3. Working towards a shared vision

What’s your team goal, and how does it contribute to the company’s vision, results, and profitability? Any team that doesn’t have these answers ready should go back to the drawing board and work on answering them.

Exceptional team leaders and managers go out of their way to ensure employees have the same shared understanding of what they are doing, how to achieve team goals, and how everyone’s individual performance contributes to the big picture.

4. Mutual respect

You’ll often encounter amazing teams that are diverse, with different personality traits, backgrounds, and skill sets, and their superpower is making all those traits come together. How do they do it?

The foundation of every great team is respect and kindness, and there’s no way around that. Building trust, nurturing open communication, aligning on shared goals, and feeling safe with your team — all these traits stem from respecting one another as people and professionals.

5. Strong team culture

The final point that brings outstanding individuals together and makes them into extraordinary teams — the cherry on top, if you will — is a strong and shared sense of the team culture. For teams working remotely, culture and connection can be a challenge because in-person connections aren’t an everyday part of the work experience.

In fact, 44% of remote employees say connecting with their teams is their most significant challenge. To bridge this gap, HR and People teams in remote companies can implement many tactics, from team-building activities to facilitating in-person connections.

We’ve compiled 18 tried-and-tested ideas to connect and engage remote teams. See the list >>>

FAQ: Building high-performing teams

What are high-performing teams?

Put simply, a high-performing team is a group of people working together in the same or different departments towards common goals. They bring their individual skill sets and create synergy to achieve the best results and achieve company objectives.

Strong teams are aligned on decision-making, focused on innovation, and often show outstanding results, setting their companies apart from competitors.

How does remote work impact teamwork?

So is it possible to build high-performing teams remotely? We’d say it’s absolutely possible, but HR/People Operations managers, as well as team leaders, have to be intentional about it.

Here’s what we mean by that:

• During the recruiting process > Look for candidates with complementary skills to the rest of your team to fill in the skills gaps
• During remote onboarding > Make it easy for new team members to get up to speed and build open communication with teammates
• When they onboard into a new role > Assign them tasks that challenge them, test their problem-solving skills, and help their team achieve new milestones
• At all times > Promote healthy team dynamics and showcase your company culture