Ever wondered what it takes to build a high performance digital agency team, a team that outperforms the rest? From my experience, this is not about  getting ‘rockstars’ on board, rather its an exercise in clarity, openness and alignment.

Over the last few months I have had numerous conversations about “team challenges” with business owners, both digital agency owners and from other industries. And in all cases the problems stemmed from the business owner not giving clarity of job expectation, and/or team members now being aligned with the objectives of the business.

I remember reading Geoff Smart’s book “Who” many years ago and it left a lasting impression on me in regards to a better way for managing teams. It is the basis for much in what we do in managing human resources in my businesses. It really is a pivotal book in my mind in understanding how you can build a high performance digital agency team.

Outside the specifics, may of the concepts still resonate with me to this day, and that is some of what I hope to share with you here. Digital agency resourcing is not an easy thing to get right, so I hope the insights I’ve learned from both researching and experience which I’ll present below, are of value.

Table Of Contents:

• Building a High Performance Digital Agency Team
  • Defining Role Missions & Outcomes
  • Maintaining Hierarchical Consistency
  • Finding A Players
• Elaborating on Hierarchical Consistency in Your Digital Agency
  • Maintaining Hierarchical Balance
  • The Role-Based Approach To Hierarchy
• The Process of Hiring for High Performance
  • Finding A Players
  • Vetting Candidates
  • Making an Offer
• Training and Development for High Performance
• The Role of Continuous Learning
• Making Training Relevant
• Development Beyond Technical Skills
• Measuring Performance and Ensuring Accountability
  • The Role of Regular Reviews
• Ensuring Role to Person Fit Throughout Careers
  • Focusing on Strengths Rather than Job Titles
  • Career Lattices over Career Ladders
  • Open Communication and Regular Check-ins
• A Players Attract A Players
  • Maintaining High Standards
  • The Cost of Keeping Non-Performers
  • The Power of Positive Attrition
• Conclusion

Building a High Performance Digital Agency Team

Achieving success in the digital agency landscape isn’t just about having top-notch technology or an impressive portfolio. It’s about assembling and nurturing the right people to achieve a desired outcome.

The principles within Geoff Smart’s insightful book, “Who” can be very helpful in building such a team, which is why I recommend it as essential reading. This resource provides key guidance on defining clear role missions and outcomes that go beyond mere tasks and qualifications.

Defining Role Missions & Outcomes

To create your high performance team, you need to start with the why of every position. So start by getting crystal clear on each role’s mission within your organization. Rather than concentrating on everyday duties or prerequisites, concentrate on what should be accomplished at last – the ideal result.

This shift in perspective is transformative as it allows you to view roles through a strategic lens. For instance, instead of simply hiring someone because they’re good at SEO, hire them because their expertise will drive more organic traffic to clients’ websites—a tangible result aligned with your company’s mission.

Maintaining Hierarchical Consistency

Hierarchical consistency ensures everyone contributes towards their superior’s goals—resulting in overall business success. To illustrate this concept further; if we consider an agency manager whose goal is increasing client retention rates—their subordinates’ objectives should directly contribute toward achieving this goal.

Say one subordinate oversees content creation—they must generate engaging content that keeps users coming back for more—increasing client stickiness over time—an example of how hierarchical consistency works practically.

It flows both ways though. The agency manager’s role should be aligned with his/her superior. Possibly the CEO’s role. And yes the CEO’s role my be hierarchically consistent to. “How does this work?” you may ask. Well, at Globital the first position description (or scorecard) we create is for Globital, or business, itself. So the CEO’s position description must be completely congruent with the mission and outcomes of the business.

Finding A Players

High-performing teams are built with A-players—those who excel in their roles and foster a positive work environment. However, remember that an A-player for one role may not fit another.

Take our SEO specialist, for instance. They’re fantastic at boosting organic traffic, but managing client relationships might not be their strong suit. And that’s a key skill an account manager needs to have.

Elaborating on Hierarchical Consistency in Your Digital Agency

Every prosperous business is founded on a basis of constancy. This principle rings especially true when it comes to hierarchical structures within your digital agency.

Achieving hierarchical consistency starts with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Every member of the team should understand their mission, outcomes they’re working towards, and how these contribute to the larger goals of the organization.

This doesn’t mean simply listing out tasks or qualifications; rather, focus on defining what success looks like for each role based on its specific outcomes. Remember: every task should lead back to an outcome that aligns with the superior’s objectives. It’s all about linking individual performance with company-wide targets – creating a cohesive unit moving together toward common goals.

Maintaining Hierarchical Balance

Creating this balance requires clear communication from top leadership down through every level of management. Forbes suggests strategies for improving workplace communication. Share overarching company missions and help each employee understand their unique contribution to those goals.

Fostering an environment where employees feel comfortable asking questions promotes understanding and alignment between different levels within your hierarchy structure. “Who”, by Geoff Smart offers insightful perspectives into this process. You can find it here.

