The tech industry is one of the most, if not the most, dynamic industries on earth. Changes occur left and right, and to stay ahead of the competition, companies and organizations must have high-performing teams to withstand the winds of change and seize opportunities.
However, we know that having such teams is easier said than done. That is why we’ve compiled a list of the best tips and practices we’ve encountered to build a world-class team in tech.
1. Define Clear Goals and Expectations
Before you assemble your tech team, clearly defining your goals and expectations is essential. These goals should be aligned with the broader objectives of your organization to ensure that your tech team understands the company’s vision, which helps in planning and executing tasks efficiently.
By setting clear goals, your team, and organization will have more direction and focus, more time to develop procedures, greater productivity, better decision-making skills, and higher motivation.
There are eight helpful steps for setting clear goals for any organization. Simon Leighfield explains those at length in a LinkedIn article. Those are as follows:
- Identify where expectations are required
- Co-create goals and expectations
- Make goals SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-dated)
- Make sure expectations are clear to yourself
- Communicate clearly, concisely, and regularly
- Understand your team’s expectations of you
- Seek buy-in and commitment
- Provide feedback on progress and celebrate successes
2. Hire for Skills and Cultural Fit
Technical skills are essential, but a candidate’s cultural fit is equally important. A skilled candidate who doesn’t mesh well with your company’s culture can negatively impact team dynamics and productivity. Seek individuals who embody your organization’s core values and can collaborate effectively within the team.
Culture is important because it allows organizations to robustly and predictably respond to challenging problems. Culture guides your people in their decision-making when no other resources, like manuals or procedures, are available.
The cultural fit assessment should be done during the recruiting process. You can apply many questionnaires to candidates during an interview to assess if they would be a good cultural fit. The questions, in most cases, will be as described below:
- Standard questions—Where do you see yourself in five years? What is your greatest strength?
- Interactive questions—What type of management style do you respond best to and why?
- Unconventional questions—What negative qualities would your friends identify in you?
Then, the recruiter would have to consider the answers and determine if the candidate would be a good fit.
3. Prioritize Diversity and Inclusion
Diversity fosters innovation by bringing together different perspectives and approaches to problem-solving. Hiring people with diverse backgrounds, skills, and experiences will create a more well-rounded team capable of meeting a more comprehensive range of challenges. Inclusion ensures every team member feels valued, which is crucial for productivity and overall job satisfaction.
Adam Galinsky is one of the many authors researching and studying the relationship between diversity and creativity. He systematically found that creativity is everywhere, but the most significant changes in paradigm and the more creative solutions tend to be the product of diverse teams.
Creativity is an excellent asset for areas involving problem-solving and non-direct goals, such as software development. As we are all aware, even the most strict waterfall methodology development is a non-linear process, and it’s often constrained by the vision of the client and the technical and time-related limitations. As such, finding alternative solutions, figuring out new approaches to tackle a problem, and reinterpreting the nature of an issue are all abilities that highly efficient development teams need. What do they all have in common? Every single one of those skills is applied creativity.
4. Invest in Continuous Learning
The tech industry constantly evolves, necessitating continuous learning and professional development. Providing opportunities for training, attending industry events, or taking online courses can help your team stay up-to-date with the latest technologies and methodologies. This investment will improve performance and demonstrate your commitment to the team’s growth.
A simple way to do this is to provide your team members with accounts on e-learning platforms. Udemy, Masterclass, Platzi, and countless others are available, with courses on any imaginable subject that can directly impact their jobs.
Companies with extraordinary individuals within their ranks can help both with time allowances and partial or total tuition reimbursements. It can be for team members pursuing a master’s degree, attending a seminar, masterclass, workshop, or whatever benefits their careers and the organization.
5. Foster Open Communication
Transparent and open communication is a crucial element for a high-performing tech team. Regular meetings and one-on-one sessions help to understand each team member’s progress and address any issues. Use collaboration tools and platforms to enhance communication and ensure everyone stays connected.
The benefits of collaboration tools are enormous for companies working remotely or using a hybrid model. That is why 79% of companies were using some version of them by the end of 2021.
These collaboration tools can take many forms. The most obvious is chatting platforms, like Slack, where team members can converse with each other on the spot. Other examples of collaboration tools are Zoom, Jira, Trello, and Google Workspace, where besides writing and sharing documents, team members can add comments, notes, and edits to make their personal jobs even better.
