HMT Model for Building High-Performance Teams: A Leader's Code to Crack

As John Maxwell, the leadership guru, says “Everything rises and falls on leadership", it is inevitable for a leader to build great teams to be a successful leader.

Leaders need to build high-performing teams to be successful. In this article, You will be introduced to a model that can help you as a leader build high-performing teams.

Before getting into the model, let's quickly understand what are high-performing teams.

A simple definition for a High-Performing team is a Team of individuals who are highly focused on the goals and achieve superior business results.

Respect and Trust

Inclusive Thinking & Collective Excellence

Effective Communication & Healthy Conflict

Participative Leadership & Effective Decision Making

Identifying the ideal team members that can form a high-performance team
Measuring them in such a way that they always focus on value and deliver valuable outcomes
Treating them well so that they feel valued for their work and appreciated

This is exactly the premise I am going to discuss in the model which I call as HMT model.

H stands for Hire Right

M stands for Measure Right

T stands for Treat Right

If you are an Indian, you might have heard of a very famous watch brand in India called HMT. HMT watches are known for their performance and elegance. On a lighter note, if you embrace this model as a leader, you can build your teams as high-performing teams! :). Your time as leader change for good :)

Now let's get to the actual model, Hire Right: If you want to build high-performance teams, you have to hire ideal team members who fit the bill. How can you know what to look for when you are hiring one? Of course, the competency in the skills that your team needs is one key criterion, but is that enough? The answer is "not enough". What else do you need to look for? As Patrick Lencioni, the author of the book "The Ideal Team Player", wonderfully explained the key characteristics of the ideal team player, look for these important characteristics in the person you are hiring.

They are

1. Humble

2. Hungry

3. Smart

Let's quickly understand what these terms mean.

Humble: The person you are hiring needs to be humble. Humility is not about thinking less of yourself but it's thinking about yourself less.

Hungry: Another very important quality you need to look for is hunger, simply put "can do and will do attitude, willingness to go the extra mile, not afraid of doing experiments, and calculated risk-taking attitude".

Smart: Here smartness is about emotional smartness, how you do you deal with situations in the team.

The ideal team member for a high-performing team has to have all these qualities. not one, not two but all three.