“There’s no ‘I’ in ‘team.’ There is a me, though, if you jumble it up.” Dr. Greg House, from TV’s House
Many leaders often think they have to “do it all themselves,” as reflected in the following statements:
“No one can do this as well as I can.”
“It’s easier to just do it myself than to explain how to someone else.”
“I don’t have time to train anybody.”
When you think that way, however, you may be overlooking a critical component for success in managing small-to-medium sized businesses… building the right team.
What’s a Team?
A team is basically a group of people with complementary skills who are mutually committed to working together toward a common goal with shared rewards.
Highly Effective Teams…
See ‘the big picture.’ This promotes collaboration, increases commitment and improves quality. Each team member knows the greater goals of the organization and understands the context of their own (and each others’) roles and responsibilities toward those goals.
Have common goals. Effective teams know what the goals are AND know how to determine if they’ve reached them (or not).
Collaborate. Effective teams know what part of their jobs are dependent on their skills and what part of their jobs require interdependency with their teammates. Collaboration reduces the need for playing ‘the blame game’ while encouraging opportunities for learning and improvement.
Have ‘robust’ dialogue. They engage, explore, and disagree when necessary with the understanding that the best decisions are born from full exploration of the topic that requires a decision. Everyone has the opportunity to contribute. Criticism is invited to improve discernment.
Rely on each other. They bring their best and expect others to do the same. Excellent work is a by-product of this commitment.
Unity in the final decision. Once a decision is made, the team moves forward with a sense of clarity, confidence, and sense of unity about what they are to do and who has responsibility for what by when.
Execution is higher. The process of interaction and decision-making are such that the execution of the desired goal is made much easier.
Effective Team Leaders Must…
- Be clear about expectations, the role, and the tasks and goals to be accomplished.
- Ensure that the team has the necessary support, resources, structure and training to do their jobs.
- Put a deadline on everything – whether it ‘needs’ it or not. Remember, the task on hand will expand to fill the time allotted. Deadlines help everyone know what is expected.
- Over-communicate. Better to have the information and not need it than to need it and not have it (including timely, constructive and consistent feedback).
- Promote problem-solving within the team. How? By seeing mistakes as opportunities (and encouraging the team to do the same). Instead of hiding mistakes, people become proactive.
- Focus on structure. Poor performance is often due to poor team structure, not individual performance. Poor structure leads to negative, ineffective behaviors in individuals and impedes communication. If team members feel that they are misunderstood or competing against each other, they’re more likely to hold back information or resources.
What’s My Motivation?
People are motivated by many things: getting paid, loving what they do, seeing a project come together, taking on new (bigger) challenges, the creative process, ego gratification or simply not being bored.
How to keep your team invested in your success:
- Understand the goals/desires of each team member. Offer challenging work and opportunities for learning consistent with their goals. This helps engage them in achieving their goals and allows you to meet your goals as well. It also gives people a chance to grow into new roles and encourages responsibility.
- Offer freedom and independence in the decision-making process to encourage self-empowerment. Powerful individuals make powerful teams.
- Recognize the contribution of your team. Being valued is absolutely critical to the success of any company, and most leaders fail at doing so adequately – a HUGE mistake. Noticing (and publicly acknowledging) the effort of each team member is an underutilized (and free) way to ensure team success. Being valued is a need of everyone and insures that they will be more engaged in their work, in the team, and the organization. This recognition is a reminder that no one does it alone.
Finding the right team is not about finding the perfect team, and it doesn’t guarantee success. Team members need consistent and ongoing support. Ideally, team members will be both independent and interdependent. Remember, nurturing a team (even a little) achieves better performance and better results.
Next month we’ll explore where to find your ‘A Team.’