Building a high-performing team in your IT department is essential for driving innovation, productivity and success. We explore the key characteristics of effective IT teams, such as strong collaboration, communication, and a growth mindset, offering practical strategies for fostering a positive team culture, promoting knowledge sharing, and attracting and retaining top talent.
In today’s fast-paced and highly competitive business landscape, building a high-performing team in your IT department is more crucial than ever. A cohesive and talented IT team is key to driving innovation, productivity, and overall success within an organization.
We all have been a part of or established that elite team that comes together and blows the socks off of everything they do. We look at ways to replicate it, and for some reason, the pieces just do not come together like they should. It is 80 percent perfect, but there is something restricting it.
The question we need to ask ourselves is why we find it so elusive.
Harvard Business Review recently posted, “High-performing teams are not afraid to pick up the phone.” This simple statement exposes many of the challenges we face as leaders in building these teams. How do we develop the key characteristics of highly performing teams — strong collaboration, communication, and a growth mindset — to execute the IT initiatives within our organizations effectively?
In this blog post, we dive into the essential elements of constructing a high-performing IT team, including fostering a positive team culture, promoting effective communication and collaboration, attracting and retaining top talent, and the pivotal role of leadership. By understanding and implementing these strategies, you can unlock the full potential of your IT department and gain a competitive edge.
Key Characteristics of a High-Performing IT Team
High-performing IT teams are elusive because leaders often lose sight of the core characteristics required to build and maintain these types of teams. We tend to build our IT teams around the people who are the most technical or have the most tenure because we think they have the expertise to solve problems. We end up ignoring the key characteristics of successful teams.
One area in IT organizations where I see this happen more often than in any other area is the enterprise architecture (EA) team. Time and time again, organizations stand up their EA group with super technical people who have mastered their area of expertise but who are unable to work in an environment that requires an understanding of a lot of different areas.
Strong Technical Aptitude
Strong technical aptitude allows IT teams to effectively tackle complex challenges and deliver innovative solutions. Teams built around technical aptitude and experiences perform better than those solely based on specific technology. To address this, build teams based on complementary strengths while looking to close any collective weaknesses.
Growth Mindset
High-performing IT team members embrace a growth mindset, continuously seeking opportunities to learn, adapt and improve their skills to stay ahead of rapidly evolving technological trends. They also identify new opportunities for your organization. Look for employees who teach others and receive coaching well. These traits are important to deliver success.
Holistic Mindset
You want your team focused on working together versus on personal delivery. I also call this the “no ego” rule. When IT teams focus on the work regardless of role or position, it dramatically increases performance. I see this as an issue in Agile teams, where people become role-confined.
The goal of Agile is to deliver on the commitments in the sprint, and when a team is focused on the result, it does not matter who writes the cards, develops the code, or does the testing. We come together to get it done. But what happens on a lot of teams is that people only focus on their role and do that job. A developer can do everything on the team, while the other roles are more limited.
Communication Skills
Team members must be able to communicate and collaborate effectively. People who refrain from communication or fail to collaborate to solve problems create issues in the long run, leading to “lone-wolf syndrome.” One way to break down communication barriers is to have the teams share their communication preferences.
When standing up a new team or a new team member is added, take the time to review and discuss how to communicate with each other effectively. This simple 30-minute to one-hour meeting can positively impact how fast the team comes together.
While having the right skills is important, creating a positive team culture is equally crucial for building a high-performing IT team. In Simon Sinek’s “A Navy SEAL’s Guide to High Performance at Work,” he discusses how individuals with high performance but low trust negatively impact the team’s overall results.
Fostering a Positive Team Culture
For a healthy and high-performing IT department, it’s important to have a strong culture. You can help guide this culture by building it on:
- Trust and respect – This fosters a positive environment. Encouraging honest feedback creates an open and transparent culture. Trust is earned, and respect is given. However, both can be lost quickly.
- Teamwork – Promote knowledge sharing and teamwork to encourage a collaborative spirit. This helps team members learn from each other and facilitates cross-functional synergies.
- Relationship – Comradery and injecting fun are also important aspects of culture. Teams that come together and build different levels of relationships can relate and support each other better.
The Effects of Leadership on High-performing Culture
Another incredibly important part of this high-performing team culture is leadership. Strong leadership plays a pivotal role in building and sustaining high-performing teams. To be effective in your role, it is imperative to set a clear vision and direction for the IT team. Continuously validate that their efforts align with organizational goals and priorities and eliminate roadblocks that can hinder their success.
Empower and encourage employees to take ownership and accountability for the team’s success. This ownership thinking increases motivation and creates a sense of investment in the team’s success and the organization.
It is important to lead by example by fostering accountability, mentoring, and coaching to create a culture of excellence and inspire team members to uphold high standards.
A positive team culture, with effective communication and collaboration, is the catalyst for attracting talent to your organization. People are attracted to and want to be a part of something great. One company that fully embraces this concept is Netflix. If you have not spent the time to review their culture page on the career website, I highly recommend it.
Attracting and Retaining Top IT Talent
In today’s highly competitive tech landscape, the key to sustaining innovation and excellence is attracting and retaining great IT talent. Here are a few effective strategies to help your team stand out as an ideal place for high performers.
- Foster a challenging and rewarding work environment that recognizes the team and employee’s contributions.
- Provide a clear line of sight for the work and its impact on the organization. People want to work where the results provide value.
- Offer opportunities for professional growth and development, such as training programs, certifications, and career advancement paths, to help retain talented employees and foster a culture of continuous learning.
- Allow employees to incorporate their own improvements. People want to work on teams that are in control of their destiny.
- Promote work-life balance and job satisfaction to boost morale, productivity, and employee retention, can, ultimately, contribute to overall performance.
Benefits of a High-Performing IT Team
Investing in a high-performing IT team yields significant benefits for your entire organization, including:
- Significantly improving time to market by increasing productivity and efficiency, enabling the organization to achieve more sooner with its limited resources.
- Cultivating an environment of innovation and problem-solving, allowing the organization to stay ahead of the curve and adapt to rapidly changing market conditions.
- Improving customer satisfaction and contributing to the organization’s competitive advantage by enabling exceptional customer support with high-quality solutions.
Building a high-performing IT team is not merely about assembling a group of technically proficient individuals. It requires a thoughtful approach emphasizing culture, communication, and continuous growth.
By fostering an environment of trust, collaboration, and respect and providing clear leadership and opportunities for development, leaders can create teams that excel not only in their current roles but also drive innovation and competitive advantage for the organization.
Investing in building such teams is an investment in the company’s future success, ensuring it remains agile, innovative and capable of meeting the demands of an ever-evolving market.
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