How to Build a High-Performing Team and Thrive

The Secret to Building a High-Performing Team and Thriving Business

Sometimes we sound like a broken record, but we cannot say it often enough: that success is in managing your team and not in "doing" the technical work. 

1. Recruit correctly and manage them well and you will build a great team, with great staff morale and great productivity, profitability and a lifestyle with little stress. 

2. Even with the right recruiting, if managed poorly, you will have poor staff morale, poor productivity, profits, poor lifestyle and lots of stress with high staff turnover. 

Poor management of your team will see you constantly dragged back into putting out fires, called working in Quad A (urgent & important) instead of in Quad B (important but not urgent, like training your staff). 

Ok common sense you say. But it's harder said than done. 

Good management is one of the hardest things to do and if done poorly can cause so much damage to so many people around you. Staff, clients/customers, suppliers and shareholders. 

3. It begins with the right person in the right role followed up with micro training, which then reduces the need for micromanaging. 

• Don’t do the technical work, especially if you "enjoy it" because you are in the wrong seat. 

• You should enjoy people, to be a good manager. Get as much management training as you can. 

• Doing the work is easy. Managing staff is a skill and an art and very difficult. It’s not for everyone. But if you want to be successful you have to learn to manage people. 

The How - a good manager plays the "ball" and not the "man." 

Never blame or judge (playing the man). Focus on finding solutions to problems (playing the ball). 

Having difficult conversations

A manager has the ability to "confront" situations and have those difficult conversations and not shy away from them otherwise problems fester and grow into bigger problems. Like reprimanding poor behaviour or discussing an invoice with a difficult client.

"Confront" is not the same as being "confrontational". Having a difficult conversation is made easier by focusing on fixing the problem and not blaming or judging the person. 

Try it. Next time one of your staff makes a mistake (no facial expressions) just focus on fixing the problem. No blaming or judging and see how it turns out. 

If you have a manager who cannot confront situations and is unable to have difficult conversations than they are in the wrong seat and should reconsider whether they should be a manager.  

Often if a person is not cut out to manage people, then even micro training will not help.  

It’s difficult to change a leopard’s spots.   

If a person finds they are constantly surrounded by problems or things are constantly falling around them then it’s a good sign they are in the wrong seat. 

If it's not in their nature, get them out of managing otherwise they will do damage to people around them. 

Very few people are outright bad. Most are just in the wrong seat. However, in the right seat, they are great!

Grinders should stay at grinding. Minders stay at managing, not grinding. Finders should stay in their lane. 

Keep everyone in their lane and bring complementary skills together and watch your team fly. 

Now is the time to engage with advisors who can help you navigate uncertainty and position your business for long-term success. Contact Collins Hume’s Strategy360 today to explore how we can support your business with tailored financial insights and commercial strategies.