Having a high performing team is not just about having the most talented individuals, it’s about having the right mix of skills and abilities, with the right attributes and personalities. Plus, ensuring that you are equipping the team for success with the right tools and tech, guidance and structure, and support from within the businesses other departments.

Whether we’re talking about the sales team, the marketing team, the finance team, or a field-based service team or any other, having the right people in the team at the right time is critical. Shortfalls in talent and numbers of employees within a team can be detrimental, as can an abundance of ‘thinkers’ or ‘planners’ and not enough ‘doers’. Workforce planning is critical as part of your broader business planning activities.

Putting in place an appropriate management framework for each team or department can have a big impact on the performance of a team – think about the team meetings, the regularity, how they’re run – via zoom or in person, who is chairing them. There is such a thing as too many meetings, but, in the age of remote and field-based work we can also fall into the trap of not checking in, getting the team together and ensuring that there is a good level of engagement and collaboration between team members to maximise their output.

Another key to high performing teams rests in the tools, tech and systems that are in place to support the individuals in collaborating, communicating, and getting things done. Are they trying to use complex software on a computer that hangs every five minutes trying to sync to the server, is their tablet or mobile phone struggling to hold battery life, even considering – for field-based team members especially – which mobile phone network the business subscribes to in order to avoid call drops and connectivity issues while on the road. Sometimes, saving money by delaying review and update of tech and systems is counterproductive as the team could spend more time being held up to be as productive as possible.