Teams have many Moving Parts

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.” – Michael Jordan

One of the best opportunities each of has is to be a part of a highly functioning team. In most cases a successful team is not an accident but a result of many different things coming together successfully. It starts with a leader providing direction, purpose and key decisions, and it also includes the assembly of qualified and motivated individuals, an actionable plan, team chemistry, well-defined processes and successful execution towards achievement of the desired objective. A team is always dynamic and never static. The only question is this: Is it moving in the right direction or is it drifting as a result of a lack of leadership or participation?

“The best teamwork comes from men who are working independently toward one goal in unison” – James Cash

Being a Team Member

How do you respond when you are selected to be on a team? Do you view the request to participate as an honor or as a burden (one more thing you have to get done)? Are you focused on the objective or are you vexing over the personalities leaders have chosen for the team? Are you jockeying for position or are you looking at how you can make a contribution? I suggest that you examine your state of mind and bring to awareness your emotional state as you begin to join the team in its work. I always think it is important to complete any task for the right reasons. In the case of joining a team it is about contribution, learning from others, acquiring new ways to do things, and generally enhancing your skills. Of course, understanding your team assignment and role are of paramount importance.

“Teamwork makes the dream work, but a vision becomes a nightmare when the leader has a big dream and a bad team.” – John C. Maxwell

Being a Team Leader

Most executives serving in a new position usually inherit a team that’s already in place. As you work with the team, you start to notice contributions – at the individual and group level. As the new team leader, you bring your prior work habits to the task (which may or may not be appropriate to the assigned objective of the team, the group dynamics or the culture). For one thing, you may be asked to lead a group of individuals that you have never worked with before. This means you may not have experience with the personalities that make up the team as well as their individual and collective skills, quirks and idiosyncrasies. Also, while you are observing them, they are checking you out to see what kind of a leader you are as well as whether or not they can trust you. They will look closely at the manifestation of your personal integrity, decisiveness, clarity of thought and word, handling of problems, delegation and review, how you support team members, how you hold yourself and team members accountable and the likelihood you are helping or hurting team effectiveness.

“When you start out in a team, you have to get the teamwork going and then you get something back.” – Michael Schumacher

Overcoming Inertia

Have you ever been in the inaugural meeting of a team and noticed how excited people seem as they leave that first meeting? One week later you find out that the individual team members don’t have a clear idea of their responsibilities, nor do they have an idea regarding how to start making a contribution. This is a team that is going nowhere. I can see the team meeting late in the process full of blame, shame, self-righteousness, indignation, and anger. This is a sorry state for all of the team members.

Contrast that situation with a team that concludes its inaugural meeting with a clear vision of what the end result of the team’s work will be. Also assume that the members of the team have clearly defined roles and are looking forward to getting started on the team assignment. Imagine water cooler and luncheon conversations where each team member informally reports on how they are doing and is actively interested in how the other team member is progressing. Think about a team that communicates often and honestly; think about a team that is sincerely interested in progress by overcoming obstacles and assisting other team members; think about a team that vastly exceeds its targeted objective in a time span much sooner than anticipated. That is a team I want to be on. How about you? Are these expectations reasonable from day one? If not, why not?

“I think for a lot of amateurs, their alignment is always out” – Karrie Webb

Alignment is Key

All team members have to ask themselves if they are aligned with the objective, the process, the team, the leadership, their roles, their responsibilities and success. The team leader makes sure this type of alignment exists. Most of the time when things break down in the middle of a project, you can be sure things weren’t right in the beginning and/or the team leaders failed to confirm and ensure confirm alignment throughout the process. Oftentimes, factions get created and walls get built up contrary to the intent and best wishes of the team members and its leader. The leader has to be consistent in how team members are directed and evaluated. If the leader is arbitrary in enforcing standards then he will be conveying something less than full dedication to the team and its objective. To use a metaphor, if the leader is driving the car, the wheels have to be aligned lest they get unbalanced and bad things happen to the car.

“When you hear buzz around the beehive, you know they're making honey in there.” – Terrence Howard

Communicate!

The buzz around a project or a department can enable the passion and the dedication of the team to fully develop. Work can become play when everyone is engaged. Promoting the assignment and celebrating small wins creates sustainable excitement for the work. Walls get knocked down and people get inspired when they are talking about the mission. When it’s unfolding, it has a story. Maybe it becomes part of the folklore of the company. Its ongoing success becomes a standard for behavior and excellence in getting the job done with full cooperation and participation by team members. Many of those team members will become leaders in their own right because they are looking to model the successful habits of the team leader.

“Celebrate what you want to see more of.” – Tom Peters

Celebrate!

I think we leaders tend to take our team members for granted. Celebration is one way to acknowledge good effort and good results. When you acknowledge the whole team, be assured you are inspiring team members to think about the implications of their work today and the possibilities for tomorrow – including opportunities the next assignment may hold. It is sort of like celebrating the creation of an annuity rather than a one-time payoff. In this case, the annuity is well-trained team members who will take what they learned into new endeavors, possibly bigger and better than what has just been completed. In fact, let’s regard the win like a song of the same name: “THIS COULD BE THE START OF SOMETHING BIG.”

And, there is more, there always is.

Be genuine.

Copyright 2014 © John J. Trakselis, Chicago CEO Coaching

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