5 Rules To Get Your Marketing Team To Peak Performance |

Peak Performance in high achieving teams

Have you ever been in a high achieving team? One that everyone else respected and looked up to. Where every day, you felt energised being a part of it, confident that you were making progress. Had fun, laughed. Were able to be your full, true self without fear of reprimand or judgement? It’s pretty unusual. I have been, twice. My first was my school netball team. We stayed together, the same 9 players (7 +2 subs) for 5 years. We could anticipate each other’s moves, got out of each other’s way. Picked each other up when we were having a bad day. Laughed at our mistakes, never took ourselves too seriously, but we were competitive. We wanted to win. And we won. A lot. Every season. We were the team to beat.

The second was in my first job. I got a real shock when I left and realised that sadly, this wasn’t the norm. I often reflect back on why these team experiences were different when helping marketing leaders build ‘peak performing teams’ and have identified five fundamentals that are non-negotiable to achieve this sought-after goal:

United behind a clear purpose AND plan. We hear a lot about the importance of purpose for individual values alignment but often overlooked, is the plan to achieve this. A team at peak performance needs clarity. Goals need breaking down to achievable, measurable actions in a shorter timeframe. The higher purpose is rarely achieved. Break the long-term goal down to shorter win targets that the team can really get behind.
Diversity of skills. An entire team of Centres or of Goal Defences will not win a game. In fact, they are going to find it hard to play the game at all. Every team must be made up of different skills and personalities. Diversity accelerates creativity and innovation. Identifying what the critical skills needed to win is the starting point. And to do this, you need to know what game you are playing (see point one).
Clarity of role. If everyone in the team knows what part they need to play in delivering those goals, it gives them the go ahead to get on and do their best work. It removes the elbow budging need to prove themself against a co-worker. They are teammates, not competitors. The only one standing in the way of a promotion is themselves. If they deliver, they will succeed. And so will the team.
Trust, respect and communication. Everyone needs support, guidance and feedback. Being able to give and receive this constructively is critical. The leader must act as the team coach – find the positives even in a loss but analyse, learn and improve. Continuously. Like a sports team, you get better with practice. Think about how you hone your skills as an individual but also as a team.
Have fun. If you feel safe in your role, you’re able to let your guard down and feel more comfortable. Laughing reduces stress hormones and anxiety and can be used as a bonding mechanism. Leadership needs to set the tone here – show that it is ok to ‘have fun’ at work. It can even boost productivity. A recent study went so far to prove that ‘people who are happy, work harder.’ So, think about what happiness means for the team and how you as a leader can impact this.