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The hopes and dreams of a nation will be pinned on Gareth Southgate’s men as they play their next game in the World Cup but what does it take to create and maintain a high-performing team?
That is the question put by HR expert Jane Rawlins in the latest downloadable guide from Crown Workforce Management – Going for Gold. How to develop a high-performing team.
She considers how the desire for excellence is put into practice within competitive sports and how the same approach can be used within organisations to help them excel and get ahead of the rest.
Jane, who runs Camino HR, looks at specific elements that are required to actively develop individuals and create high-performing teams, and the cultures and ethos that organisations need to put in place to underpin such activity.
It is this bedrock to which Jane refers in her introduction to the guide: “I recently had the pleasure of eating lunch at the magnificent Nestlé headquarters in Switzerland, with its stunning views over the lake. I was meeting my nephew, who recently graduated and has taken his first 'proper' job there. As he swiped his clock card to 'clock off' for lunch he was keen to stress, 'We clock off for lunch. It's important to take our proper break and we switch off from work completely'.
“We ate from the very healthy and attractively presented choice in the subsidised restaurant, with two pieces of fruit free with every meal, and then he pointed to the little notice on the table which asked politely that we take our coffee and relax in the cafeteria area, so as to free the table up for other staff to eat.”
Not everyone has the privilege of working in such beautiful environments but the need to mentally and physically 'clock off' in order to recharge and give of our best at work is fundamental and organisations that invest in the wellbeing of their employees will be better placed to develop high-performing teams, she stresses.
“We'd soon notice the athlete who was underperforming on the pitch or the track because they were tired or struggling for some reason, but we don't so readily spot it, or manage it, in the workplace,” adds Jane.
Drawing from the example of Team GB and competitive sport, the guide looks at key areas needed for this development. These include:
• What Team GB needs to succeed
• Acquiring the best people and best fit for the team, ensuring each person excels in their own area of expertise
• Good management, coaching and training to bring out the best in people
• Fitness, good diet, enough sleep, good routines, balance of activity and relaxation
• Confidence, resilience, self-belief
• Support, encouragement and motivation
• How technology can help us
• The real truth behind your high performing team?
It is easy to relate the success of the sporting excellence that we are about to witness in track and field, to the workplace. It’s a long-term investment in success, stresses Jane.
“We must ask the questions: are people spending long hours working, skipping breaks and missing holidays in order to get through the work, ultimately leading to lower day to day performance, lack of motivation and risk of error and burnout? Are they delivering fantastic results because they are truly en-abled to do so through positive working practices? Or are they somewhere in the middle and what can you do to make a difference?
To download Crown’s free guide to high-performing teams click the below button:
For more information on Camino see www.caminohr.co.uk, phone +44 (0)1636 653066 or email [email protected].
For more information about Crown Workforce Management Systems visit: www.crownworkforcemanagement.com or email: info@crowncomputing
