The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, “the children are now working as if I did not exist” ~ Maria Montessori

This list is curated from my experience of having had the privilege of being part of, and also observing high performance teams, and an even greater privilege of leading a few of them myself.

Fundamental1: Build and drive a distinctive team culture. It’s possible~

This one truly is the first fundamental. Culture defines what are the team’s ways of working, shared values, what is desired and what is not. As a leader, this is perhaps the greatest contribution you can make. Get the team together to define this and then start living the culture, starting with you first. The definition and the launch are not difficult. What is challenging is to give confidence to the team that defining a distinctive culture for the team, which is different from the larger organization culture, is possible. And yet, more challenging would be to resist the temptation to forsake the “new ways” under pressure and challenges, which are bound to crop up. This is where you as the skipper of the vessel continue to follow the true north, through the choppy and uncertain waters, steadfast and resolute. The team will then follow you, unconditionally.

Fundamental2: Empower your team. Hold them accountable~

Empowerment and accountability compliment each other. And one is not desired without the other. As a leader define very clearly which decisions your team members are empowered to make, and then give them space to make those decisions. Your job is only to hold them accountable for the results, nothing more. If you have managers of managers reporting to you, it is critical you strengthen your next line of leadership through empowerment. Remember, the stronger they are, stronger is your position as a leader. Your job is to hold them accountable on what results they are getting through their respective teams, and how they are ensuring the delivery.

Fundamental3: Ensure the “today for today”! Balance the “today for tomorrow”! ~

The “today for today”, or in other words, the current deliverables of the team are hygiene requirements. It has to be delivered to ensure the team’s performance commitments as well as its credibility. Remember you are the leader of a high performing team. As a leader it is extremely important to also focus on the “today for tomorrow” – getting the team ready to face the future. You do this through anticipating capabilities, systems and processes the team will require tomorrow to ensure they continue and excel on their high-performance standards. And then provide and secure resources to be invested today on these capabilities and processes, to ensure future performance. A leader who makes these future investment decisions today is ensuring sustained distinctive competitive advantage for their teams and organizations.

Fundamental4: Engage in “difficult conversations”! Manage “difficult decisions”! ~

The ability to engage and manage “difficult conversations” is a leadership must have for all leaders, but even more importantly for leaders of high performing teams. Holding others accountable for not only their “what” of performance, but more so, the “how” of performance could be challenging. And yet it’s imperative to do this proactively to ensure sustained high performance as well as protecting and nurturing the distinctive team culture. There would be inevitable conflicts and those need to be dealt with agility. This also entails some “difficult decisions” have to be taken from time to time. Leadership is a lonely place to be. And sometimes you have to step in to help your next line of leadership make difficult people decisions when you see they are failing to make them on time.

As a leader you are the keeper of the culture of the high-performance team you lead. And the greatest success of your is to be able to say that “the team is now performing as if I did not exist”.