our productivity. This enables us to produce a massive amount of results for our relatively modest size and number of hours we work in a week. 

In my own personal project work, Ph.D. studies and consulting to help clients optimize their teams, I’ve identified 5 key elements (there’s so many more) for building-out a high performing team that you can put to use today in your workplace: 

  1. Mindset; critical for everyone, not just the business leader
  2. Hire smart; this is foundational
  3. Cultivate good habits and behaviors; for sustainability and scalability
  4. Develop and utilize proven project management best practices; constantly update your systems and processes, and always be on the lookout for what can and should be evolved
  5. Utilize massively constructive & healthy communication; meet regularly and productively

I hope you can see how focusing on these elements can make a massive difference in your business when you actually implement them. Whoever you collaborate with to make your business hum at maximum capacity, I challenge you to think beyond your current boundaries and stretch yourself to envision what’s possible with a high-performing team. I often remind my BDC roundtable members: it’s easy to get mired in the day-to-day minutiae of working in our businesses; it’s the planners and their team members who get ahead by working on their business. 

Onward,

Erin Joy

PS – Ready to create your high-performing team and get more done in less time with fewer employees? I have a new course coming out that can help you do just that…join my Insiders’ list to receive $100 off the course and be the first to be notified when enrollment opens on September 10!