Do you have a High-Performing Team?

Estimated Time to Read: 3 minutes

Do you have a "High-Performing Team"?

It's widely accepted that a successful business is dependent on having a strong team behind it. Within this realm there are the regular teams... and then there are the exceptional “High-Performing Teams” or HPT.

It begs the question how is an "HPT" defined?

Well, here is one answer that seems to net it out.

High-performing teams know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how to speak up to move work forward. Or better put, team performance is driven through purpose, clarity and psychological safety.

High-performance is often painted in broad strokes. However, one thing we know with certainty is this: It is easily observable when you see it in “action,” and if you are part of an HPT, you can actually “feel” it working. When business owners create a connected team culture, clearly tie tasks to talent, and foster an environment where team members truly feel heard, they build the foundation for exceptional performance--period.

Having an HPT in place not only drives business by creating efficiencies, scale, and growth, it helps optimize client experiences that lead to creating loyalty and referrals. If you want to own a differentiated RIA, accelerate the building of your enterprise value, attract and keep great talent, and literally put some joy back into your day-to-day, anything less will be deemed unacceptable.

So how does one go about transforming their current team into one that would be characterized as high-performing?

It starts by doing a deep dive on the talent that you have in place.

This involves using tools and resources that help us better understand each of our teammates.

You should expect scientifically validated questions that will help each team member understand their unique personality, their needs (defined by what they need from others and their work environment to support their best behavior), and their stress behavior, which results from their needs not being met for extended periods of time. It also identifies their organization strengths, and their interests (defined as what drives and motivates them from a “type of work” perspective).

High-Performance begins with alignment of these behavioral and organizational components, with the kind of work that they do.

And lucky for you... you have tru!

Leveraging our extensive experience and certified resources, tru's team guides our partner RIAs through an assessment to help transform and elevate their teams to an HPT level. 

Each team member works directly with tru to execute and review the results of their assessment, getting one-on-one consultation.  This is followed up with tru-led team building, where we typically learn more about each other than we have ever known in the past.

Too often, we never fully appreciate our team talent for what it truly is and the related dynamics that go with a team. But upon gaining a greater understanding of how our team aligns itself with the team’s specific assigned roles and responsibilities, we can begin to build greater clarity, purpose, and create an environment of psychological safety. 

Let's start now.

About the author

Craig Butler

Craig is currently engaged in multiple professional roles at tru including business strategy, innovation and business development. He is the architect of the tru Advantage practice management program designed to help advisors transform their financial practices into high-performing businesses.​ His career has been entrenched in the RIA industry for almost twenty-five years. He got his start initially with Fidelity Investments starting in 1995 and has since worked directly with hundreds of advisors over his nineteen-year tenure. As such, he has developed extensive knowledge and expertise around how to optimize business performance and enterprise value. Craig has been a Certified Birkman Consultant for over 15 years and has trained to help build and optimize teams for business owners. He also has become a Certified Journey Business Coach, helping business owners maximize their skills as CEOs and leaders of their firms.​ In addition to his professional duties, Craig gives back to his local community by serving as a life coach, at no cost, to high school and college students who lack clarity of their gifts, talents, and career focus. Using assessments and the art of coaching, he helps students build awareness of their unique talents and strengths and then helps them align their gifts with career pursuits that optimize both their interests and abilities. He and his wife Kristen recently bought a small horse farm outside Atlanta Georgia, exchanging life in the suburbs for the more open spaces of rural America. They are the parents of five children.​ Craig holds a Bachelor of Art & Sciences degree in Behavioral Science from Ohio State University. He also holds an MBA from Capital University in Columbus, Ohio with a focus on Marketing and Finance and an Executive Certificate in Negotiation and Conflict Management from the University of Notre Dame’s Mendoza College of Business.