3 Keys To Building A High Performance Team

By Rob Wright, Chief Editor, Life Science Leader
Follow Me On Twitter @RfwrightLSL

By Rob Wright

Any good leader will tell you that they couldn’t do their job without being surrounded by a high performance team. In the hustle and bustle of getting through the daily grind, we tend to lose sight of the important role our teams play in our success, and we in theirs. I refer to this as the soft side of leadership. Mark Scharenbroich, Emmy award winning keynote speaker and author, refers to it as “Nice Biking” someone, an expression he coined from observing Harley Davidson owners interacting with one another. For more on the Harley story, check out his website www.NiceBike.com or read his book – Nice Bike.

According to Scharenbroich, there are three simple actions to successfully “Nice Bike” someone — acknowledge, honor, and connect. He affirms that by doing these actions, you will not only transform yourself, but also your team, into a positive and productive unit.
Acknowledge, Honor, And Connect

To acknowledge is to have an awareness of others, looking beyond the title people carry and valuing the gifts that each individual brings to an organization. To acknowledge is to be respectful of viewpoints which may be different than your own. To acknowledge is to have your radar up and to be aware of those around you. With regard to honor, you honor other people by knowing what’s important — not to us, but to them. It’s taking specific action by valuing others’ priorities. It’s giving a sincere compliment, not because of what it will do for you, but because of what it will do for the other person. By noticing personally and publicly, the contributions of others to a group, team, or company, you are both acknowledging and honoring them. This helps you to “connect” with others. But not just any connection, a meaningful connection, one that creates a bond. This could be large or small, but makes a difference in the life of someone else. Let me provide a real life example of Nice Biking the author of Nice Bike.

Nice Biking The Nice Biker
I met Mark Scharenbroich at the 2011 Emerson Global User Exchange. We had a brief conversation, and I asked him about contributing an article to our monthly Leadership Lessons column, which he did here. He also sent me a few copies of his book for our monthly Ask the Board feature. (If we publish a question posed by a reader, with an answer from a member of our editorial advisory board, we send out a free book.)

I recently sent out a copy of Nice Bike to a Life Science Leader reader. A few days later, I got an email from the person who received the book, “I just started and finished Nice Bike. I thoroughly enjoyed the book and messages. It was great to read the stories and reflect on many of my own. There were many good messages for me to use in my job.” The executive went on to explain that they take the time to do a factory level walk through on a weekly basis. “I do this so as to know the processes, but more importantly, the people who get stuff done every day,” the executive stated. “It's the favorite part of my week. I've used ‘Nice Bikes’ without knowing it, but this will sharpen my saw.” I decided to try Scharenbroich’s advice – acknowledge, honor, and connect. So I sent the complimentary email to Scharenbroich. He responded, “Hi Rob. Thanks so much for passing on the very kind words from the executive regarding my book. It means the world to hear that type of feedback. Even better than hearing that he enjoyed the read is the fact that he took action in both his professional and personal life. Way cool. Again, thank you Rob!  I truly appreciate your kind support! Nice bike…”

But that is not the end of the story. If it were, I would have only acknowledged and honored Scharenbroich, but failed to connect. Consequently, I asked if both were interested in being introduced via an electronic email. Now to my understanding, Scharenbroich is going to be giving a talk for this executive at a future corporate event — “Way cool.”

So let me ask you a question, have you Nice Biked — acknowledged, honored and connected — a member of your team lately? If not, try doing so, today. You may just make someone’s day.