Characteristics of Successful Teams
This is a follow-up to my previous post on characteristics of highly successful individuals.
Although working with a team of very talented, capable and successful professionals can be challenging, there are ways that these “All-Star” teams can become incredibly impactful. There are many areas of life from which examples can be taken: music groups, sports teams, legal and political teams, strategic business partnerships. (And unfortunately, there are probably more examples of “Super Teams” that failed.) What seems to be necessary?
*Team members voluntarily submit to a selected leader. There has to be a clear, designated leader. And the team members must consistently follow their leadership, even when they disagree with the leader (and they will).
*Individuals hold back in fully using all of their talents and focus their efforts on what is needed for team success. In a team setting, individual stars don’t shine and do everything they do as individual stars. They have to pull back and figure out how to mesh with the other team members.
*Team members value and appreciate the role and contributions of other team members. Not only do team members constrain their performance, they also truly value the strengths of others and the strengths their teammates bring to the team effort. There is usually a genuine mutual respect among the teammates.
*The approach or strategies used by the team to reach success may be different than previous successful strategies used by the individual team members. Certain strategies work well for individual tasks, but frequently different approaches are needed for cooperative ventures. Deference to the team leader and accepting their approach for the team is critical in this area for the team to be successful.
*There is a disciplined, strategic approach to reach the team goal that the team members are willing to submit to. This may seem redundant, but the issue is that many times “All-Star” teams are put together for a specific project or limited time. Otherwise, most successful professionals would not be willing to participate in a cooperative project because it would interfere with their personal career and requires them to perform in ways they are not typically used to.
Take a look at yourself and the teams on which you are functioning. See which of these issues are strengths and what areas need to be strengthened. It is pretty fun to be on a successful team, especially when the other team members are really talented!
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Categories employee peer-to-peer recognition, Peer Recognition, Teamwork
