John Shegda and Eric Wilhelm, KMM Group Ltd.04.03.23
As KMM Group approaches our much-anticipated milestone expansion to a fully renovated 100,000-square-foot state-of-the-art facility, we sat down to reflect on the factors that have helped propel our company to this new height. The most notable of these factors is a strong and effective team. In this article, we want to share our experiences, expertise, and insights on hiring and managing high performers, delving into the art and science of building, and leading a successful team.
Drawing on wisdom from management and leadership experts and researchers, we emphasize the importance of shared values and a sense of purpose, communication, support, and organization as critical qualities of successful work teams. We found research that suggests the dynamics of successful teams include these emotional and behavioral indicators:
For these goals to be achieved, we identified the following essential tips:
We have found that candidates who fit within the company's culture are more likely to be engaged, motivated, and productive, leading to higher performance and a positive work environment. In addition, culture-aligned candidates can help reduce the likelihood of conflict and decrease turnover rates. As a result, our team prioritizes cultural fit alongside skills and qualifications when evaluating potential hires to help them build a team that will help drive the company toward its goals.
To adopt this interviewing strategy into your hiring process, consider asking behavioral-based questions, such as "Tell me about a time when you faced a challenging situation and how you handled it.” The responses can help reveal valuable insights into how a candidate will behave once they’re part of your team.
You may hire really good people who align with your culture, but if you put them in a spot that isn’t natural, it’s not a recipe for success. For example, they may not be the most assertive, and if they’re put in an assertive role, they could struggle. It’s exhausting to go against natural tendencies. That’s why we use several tools to help assess who people are to ensure they’re the right choice.
With the help of sophisticated technologies like The Predictive Index and personality tools like 16 Personalities, we gain valuable insight into candidates’ natural tendencies to ensure they fit the role and company. These pre-employment testing tools allow our team to understand whether a person is assertive or passive, creative or analytical, practical or ideal, among other personality traits, helping to reveal who is most likely to succeed in a given role.
Much of our trust-building process centers on communication – or over-communication – because we believe that when you communicate with employees often, you provide clarity and accountability, which helps cultivate trust.
We also underscored the importance of listening and responding to every employee’s concerns. All employee survey feedback, whether positive or negative, is listened to and considered. Then, even if we can’t deliver on a request, we are transparent and communicate why a request may not be possible. This gives employees access to our thought and decision-making processes to help build trust.
Transparency for the sake of trust building is further enhanced by quarterly company presentations where we share the company's finances, challenges, successes, and where it's headed.
You must hire the right people, coach them, and then give them the freedom to do their jobs. By empowering those under your direction, you also teach them to trust and empower others. The goal is not to be all things to all people but to create a culture where everyone is encouraged and empowered to do their best work.
Studies have consistently shown that empowering employees in the workplace leads to improved job performance, greater job satisfaction, and increased loyalty to the organization. In addition, some research has also suggested that empowered leaders can foster creativity among their employees, encourage positive behaviors, promote trust, and drive improved performance.
Sharing our vision with our employees is an internal growth mechanism. It clarifies the growth opportunities and encourages the team to develop skills to continually advance, helping to ensure a strong future for the company.
We want to build an organization of high-performing, world-class manufacturing professionals. To do that, we wanted to demonstrate that there’s an opportunity for growth and advancement. So, by sharing this 5-year visionary org chart, we hoped our team would understand where we are headed so that those with growth aspirations could set their sights on their future roles at the company.
Our insights and experiences in building and leading successful teams offer valuable guidance for businesses seeking to achieve similar success.
John Shegda is the chief executive officer of KMM Group Ltd., where he leads the company's strategy and vision. With 35 years of high-level expertise in precision manufacturing, John is an accomplished industry leader passionate about building a sustainable and purpose-driven company that positively impacts the world.
Eric Wilhelm is the president of KMM Group Ltd., where he provides strategic organizational direction and leads operations to ensure the company is aligned with the future of manufacturing. As a dedicated advocate for the industry, Eric is passionate about promoting manufacturing as a viable, fulfilling, and impactful career path and championing the benefits of domestic production.
What Makes a Successful Team?
We define a successful team as a group of culture-aligned high performers with the drive, ability, and personalities to operate according to our core values and fundamental behaviors.Drawing on wisdom from management and leadership experts and researchers, we emphasize the importance of shared values and a sense of purpose, communication, support, and organization as critical qualities of successful work teams. We found research that suggests the dynamics of successful teams include these emotional and behavioral indicators:
- Psychological safety – Team members feel security, trust, and comfortable taking risks.
- Dependability – Team members are loyal and rely on each other to deliver high-quality work within a set timeframe.
- Structure & clarity – Team members are clear about the goals of the work and their respective roles and responsibilities.
- Meaning of work – Team members feel their work is important and has personal value.
- Impact of work – Team members believe their work has value and influences their and others’ success.
Building a Successful Team
We stress that building a top-notch team requires a strategic, well-thought-out hiring strategy with a defined protocol to attract high-quality candidates, construct effective interview questions that collect essential information and elicit meaningful responses.For these goals to be achieved, we identified the following essential tips:
Define the critical role requirements.
In his book, Hiring Talent, management expert Tom Foster highlights the importance of defining critical role requirements. Drawing on influential research by Elliott Jaques, Foster suggests that every role contains two kinds of work: decision-making and problem-solving. By accurately identifying the extent of these tasks, we can efficiently evaluate which candidates possess the necessary skills, ensuring we bring the most qualified candidates on board.Prioritize culture alignment.
