Every leader would agree that having a dynamic healthy team to help you achieve your business vision and plan is crucial to success. Whether you’re a sale professional, branch manager, owner/operator, or CEO, the people on your team will be calling on you to deliver leadership and direction in the year ahead. What can you do to better answer this call and develop your high performing team?

Consider the following characteristics of a high performing team, along with a few best practices to help you start developing these characteristics in your team.

1. Shared Vision – Everyone on the team knows the leader’s vision, is committed to this vision, and has an ownership stake in the vision. When each team member understands where the team is headed and how their specific role contributes to the goals and vision of the team, productivity skyrockets.

• Put your vision onto paper
• Develop a Vision Communication Strategy to connect your vision to your team
• Allow your team to build on your vision and take ownership of it

2. Healthy Team Culture - In a healthy team, people are recognized for their achievements, committed to decisions and plans, and there is genuine fellowship between team members. A healthy team culture allows your team to make better decisions, not waste time on office politics, and accomplish more in less time.

• Set expectations for a team culture based on trust and healthy conflict
• Recognize individuals and the team for achievements and living out core values
• Create opportunities to connect outside of work

3. Clearly Defined Roles and Expectations for Performance - Team members know what they are supposed to do, how their work supports the team, and how they contribute to the overall success of the team. This in turn leads to greater job satisfaction, commitment, and productivity.

• Identify the roles for your team based on market demands, leadership needs, and your vision
• Lay out job descriptions with performance expectations and success indicators
• Perform Team Assessments using DISC or StrengthsFinder to identify the right person for each role
• Set up a Communication Strategy to introduce the new roles to your team

4. Everyone is Held Accountable – In a culture of accountability the focus is on the personal development of your team and results.

• Establish one-on-one coaching sessions with each team member
• Hold regular formal performance reviews
• Require team members to verbally report on specific projects, goals, and action plans

5. The Leader is an Example – Remember:  people leave leaders, not companies. A leader that walks the talk, cares about his team, and develops his team builds loyalty with his team.

• Work from your strengths-zone and trust others to do the same
• Provide HIGH IMPACT team building opportunities
• Get into the trenches with your team and show them you care

Developing a high performing team is not an event. It is a process. Don’t feel overwhelmed by what I just outlined for you. This process takes time and effort but the payoff can be huge for you and your entire team.

If something I said today resonated with you and you would like help in developing your team in the year ahead, please contact us. We are here to help you and your team increase performance and be more intentional.

EXTRA – If you’d like to hear the January Champions Edge Call where I discuss the 5 Characteristics of High Performing Teams, CLICK HERE.

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

5 Characteristics of High Performing Teams is a post from: Coach Dan Foster

For many, the last few weeks have been filled with goal setting, vision casting, and dreaming about where hard work and success will lead in the year ahead. However, there is one important element of success that tends to be overlooked and forgotten. It has the ability to make dreams, strategies, and goals come to fruition – or to destroy them.

It is the culture you have developed, or will be developing in the year ahead.

Your individual and team culture is defined as…

• Knowing what you value
• Articulating what you value
• Behaving in accordance with what you value

The culture you have right now is a direct result of your response to the definition above. If you’ve never taken the time to think about what values you stand for and what you expect others to uphold, then your culture will never establish a basic identity.

If you have never taken the time to write down your values and share those with your team, strategic partners, and clients, your culture does not have a voice to speak into your strategy.

Finally, if you are not behaving in a way that reflects, supports, and exemplifies your values, then your culture lacks a soul. It is hypocritical and only a matter of time before people leave you for someone they can trust.

If you are truly committed to your plans and goals for the year ahead, take the time to define what culture will mean for you and your team. Your overall success depends on it.

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

3 Vital Elements of Culture is a post from: Coach Dan Foster

At Building Champions we help leaders develop and communicate a vision for where they want to take their business, team, or company in the future. Often we will coach clients who have written a vision and articulated it to their team at a special meeting, but are still struggling to get buy-in and desired results.

Experience has taught me that creating a vision is a fun, exciting, and motivating process for a leader to engage in over the course of a few days. Whereas, communicating a vision requires a leader to be purposeful, intentional, and consistent every day as long as they hold the title of leader. In short, it is hard work and many leaders fail to communicate vision effectively.

If you are a new or experienced leader who has recently cast a new vision, consider these tips to help you communicate your vision.

Remember: it’s not an event, it’s a process. As I mentioned above, communicating vision is not done in one meeting or even quarterly meetings. It’s done every day through different means of communication.

Share elements of your vision in team and one-on-one meetings. These settings provide a great opportunity to talk more at length about your purpose, core values, and mission as a company. Consider taking one core value and have everyone identify the types of behaviors and actions that demonstrate this core value. Setup one-on-one meetings with your team members to share your vision and how you see them being a key part of that vision.

Set up a recognition and reward system for specific behaviors that exemplify your vision. Most employees are worried that their boss will catch them making a mistake on the job. Instead of focusing on the negative, make it a practice for people to call out specific behaviors others are doing that align with your vision. Allow coworkers to recognize each other in meetings. Reward both of them for their efforts to build teamwork and live your vision.

