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Highly productive and service-conscious employees are made, not born. They are a product of their work environment. Hire the right attitude, train properly and reward outstanding behavior in order to build a high performance team.
• Expect the most from people: People will often surprise you and themselves by rising to the occasion when expectations and standards are set high.
• Make change a priority: Making at least one change every month shows your employees that you are actively working to make your business better. Even small changes can accomplish this end. If your employees are expecting and used to changes, they will accept bigger changes more readily.
• Have a “no stupid questions” rule: Encourage employees to ask plenty of questions. You would be surprised at how often a ‘stupid’ question is the one everyone is afraid to ask. These are also signals that your training is insufficient.
• Reward thinking: Encourage and reward creative problem-solving and cost-saving solutions.
• Be able to explain why: As any small child knows, “because” isn’t an answer. You must be able to explain the reasons for procedures to your employees. If they don’t know why things are to be done a certain way, they will take shortcuts. In some cases this can improve productivity, so be open to suggestions. But some shortcuts will reduce your standards.
In high performance teams, members assume many of the functions that leaders performed at earlier stages. The leader can surely help to redistribute power among members by altering his or her leadership style to match the needs of the group. If a leader maintains one style of leadership throughout the life of a group, he or she will not meet group needs and will not facilitate the development of a high performance team. The leader should allow all members to participate and hear all ideas and suggestions through an open communication structure.
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