“We must all learn to live together as brothers (and sisters) or perish together as fools.”
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Superior teams have common elements. Whether the team is a trophy-hoisting professional sports franchise, a fast food restaurant that executes a speedy drive-through, a trauma-facing paramedic unit or a crackerjack sales group; top performing teams have hallmark and universal attributes. Conversely and unfortunately, so do bad teams.
Our interactive workshop Winning by Working Together explores these team dynamics in great detail. Listed below are a few of the fallacies commonly held by today’s team leaders, and the epiphanies they frequently experience from the seminar.
Fallacy #1: A team that isn’t working together is just a bad team.
Managerial Epiphany: A team that isn’t working together isn’t really a team at all. It’s just a group of people who happen to work in close proximity to each other. Great teams, regardless of type, do not just come together. They are envisioned, built intentionally and guided vibrantly toward a collective vision.
Fallacy #2: Teams that set goals will achieve peak performance.
Managerial Epiphany: Effective teams have strong, clear and collectively compelling goals. Groups may also have stated goals, but their members never emotionally commit to them, choosing instead to put their own interests first. It then becomes impossible to unite these varying factions and directions even if there is a stated team goal.
Fallacy #3: Retaining negative team members will result in performance stagnation.
Managerial Epiphany: Negative team members will descend a “lack of commitment spiral” that will gradually contaminate or repel positive team members and eventually destroy the entire team. Once a cancer has been identified in a team, it must either be cured or excised or the team will die.
Fallacy #4: Strong teams have strong, pyramidal, top-down leadership.
Managerial Epiphany: The very best teams are more circular in structure. Although they have steel-in-the-spine leaders who can and will dictate orders when needed, they more often opt for collaboration and input to increase team member buy-in and commitment.
Fallacy #5: Vocal team members are nuisance troublemakers.
Managerial Epiphany: It is much better to have a team full of people who care enough to voice their concerns than a team of apathetic participants who could care less. A wise man once said, “It is tough to steer a parked car.”
Building a team is an art; a sculpture of like-minded individuals all moving in the same direction. Once created, it is known for its ability to perform, to engage, to drive and to adapt. It becomes a joy to manage, however, because of its ability to also create…create something much sought after but seldom found…harmony.
Chris Brown - Senior Vice President, Frontline Performance Group
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