Building a successful team hinges on hiring candidates who align with your company culture. Unlike technical skills that can be taught, a person’s alignment with culture is a fundamental aspect of who they are, making it essential to assess whether candidates are a fit during the hiring process. To do this, we tailor interview questions to tap into candidates’ motivations, passions and soft skills.We have found that candidates who fit within the company's culture are more likely to be engaged, motivated, and productive, leading to higher performance and a positive work environment. In addition, culture-aligned candidates can help reduce the likelihood of conflict and decrease turnover rates. As a result, our team prioritizes cultural fit alongside skills and qualifications when evaluating potential hires to help them build a team that will help drive the company toward its goals.
Practice behavioral interviewing.
A behavioral interview is another strategy we recommend for building a successful team. This discipline assesses a candidate’s past behavior and how they are likely to perform in similar situations in the future, going beyond the candidate's technical skills and qualifications to uncover how they think, act, and react in specific situations.To adopt this interviewing strategy into your hiring process, consider asking behavioral-based questions, such as "Tell me about a time when you faced a challenging situation and how you handled it.” The responses can help reveal valuable insights into how a candidate will behave once they’re part of your team.
Assess intellectual capacity.
Additionally, we believe that assessing candidates' intellectual capacity is an important part of the hiring process. Intellectual capacity refers to a candidate’s ability to think, learn, plan, and execute with discipline. When combined with culture alignment and behavioral interviewing techniques, intellectual capacity can reveal a well-rounded picture of a candidate’s qualifications and their chance for success at your company.Position new hires in appropriate roles.
A successful team relies on hiring people who match your critical role requirements, align with your company culture, and match your behavioral and intellectual expectations. However, the right role is equally critical to building a successful team.You may hire really good people who align with your culture, but if you put them in a spot that isn’t natural, it’s not a recipe for success. For example, they may not be the most assertive, and if they’re put in an assertive role, they could struggle. It’s exhausting to go against natural tendencies. That’s why we use several tools to help assess who people are to ensure they’re the right choice.
With the help of sophisticated technologies like The Predictive Index and personality tools like 16 Personalities, we gain valuable insight into candidates’ natural tendencies to ensure they fit the role and company. These pre-employment testing tools allow our team to understand whether a person is assertive or passive, creative or analytical, practical or ideal, among other personality traits, helping to reveal who is most likely to succeed in a given role.
Leading a Successful Team
Leading a successful team requires the same diligence, focus, and strategy as building it to ensure company and employee growth. We have identified the following essential practices shaping our management style and approach to leading high-performing teams.Build trust through transparency and communication.
Good leadership is about building trust with your team. According to Vistage, only 17% of employees trust management and ownership. This shocking statistic has prompted us to focus on building trust in our leadership roles.Much of our trust-building process centers on communication – or over-communication – because we believe that when you communicate with employees often, you provide clarity and accountability, which helps cultivate trust.
We also underscored the importance of listening and responding to every employee’s concerns. All employee survey feedback, whether positive or negative, is listened to and considered. Then, even if we can’t deliver on a request, we are transparent and communicate why a request may not be possible. This gives employees access to our thought and decision-making processes to help build trust.
Transparency for the sake of trust building is further enhanced by quarterly company presentations where we share the company's finances, challenges, successes, and where it's headed.
Empower your team for success.
Leading a successful team is also about trusting and empowering your team. Giving them the authority, resources, and support they need to make decisions and take ownership of their work allows you to foster a sense of trust and a culture of accountability. Employee empowerment helps staff feel invested in the company’s success, helping to motivate them to perform their best.You must hire the right people, coach them, and then give them the freedom to do their jobs. By empowering those under your direction, you also teach them to trust and empower others. The goal is not to be all things to all people but to create a culture where everyone is encouraged and empowered to do their best work.
Studies have consistently shown that empowering employees in the workplace leads to improved job performance, greater job satisfaction, and increased loyalty to the organization. In addition, some research has also suggested that empowered leaders can foster creativity among their employees, encourage positive behaviors, promote trust, and drive improved performance.
Share your vision with your team.
In 2020, we created a future-looking organizational chart for 2025 and shared it with the entire KMM team to clarify our vision of becoming a world-class manufacturing company.Sharing our vision with our employees is an internal growth mechanism. It clarifies the growth opportunities and encourages the team to develop skills to continually advance, helping to ensure a strong future for the company.
We want to build an organization of high-performing, world-class manufacturing professionals. To do that, we wanted to demonstrate that there’s an opportunity for growth and advancement. So, by sharing this 5-year visionary org chart, we hoped our team would understand where we are headed so that those with growth aspirations could set their sights on their future roles at the company.
Lead by example.
Leading a high-performing team requires a commitment to leading by example. It’s not, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’ Instead, we set the tone by leading by example and being the leaders we want our teams to be. People want to emulate and follow a leader, so whether it’s having respect, integrity, competency, or another of our Fundamentals, we work hard to lead our team honorably.Our insights and experiences in building and leading successful teams offer valuable guidance for businesses seeking to achieve similar success.
John Shegda is the chief executive officer of KMM Group Ltd., where he leads the company's strategy and vision. With 35 years of high-level expertise in precision manufacturing, John is an accomplished industry leader passionate about building a sustainable and purpose-driven company that positively impacts the world.
Eric Wilhelm is the president of KMM Group Ltd., where he provides strategic organizational direction and leads operations to ensure the company is aligned with the future of manufacturing. As a dedicated advocate for the industry, Eric is passionate about promoting manufacturing as a viable, fulfilling, and impactful career path and championing the benefits of domestic production.