Thoughts on Building High-Performance Teams

Context for Hiring Effective Teams

Building and leading a high-performance team requires an understanding, first and foremost, of your own personal leadership style.  The best leaders are aware of their strengths and weaknesses, and can identify exactly what the team needs (and what skills they need to hire) to succeed.  That’s where the talent of the team comes into play.

Each team member brings unique skills as a solutions provider to the team.  While some skills can be outsourced, depending on a company’s business model, competencies, and budget, an internal team is built around the talents of the members.  Within a context of the leader’s style and abilities, employees must present their talents for consideration within the following context:

1. Relationships: both interpersonal (within the team) and professional (connection to the organization and to leaderhship personnel).  Does a particular candidate have a prior relationship with your company, your customers or (watch out) your supervisor?
2. Personality/Fit: ability to connect with the boss is key, especially at executive levels.  Personality also goes to the foundation of good team dynamics:  key characteristics include integrity, honesty, work ethic, coach-ability and willingness to take on responsibility/ownership
3. Quantifiable results: For hiring managers, “soft” skills like integrity and work ethic are hard to measure.  Even past performance is no guarantee of future results.  Testing tools help to stack rank employee capabilities, and provide insight into personality traits.   Balancing relationships, personality fit, and measurable characteristics are key to wise hiring decisions.  Rely on testing to confirm or deny your instincts on candidates and team compatability.  Then, tracking performance with scheduled feedback will help confirm your choices, as a hiring manager…or help you to understand when it’s time to make a change.

Finally, all teams exist within a cultural framework.  Creating a culture of open communication, integrity and honesty is the job of the leader.  If team members know that they are supported (as well as measured!) with clear objectives and straightforward feedback, the team – and the company – is much more likely to succeed.

Westfall and Associates

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“I Only Want the Toughest Customers”

Asking for the toughest customers is like trying to pet a shark, or date a nun – you instantly know that it won’t end up well, so why ask for it? I was out to dinner last night with my friend, BigTime.  Surprisingly, he let me know that he only wants the toughest customers.  Say what–?

My friend is one of the best salespeople I know – he deals with an ultra-elite clientele in the Big Apple.  This guy specializes in the demands of high-net-worth individuals with a skill that is both rare, and easygoing.

His customer logic goes like this:  I want only the most difficult customers because, if they even think of shopping me with competitors, I will win every time.  The toughest customers will chew up my competition, and disqualify them right out of the gate, because that’s the kind of service and solutions that my company can provide.  He’s looking for the clients who are so tough and so demanding that other service providers get scared by their demands, and struggle to prove they can meet them.  It’s not a problem for BigTime, and that’s the way he knows a qualified lead.

Interesting perspective.   We bounced the idea around some more, and I came away with some additional thoughts.  If you are faced with a tough customer, thank them for helping you to be better.  If you are taking a beating over something you did, or your company did, or you are about to do, I have two words of advice:  don’t duck.  Here are six more:  Face it, take it, fix it.  It’s that simple.

Face up to the challenge of the difficult customer, and you will learn what it is that you need to know.  For BigTime, he always looks forward to the toughest possible client as the greatest opportunity.  He knows that he can offer what others cannot, that’s why he’s BigTime.  A demanding client, in his business, means that the competition is out of the mix.  The best way to defeat your competition is unequaled customer service.   Disqualify your competition by being the one who doesn’t duck the tough stuff.  When you resolve the really scary issues, you learn, you grow, and you create customers for life.  The only way to know if you have what it takes, is to get started.   If you’d like one suggestion on what you could do today, make up your mind to astonish the most difficult customer you know (and yes, the people you work with are internal customers).  What can you do to make a difference, and show that when it comes to customer service, you are BigTime?

Difficult times show us what we are made of; difficult customers force us to be better and help our companies to demonstrate competitive advantage.

[ The names in this post have been changed to protect the guilty 😉  ]

What to Look for in a Coach

Are certifications the key to finding a qualified coach?  Past experience?  Personal empathy?  Whether you are considering an assist for your personal life or your business, consider the one thing that consistently creates great coaches.

The best mentor or coach is the person who has had to overcome adversity in his/her career, to create great accomplishment.   It’s easy to reach home plate if you start on third base; the best coaches are the ones who had to fight their way out of the dugout, just to get to bat – then, after they lead the league in RBIs, they start teaching others to do the same.  I believe great obstacles make great coaches.  Overcoming obstacles teaches you how to win; effective coaches pass that experience on to others.

Business coaching doesn’t necessarily require a particular certification or objective criteria for a personal and subjective evaluation. Consider instead: Has your mentor or coach achieved what you seek, or can they demonstrate how they have helped others to reach their goals? That track record is more important than any certification, because it is personal to you, and to your needs (or your company’s needs). Plus, a long list of degrees (certifications) doesn’t necessarily mean that the coach will be effective for you (will you get along? can they truly help you and meet your needs? does this individual fit with the culture of my organizations?  certifications won’t tell you that). Experience in the face of difficulty is what matters most, combined with personal rapport. The mentor’s track record of accomplishment should give you the personal confirmation you need.