Share team success stories that exemplify your vision. Take the time to update the team on success stories, progress towards reaching shared goals, and awards your team has won for their hard work and customer service. Never underestimate the importance of regular progress updates and team recognition. These are extremely motivating to employees.

Create opportunities for customers to provide feedback on service. Let your team know that you take customer service seriously and that you will be actively seeking the feedback of your customers and sharing it with the team. Share both the negative and the positive and use this as an opportunity to celebrate success or brainstorm on how to change behaviors to improve results. Reward customers who help identify an issue which directly impacts the achievement of your vision.

Publicly display and discuss the key elements of your vision. Your vision has a higher probability of becoming a reality the more you share it with people inside and outside your organization. Talk about it at Chamber of Commerce meetings, with friends, at church, in meetings with other business leaders. Display posters in your office that list your core values, purpose, and mission. Don’t be shy or embarrassed to let people know why you do what you do every day.

Demonstrate the behaviors that support your vision. Look for opportunities to jump in and serve your team. Get in the trenches with them occasionally and demonstrate the behaviors that lead to success. Live out your vision in full view of your team so they know it is more than just words. Help them connect to you and your vision through your actions.

I hope these seven tips have been helpful. If you would like to learn more on how you can develop a vision communication strategy for your team or business please contact me.

Question: How have you communicated your vision in a unique and creative way?

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

7 Tips To Help You Communicate Vision is a post from: Coach Dan Foster

There comes a time in every professional’s career when they consider hiring an assistant. Perhaps its because of rapid success, things start to slip through the cracks, or maybe their schedule becomes monopolized by low-payoff activities. Whatever the reasons might be and if you discover the need is legitimate, consider these six steps to hiring an assistant:

1. Assess if there is truly a need for an assistant. Are the roadblocks to greater success due to a lack of discipline and/or poor priority management on your part? If so, hiring an assistant will not make you change your behaviors. Before moving forward, commit to changing your behaviors and evaluate your progress. If the need still exists then continue with steps 2-6.

2. Review your business vision and business plan to identify the key areas that need your personal attention. Before you hire an assistant it is important to know what areas you will be able to focus on once your assistant is up and running. You will need to be able to explain the key areas and high-payoff activities to your assistant so they know where your and their time should be focused.

3. Reflect on your DISC profile (behavioral style) along with your areas of strengths and weaknesses to identify where your new assistant will best support you and offload low-payoff activities from your schedule. There is a temptation to hire someone with a similar behavioral style to your own because you will speak the same “language”. Look at the type of activities you need to STOP doing and determine what type of behavioral style will excel at doing those types of activities.

4. Create a job description with a clearly defined purpose, vision, set of expectations, and definition of success. Your new assistant should know exactly what needs to be done, the contribution they are making to your overall success, and how they will be evaluated on the work they perform. A simple list of “to dos” will not suffice, dig deep and get clear on what needs to be done.

5. Share the  job description with your coach, friends, family, and perhaps even clients. Ask them for serious referrals. Get feedback on the job description and your goals for working with an assistant. After reflecting on the feedback make appropriate adjustments to your job description and plan for on-boarding your assistant.

6. Commit to hiring the right person for the job. Don’t hire the most qualified or skilled person. Instead, hire the right person that fits your vision, is a match for your behavioral style, and that you can train. The wrong person with the right skills is always a mistake. The right person with an ability to learn new skills and be coached is a recipe for success.

Question: If you have a personal assistant, what would you add to this list?

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

Six Steps to Hiring an Assistant is a post from: Coach Dan Foster

A few years ago, my friend and coach, Barry Engelman shared with me the discipline of creating margin in my schedule. He explained how many leaders fill every moment of every day with appointments and other obligations, leaving very little time to respond to a situation that requires their immediate attention. Barry asked me to imagine reading a book with no margins on the top, bottom, or either side of the pages. There would be just line after line of text from one edge of the page to the other, top to bottom. I told him it would be difficult to read, to remember where you stopped reading the night before, and difficult to take notes on things that were important to you. Overall, it would just be too busy on the page and the reader would feel stressed and uncomfortable trying to read it, I told him. This, he explained is how most professionals live their life at work and home.

Barry went on to explain to me that creating margin in our schedule is a leader’s “ministry of availability” to those they love and serve. A practice that allows professionals to intentionally leave space open in their calender for those unscheduled pop by appointments from a direct report or teammate, responding to email from a concerned client that just needs to vent, or a phone call from a loved one that needs advice or an encouraging word. Having this time allows a leader to go deeper with clients, be more engaged with teammates, and be attentive to their loved ones.

As you look at your calender this week, I want to encourage you to do the following:

1. Analyze your current schedule and see if you have margin.
2. Identify the people and relationships that would benefit from you being more available.
3. Decide where you can create margin in your daily schedule.
4. Commit to providing a ministry of availability at home and at work.
5. Track the results and impact you are having on the people you love and serve each day.

Make it a great day!

Coach Dan

Ministry of Availability is a post from: Coach Dan Foster