I also think it is important that managers throughout the organisation become active participants in the process. The CEO starts by ensuring the outcomes of his/her executive are aligned with his outcomes, explains this and then leads and coaches the executive to do the same with line managers. The line managers are then led and coached to continue this principle with team members. That way all become aware of their purpose and how it contributes to something bigger than the tasks they are working on.

The Role-Based Approach To Hierarchy

Taking a role-based approach to hierarchy ensures everyone is pulling in the same direction. The business mission becomes clearer when each individual’s role and outcomes are tied directly back to it.

It also allows for more flexibility as roles can evolve based on changing needs or new strategic directions. As Harvard Business Review points out, employees want their jobs to have meaning – they want to see how their work contributes towards achieving bigger goals. The structure described above gives this, in my experience it is then true leadership that inspires this sense within team members.

The Process of Hiring for High Performance

Hiring a high-performance digital agency team starts with clarity on role missions and outcomes. Instead of focusing solely on tasks and qualifications, it’s crucial to align potential hires with your business mission.

Start by defining the mission and outcome for each role. This then becomes part of the job description, job listing, and becomes central to the hiring process. Prospective team members then start with a sense of why they want to work with you, rather than what they will end up doing.

Finding A Players

You need A players – top performers who excel at their jobs. But finding them requires more than just posting a job ad online or using recruitment agencies.

A players are often passive candidates; they’re not actively looking for new opportunities but might be open if the right one comes along. Engaging these individuals means being proactive: networking events, LinkedIn connections, industry meetups – use all channels available to connect with potential talent.

Vetting Candidates

Once you’ve found prospective candidates, start vetting them against the defined missions and outcomes of the roles in question. Remember that qualifications matter less than alignment with your company goals.

To do this effectively, structure your interviews around behavioral-based questions related to desired outcomes rather than task-oriented ones related solely to skills or experience.

For example:

• “Tell me about a time when you achieved X result.”
• “Describe how you would tackle Y challenge?”

This approach will give insights into their thought process and ability.

Making an Offer

When making an offer, consider more than just salary. A players often value career growth opportunities, work-life balance, and a great company culture as much or even more than compensation.

Ensure that your offer includes these aspects to attract top performers. Make it clear how they can contribute towards the business mission and what outcomes they will be responsible for.

Hiring is only the start of building a high-performance team – ongoing training, development, performance measurement, and accountability are all key components in maintaining it. Often all these concepts are exactly what A Players look for in a role also.

Training and Development for High Performance

Building a high performance digital agency team doesn’t stop at hiring the right people. It requires management, training, development, work conditions, opportunities and other aspects. All of these should be seen as an investment that can yield significant returns in productivity, morale, and retention, rather than a cost on the P&L.

One critical area to focus on is building expertise in cutting-edge technologies. The digital marketing landscape is always evolving with new tools and tactics emerging regularly. Your personnel should be ready to traverse this landscape. If this is important to your business, the right team members should be leading this innovation. They will do this where they are the right people, in the right environment, who understand the purpose of what they are doing and see it contributing to the bigger picture.

The Role of Continuous Learning

In Geoff Smart’s book “Who: Solve Your #1 Problem”, he emphasizes the importance of ‘A Players’. These are individuals who perform at the top 10% level given their pay bracket. To maintain such players within your organization, you need a culture that encourages learning.

Fostering this kind of environment helps your staff stay motivated because they see opportunities for growth within their roles—not just as stepping stones to other positions—but as avenues for personal improvement too.

Making Training Relevant

Relevance plays a crucial role in effective training programs. For example, instead of generic software tutorials, offer sessions tailored towards how specific applications will help achieve desired outcomes or solve problems within projects handled by your team members.

This strategy not only makes sure trainings have immediate value but also enhances employee engagement because they can see the direct impact of their learning on their work.

Development Beyond Technical Skills

While technical prowess is critical, don’t neglect soft skills. A study by ResearchGate showed that training in areas like communication and problem-solving had significant positive impacts on job performance.

A comprehensive development plan that includes these areas will help create a balanced team—adept at handling both technological challenges and interpersonal dynamics with equal ease.

Measuring Performance and Ensuring Accountability

A high performance digital agency team thrives on clarity of mission, role outcomes, and most importantly – accountability. To build such a team, it’s essential to measure performance accurately.

One way to do this is by establishing clear Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). KPIs should align with the defined role missions and desired outcomes. These measurable values help you understand how effectively your team is achieving its objectives.

Inc’s guide on picking effective KPIs provides valuable insights into setting up metrics that make sense for your business context. Remember, choosing relevant KPIs can mean the difference between meaningful measurements or chasing meaningless numbers.

The Role of Regular Reviews

Regular reviews are an integral part of measuring performance too. But these aren’t just about checking boxes or running through rote routines.

Rather than focusing solely on past performances during review meetings, aim for constructive discussions around expectations vs reality concerning each member’s responsibilities and achievements. Use this opportunity to give feedback which aids improvement while celebrating success where due.“What gets measured gets managed,” Peter Drucker famously said—regular reviews let us manage better by allowing timely course corrections when needed.

