It's pretty common to hear that managers are responsible for the team's top performance, isn't it?

But we managers know how difficult it is to make everyone work together without much fuss. Especially when you have someone with unique characteristics on the team, your job can become a little more tricky.    

And one thing we need to accept is that high-performing teams do not occur by accident. You have to make it happen with consistent efforts.     

From my experience over more than a decade of managing multiple teams, I have listed the 11 effective ways to improve team performance in this article. By implementing these suggestions, you can make improvements in team performance.         

11 Ways to Improve Team Performance and Productivity

There are certain elements associated with all high-performing teams. For example, team members of a high-performing team communicate well, know their roles clearly, trust one another, support each other, and have effective leadership. Without having these elements in your team, it is hard to make it high-performing. 

Here are the 11 ways you can make sure that your team is performing at the best of its potential: 

1. Delegate Efficiently  

The goal of working in a team is to increase productivity. This can happen only when you delegate the tasks right. Not all team members are equal and have the same interests and skills. While delegating, you need to delegate tasks based on the team member’s strengths and skills. This will ensure you are best utilizing their skill set.   

How to Delegate Effectively

• Decide on the tasks you can delegate because not every task can be delegated.

• Understand the strengths and skills of your team members.

• Define the desired outcome of tasks. Clearly define what you want to accomplish.

• Provides necessary resources and authority to ensure the team member can complete a task.

• Maintain open communication with team members for suggestions, feedback, and easy access.

2. Communicate Effectively

The role of a leader is to provide guidance. And you might be surprised to know that 70% of corporate errors occur due to poor communication.

Communicate clearly and effectively with context. It helps team members understand their roles, business objectives, and project requirements.         

Another survey shows that not communicating with a leader when unclear on a task is the most likely trait of underperforming teams. 

Make sure you have open channels of communication. Create a psychologically safe environment where anyone in the team can come to you with issues. 

How to Communicate Effectively

• Use clear tone and easy-to-understand plain language.

• Make sure whatever you say does not lead to confusion.

• Ask questions to confirm others have understood what you said.

• Actively listen to build an understanding.

• Improve your communication and storytelling skills.

3. Don’t Micromanage 

"A good manager trains and delegates." - Karen Dillon 

If you want to improve your team performance, you need to ensure your team takes accountability. This can happen only when you have communicated goals, given responsibility to the team members, and let go of the tendency of micromanaging. You need to trust your team members and hold them accountable. 

You may feel things can be done easily by jumping in, but let your team fail and understand their responsibility. This will reap good returns for a long time.   

How to Stop Micromanaging

• Reflect on your behavior and truly define the tasks that want your involvement.

• Prioritize the high-value tasks where you truly add value.

• Trust your team members with their strengths and skills.     

• Ask your team how much, in what areas, and how frequently they want you to pitch in.

• Set back slowly but be available when your team needs support.

4. Clarify Role and Tasks 

Do you know that only 50% of employees have clarity of what is expected of them at work? Your employees can perform to the expectations only when they know what is expected from them. 

Clearly define each team member's roles and responsibilities. Make them understand how their work is connected to the other team members. This will help them gain an understanding of the role and build accountability.

How to Clarify Roles and Responsibilities

• Define the team goals and objectives.

• Assess the skills and knowledge of team members.

• Use the RACI matrix to clearly define responsibilities.

• Document the role and its responsibilities.

• Communicate to the team members what is expected of them.

5. Provide Support and Training

Bernard Marr, the author of best-selling books, says, “Team performance is the confluence of ability and motivation.” This means an employee should have the ability and necessary motivation to perform well in the job. 

If you think your team’s performance is lacking due to skills, provide employees with training to help them perform better on the job. This also adds to the professional development and growth of an employee which can add to the employee motivation.  

How to Provide Training to Employees

• Identify training needs. 

• Decide on the training material and methods.

• Try peer training.  

6. Give and Solicit Feedback

There is no better way than feedback to improve. It provides you with the opportunity to address any concerns you have with your team. Not just concerns, good feedback is also equally important as constructive feedback. It tells employees about what they are doing well and indicates that management cares about it.           

 Don’t forget to solicit feedback from team members. It allows you to reflect on what can be improved related to business processes, leadership style, company environment, or anything that affects their work. 

How to Give Feedback

• Clearly define the purpose of the feedback.

• Be specific. Do not use confusing language. 

• Be empathetic while delivering feedback.

• Give feedback on the appropriate time.

• Give employees time to understand, adapt, and act on the feedback.

• Offer genuine support to help employees.

• Take follow-up to ensure the effective change.  

7. Give Recognition

83.6% of employees feel that recognition affects their motivation to succeed at work.

Wherever due, give recognition to the team. It need not be an achievement; even their efforts can be celebrated. This will give a sense of satisfaction to employees that someone recognized their efforts. And when employees’ hard work is recognized, it encourages them to repeat the action.             

How to Recognize Employees

• Appreciate efforts in public.

• Do not wait for the monthly meeting; recognize it immediately. 

• Give rewards with meaningful gestures.  

8. Make Decisions Together

When you are facing challenges with team performance, making decisions in silos is not a great approach because it is about the team, not personal, individual goals. Sit with the team together, have empathy, ask about their challenges, and find solutions. Involving team members in discussion results in bringing perspectives to the table that you may not have thought of yourself.  

How to Make Better Decisions 

• Seek input from team members who are actually facing challenges.

• Analyze the available information, think critically, and make decisions.

• Analyze risks before making any action.

• Take responsibility and accountability for the decision.

• Communicate the rationale and objective behind the decision.       

9. Have a Purpose

Research by the CIO found that creating more meaning for employees in their work boosts motivation by 55%, loyalty by 42%, and pride by 32%.

Without a defined purpose and the identity of a team, it is hard to put on a significant performance. It is because you do not know what you stand for. 

Define what your team is known for and make efforts to achieve it and build that brand image. This will give your team a sense of pride and purpose while working. 

How to Build Purpose  

• Identify what really matters to you.

• Align the purpose with organizational goals.

• Support people to achieve purpose.

10. Pursue Clear, Attainable Goals 

A team should have a set of measurable goals if you want to improve performance. This is because having clear goals helps them understand what they need to do, how much time they have, and what is the benchmark acceptance criteria. This enhanced clarity brings accountability. 

While setting goals, make sure you set attainable goals based on the team's capacity and individual strength. Setting unrealistic goals means no matter how good a team member performs it is unattainable. This will be of no use.  

How to Set Attainable Goals 

• Clearly define the "why" of each goal.

• Use the SMART framework to set goals. This stands for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-Bound.

• Break large goals into small goals.

• Set milestones to track progress and celebrate little achievements. 

• Track progress, evaluate data, and make improvements based on the performance.

11. Use the Right Tools 

Do you know that 80% of businesses have been rethinking and retooling company processes to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic?

Sometimes your team’s performance is hampered due to poor processes and a lack of the right technology. In that case, you should invest in improving business processes and the right tools to allow your team to work together effectively and efficiently.

How to Choose the Right Tools and Improve Business Processes  

• Evaluate the existing processes and tools you use.

• Involve key internal stakeholders and team members in identifying the changed business needs and finding the right solutions.

• Choose the tools and redefine business processes that support your business needs. 

Conclusion

Making a high-performing team requires creating a psychologically safe environment where everyone feels free to express themselves. It is the leader who is responsible for bringing out the best in the team. You need to know your team well, create systems and processes to support teamwork, and establish values that encourage people to work together effectively. 

I hope the above-mentioned 11 ways help you improve your team’s performance and productivity.