6. Encourage Ownership and Accountability
Empowering your tech team by giving them ownership of their projects fosters a sense of accountability. This, in turn, fuels motivation and commitment to deliver high-quality work. Encourage the team to make decisions and take responsibility for their actions. This will also stimulate innovation and increase team morale.
The best way for leaders to encourage ownership within their teams is by doing the following:
- Share the “why.” If the team members understand the reasoning behind decisions and short- and long-term goals, professionals can craft their individual goals aligned with the big picture and will be happy to do so since they will understand their role in the grand scheme.
- Tackle “how” as a team. Involve your people from the beginning of any planning process, and they will contribute with ideas and be more motivated to reach the end line. People respond better and engage more when implementing solutions they have proposed or helped create rather than being told what to do with little or no agency.
- Encourage autonomy. Allowing your team members to do some things the way they want will enable them to feel agency over their work. It also frees the manager from having to monitor every single step if the focus shifts from process to results. Of course, for this to work requires constant feedback to address any issues as they occur.
7. Implement Agile Methodologies
Agile methodologies such as Scrum or Kanban promote flexibility, collaboration, and efficiency. These practices are designed to manage work in small, manageable increments and encourage continuous feedback, leading to a more responsive and effective tech team.
We wrote an article a while back outlining how leaders can ensure agile success in their organizations. Some of the ways include these:
- Provide team members with flexible platforms. In other words, provide modular tools that minimize dependencies.
- Become change agents. Managers should let go of old ways of doing things while continuously learning how to best apply agile in their organizations.
- Change the budgeting process. Annual budget cycles need to fit the fast-moving, quickly-changing nature of agile.
- Integrate agile into enterprise governance. Agile methodologies must be paired with functions like business planning, strategic planning, portfolio planning, enterprise architecture, and budgeting.
8. Maintain a Balanced Workload
Overworking your team can lead to burnout and decreased productivity in the long run. Be mindful of your team’s workload and ensure it’s evenly distributed. Periodic breaks and a healthy work–life balance are essential to maintaining the high performance of your tech team.
A balanced workload is so significant now that, according to a recent Aviva study, more workers said they were attracted to their current role for the work–life balance (41%) than the salary (36%).
The benefits of a good work–life balance for your staff include increased productivity, better retention, higher employee engagement, more profitability, better brand reputation, improved morale, and decreased absenteeism.
9. Recognize and Reward Performance
Recognizing and rewarding good work goes a long way in motivating your team and enhancing productivity. It could be as simple as verbal appreciation or more tangible rewards. Whatever the method, recognition lets your team know that their efforts are valued and appreciated.
While rewards are generally associated with bonuses, all-expenses-paid trips, stock options, and things of this nature, recognition does not have to be expensive. It can include saying a public shout-out, offering time off, treating the team member and their family to dinner, featuring them in company-wide communications, offering small gifts, delivering handwritten notes, etc. The point is not the reward per se but that the talent feels valued and appreciated.
10. Nurture a Healthy Feedback Culture
Constructive feedback is vital for continuous improvement. Foster a culture where feedback is encouraged, both from leaders and among peers. This will help team members identify areas for improvement, enhance skills, and ultimately contribute to the team’s overall performance.
Unfortunately, there isn’t a specific formula for nurturing a healthy feedback culture. The good news is that there are plenty of options for organizations to try and stick to what works best for them. Some of the methods we recommend are as follows:
- Valuing the talent’s voice. Both the team members and managers alike can share feedback respectfully while acknowledging each other’s thoughts, opinions, and ideas.
- Respond to feedback. If feedback is given, but no actions are implemented, then it is just a conversation. It has to be acted upon when appropriate and necessary.
- Create formal feedback training. Giving and receiving feedback is not a natural thing for most, so formal training is necessary. It could be mandatory company-wide workshops and presentations, small group sessions, individual mentorship meetings, or anything else.
- Establish core processes. Leaders need to know when, how, and where to deliver feedback and how to act upon it.
Conclusion
Building high-performing teams is complicated, but it can be done. By following these 10 tips, you will see significant improvements within your organization, and, sure enough, your teams will be ready for whatever curveball might be thrown their way.
