Issue link: https://resources.mouser.com/i/1522815
13 | Nurture Your High Performers Prioritize personal relationships with everyone on your team Foust reveals the key lesson someone shared early in her career: "As a young engineer, someone told me that being a good team leader isn't about the work. It's about knowing more about the people you work with than you do about the work." How does a leader put that into practice? She gets to know her team members and their motivations. "Our motivations shape our work and business. As a leader, it's my responsibility to grasp these motivations to better guide and collaborate with my team." One fundamental way to build better trust with existing team members is to show sincere interest in their personal lives. "Don't walk up to someone's desk and immediately ask where something is or for a status report on something else," says Foust. "It's far more important to know how they are doing or how their son did at an archery competition over the weekend. Get to know the people on your team, and everyone will do better work." Share everyone's wins and successes—let everyone shine Olson believes that to nurture existing high performers, leaders need to share success stories from the team, especially when everyone is spread across the globe, working in different time zones or locations. "High- performing teams need to know what others are doing and how to replicate their best work," Olson explains. "In quarterly meetings at my previous company, I would highlight three success stories from different team members. We'd analyze the best practices and identify lessons everyone could emulate." This approach elevates everyone's skills and recognizes employees' great work. "As leaders, we should celebrate everyone's wins," Olson emphasizes. "Share progress and accomplishments, giving each team member their moment to shine." This practice nurtures high performers by demonstrating that their efforts matter. Retain Top Talent Retaining top talent can be as challenging as recruiting it. Subramaniam's advice? "Empower your team to make decisions. Inclusive decision-making, involving all stakeholders, is key to business success and employee retention." Informed, collaborative decision-making keeps projects moving forward and ensures everyone feels valued—a critical foundation for retaining the best and brightest. Subramaniam likes to use questionnaires to assess how everyone on the team is doing and to eliminate any behavior that might create chaos for the team or the business. "I have managed a difficult work environment," says Subramaniam. "I put everyone in the same room together and walk them through the exercises and questions. I asked everyone to respond to the questions, complete a self-reflection, and participate in a discussion about how to avoid toxic work behaviors." Subramaniam uses this framework when creating her questionnaire. Jane Yun, a principal system architect at TE Connectivity with ten patents and over thirty research papers, says, "Trust between a leader and the team members creates the ultimate foundation for a high-performing team." She recommends: "Focus on building positive relationships with team members—and the number one way to do that is by fostering an environment of trust." Trust helps retain top performers in a few ways: team members know who they can go to for help, they know their colleagues will have their backs when doing challenging work, and they'll trust the ability of others to do the job and follow through. And most importantly, says Yun, "When team members trust their peers to correct their work, they learn from each other's mistakes."