One thing I learned on reviews in the corporate world though, is that if a team member is surprised by the feedback they receive in a review, you have done your job of effective communication as their manager. A review should be a summary meeting of all the little communications you have had along the way, with a next step that is pre-agreed.

Ensuring Role to Person Fit Throughout Careers

The journey of building a high performance digital agency team doesn’t stop at hiring. It’s crucial to make certain the appropriate personnel are in their suitable positions over the course of their professional journeys.

A common misconception is that promotions always equate to growth and success for an individual. But, moving someone into a position where they aren’t playing to their strengths can lead to dissatisfaction and decreased performance.

Gallup research shows employees who use their strengths every day are six times more likely to be engaged at work, 8% more productive, and 15% less likely to quit their jobs. So it makes sense not just from an employee happiness perspective but also business productivity standpoint.

Over the years I have seen many promotions 100% destroy an A Players role in a business. Someone moved from a position of real impact in their skill, to managing people is a common example. No-one wins in these circumstances. The business loses a valued contributor, and the team member loses the opportunity to contribute their skills in their gifted way. So be very careful when promoting people who are sitting in their purpose. Make sure it is what they want, make sure they are supported, and possibly even have a wind-back opportunity if it does not work out.

Focusing on Strengths Rather than Job Titles

So what does it mean practically? Well, first off let’s move away from traditional thinking about job titles or seniority levels being equivalent with skills or aptitude for specific tasks. Instead, focus on understanding each person’s unique talents and ensuring these align with role requirements.

Career Lattices over Career Ladders

Rather than promoting vertically (the career ladder), consider adopting a career lattice approach—where horizontal movement across different roles within your organization is encouraged based on individuals’ evolving interests, experiences, and expertise areas. Forbes explains the benefits of this approach in detail.

Open Communication and Regular Check-ins

To ensure role to person fit, regular check-ins with team members are crucial. Use these sessions not just for performance feedback but also to understand their career aspirations, areas they enjoy working in, and where they feel their strengths lie. This will help you spot potential misalignments early on.

helps create a positive workspace. When employees feel valued and their unique talents are utilized, it drives the success of your agency to new heights. This isn’t just about boosting morale—it’s about building an organization that thrives on diversity and individual strengths.

A Players Attract A Players

Ever noticed how top performers are naturally drawn to each other? It’s no coincidence. Like magnets, high achievers in the digital agency world often attract their own kind.

This principle of ‘A players attracting A players’ isn’t just a fancy phrase—it has deep roots in performance psychology and team dynamics. When you cultivate an environment where excellence is rewarded, it encourages others to step up their game too. The reverse also holds true—allowing non-performers to stick around can lead your best people to seek better opportunities elsewhere.

I have seen how this works in the hiring process. A top graded recruit decides not to progress with a job once he visits the place of employment because the people who work there are not A Players. He recognises the team is not “his people”, that he does not belong, and intuitively rejects the position. This is common.

Maintaining High Standards

Setting high standards within your digital agency isn’t about creating pressure—it’s about inspiring growth and continuous improvement. Everyone on the team needs to be committed not only towards achieving individual targets but more importantly contributing positively towards overall business outcomes.

If underperformers persistently miss targets or fail to improve despite training and support, they might be happier—and more successful—elsewhere. Tough as it may seem, letting these individuals go can ultimately benefit both parties involved.

The Cost of Keeping Non-Performers

It’s easy for small businesses like digital agencies to underestimate the cost of keeping non-performers onboard. These costs aren’t just financial—they include decreased productivity levels, lower morale among other employees who have to pick up the slack, and even potential damage to your agency’s reputation.

But perhaps most significantly, tolerating non-performers can cause you to lose your top performers. A players want to work in an environment that challenges them and recognizes their efforts—they won’t stick around if they feel dragged down by B or C players.

The Power of Positive Attrition

Avoiding difficult conversations about performance isn’t helpful—it only prolongs inevitable outcomes. Sometimes a respectful separation is what’s best for everyone involved. This process—known as positive attrition—isn’t about firing people; it’s more about helping individuals find roles where they’ll be happier and more productive.

To wrap it up, building a top-notch culture in your digital agency calls for courage to make hard choices and put quality first. It’s about recruiting and retaining the cream of the crop for your staff.

Conclusion

Creating a high performance digital agency team is an art and science. It’s about more than just assembling ‘rockstars’. It starts with defining clear role missions and outcomes.

Remember, hierarchical consistency in your agency is vital. Every role must contribute to the superior’s goals for overall success.

Hiring isn’t solely about qualifications but aligning mission and outcome. Continuous training keeps your crew at peak performance, while measuring accountability ensures everyone stays on track.

Achieving the right person-role fit can make or break careers, so keep people where their strengths shine brightest. And never forget: A players attract A players!

This journey may seem daunting, but armed with these insights you’re ready to craft an unbeatable team that stands tall above the rest!