Monday, March 5, 2012

Building a Stronger Team that YOU work in

Anyone who has worked in a team knows that there is no simple answer for team success. Each employee/team-member offers a unique perspective and comes from a unique background (typically). This is even true in homogeneous teams, or centers of excellence. Building and sustaining team morale can be difficult especially in homogenous teams because direct comparisons can be drawn very quickly.

I recently read a general article, http://www.inc.com/jeff-haden/the-5-qualities-of-remarkable-bosses.html , this outlines a list of things bosses should do to build and sustain remarkable teams. I could not find myself agreeing more.

 

Develop every employee.

Deal with problems immediately.

Rescue your worst employee.

Serve others, not yourself.

Always remember where you came from.

The list above outlines how to be a good boss. However if you are team member these rules apply as well.

In order to help continue to build a stronger team, there may be a few more that need to be added to the list.

Build Trust: this is the nucleus of the team. Without a core sense of trust in one another, the team can breakdown into clusters and tuples.

Enable & even enforce team transparency: In order to build trust, establishing a level playing field of opportunities within the team. “The right person on the right seat in the bus” – Collins.

Ensure consistent and equal visibility: In an idea economy  it is very important to ensure that the right contributors are cited and given the opportunity to present. 

Enable and enforce core value from the ground-up: developing a core values set –a set of team values/principles and operational rules is very critical.

Be a follower: over time every team member must learn and demonstrate behaviors of a good follower.

As a leadership team member, each member must play a dual role sometimes – leader and follower. There is so much spotlight on being a good leader today, that people don’t have the skills anymore of being a good follower. Oftentimes a good leader is also a good follower.