Start with Culture: How to Build a High-Performing Team

How I start every new role to build a long-lasting, high-performing team and culture

Have you ever noticed that high performing teams often tend to promote a high performing culture?

After working on a high performing team, you never forget it, the sense of being seen and valued, that the work has meaning, and the esprit de corps.

I first had the opportunity to lead teams over 20 years ago, and in that time have made building and leading high performing teams and high performing culture a core competency.

While every team is unique, I have a common approach to starting any new role. This includes beginning with reflection, strategic forethought, and showing up with authenticity.

You can expect that I will:

▶︎ Curate and communicate my core values
-- to bring clarity, and to share what's important to me as a professional and leader

▶︎ Create a clear vision for the future
-- with a spirit of optimism and to paint a picture of our opportunity

▶︎ Connect the team's work to the vision
-- to make it clear how we and all of our efforts fit in

▶︎ Craft Leader Lines
-- to foster a shared sense of identity, guide how we act, and to name our shared aspirations

▶︎ Commit to modeling the way

You'll notice that all these begin with the letter C. You could call them the Deep C's of Creating Culture. Now, I didn't just cast a line and reel these ideas in. They come from many years of intuition, experience, and research on organizational development.

Here's one more thing.

We all follow unwritten rules at work. But to really be successful, we must get these undocumented psychological contracts out in the open, because they affect our sense of safety, the way we work and relate to each other, and ultimately our performance. And I believe they impact inclusivity and equity as well.

I’ve found that, as a leader taking a new role, sharing my values, creating a vision for the future that's connected to the work that we do, crafting Leader Lines, and committing to modeling the way are all parts of the recipe for success for building a long-lasting and high-performing team and culture.

And I'd love to learn what works for you too, so I'm looking forward to seeing your comments and reactions to this post so that we can all learn together!

#leadership #teamsuccess #peopleleader #buildingteams #buildingculture #culturematters #ericduell #leaderlines