Top Ten Practices of A Peak Performing Team
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Top Ten Practices of A Peak Performing Team
(posted: August 12th, 2010)
The Blue Angels set the standard each day at every level.
The Blue Angels build every show around a focus or center point, and build their team around shared values. Without shared values peak performance is not possible. Team values must align with an organization's purpose, mission, and actions.
At what level does your team operate? It's time to raise the bar.
Practice #1: Put the Team First
Teamwork isn't a part time activity. Each member represents the team at all times. Putting teams first is a 24/7 commitment. Their ideas, their voice, their well-being, their efforts; these are most important. Significant and sustainable results follow empowered and cohesive teams.
"Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success."
Henry Ford
Practice #2: Walk the Talk
Effective leaders are honest and transparent, and they lead by positive example. This, along with practice #1, forms the foundation of a successful team.
Successful leaders embrace the power of teamwork by tapping into the innate strengths each person brings to the table.
"A leader is best when people barely know he exists, not so good when people obey and acclaim him, worse when they despise him.But of a good leader who talks little when his work is done, his aim fulfilled, they will say, We did it ourselves."
Lao Tzu
What's your level of trust in others? Are you aligned with your values? Do you walk the talk?
Practice #3: Maintain Peak Performance
Peak performance requires we take time to rest, reflect, and recharge our batteries.
"Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists of eliminating the non-essentials."
Chinese Proverb
Practice #4: Communicate Vertically and Horizontally
Every member of the team requires clear and effective communication to accomplish their job. At this level of performance, there can be no questions or doubt concerning communication. Does your team communicate openly and honestly?
"All of us perform better and more willingly when we know why we're doing what we have been told or asked to do."
Zig Ziglar
Practice #5: Prepare to Win
Visualize yourself accomplishing the task at hand. Then do it together with your team.
"Don't fear failure so much that you refuse to try new things. The saddest summary of a life contains three descriptions: could have, might have, and should have."
Louis E.Boone
Practice #6: Capitalize on Synergy
Synergy happens when common people align around common goals. Making the team means doing what it takes to fulfill the mission. Each member has a role in the team's success
"Synergy is the highest activity of life; it creates new untapped alternatives; it values and exploits the mental, emotional, and psychological differences between people."
Stephen Covey
Does your team prepare to win? Do you?
Practice #7: Clarify Procedures
Each team member must know procedures. Every situation requires a proper response.
Success comes when preparation meets opportunity.
Practice #8: Foster Positive Attitudes
A can-do attitude make the impossible possible.
"I'm so optimistic I'd go after Moby Dick in a row-boat and take the tartar sauce with me."
Zig Ziglar
Practice #9: Strive for Excellence
By confronting our failures we come closer to reaching perfection. Every team member must earn the right to wear the crest. When each team member accepts full responsibility and strives for excellence, both trust and performance increase exponentially and the team is ready to take off!
"If you did not care at all what anyone else thought about you, what would you do differently or change in your life?"
Brian Tracy
Practice #10: Attitude Leads to Altitude
Just in case you didn't pick up on the importance of #8. You can do all the right things to make your team go, but without the fuel of an unwavering positive attitude, your team and your performance will never soar above the clouds.
"I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% how I react to it. And so it is with you...we are in charge of our attitudes."
Charles Swindoll