Perfecting the dream team
What type of people would you love to work in your dream team? Just take one look at sports teams who have experienced failure and you’ll see that the problems lay in leadership and the line-up itself. But when they get it right, it’s like one smooth motion to success, and you can bring this to the office!
Fortunately for your business, creating a dream team starts with its leadership, which means the power lies in your hands. It’s key that you train members on both the team concept and the subject matter. Before the team holds its first meeting, you should really explain the team’s ethos to each member and show how the organization will benefit from his or her individual participation.
To start off on the right foot, a few clear events need to take place: get everyone together for an open discussion and come to an agreement about the work to be achieved and process for doing so. You’ll find that by defining each member’s role and getting them all to agree collectively on the work before the process starts, the conflicts of different ways of working or having different goals will be avoided.
The thing is, bringing together a high-quality skill-set is not enough. Looking good on paper can sometimes mean very little – some of the businesses I work with have reported that bringing in even a highly qualified member of staff was a bad decision because they didn’t work well with others.
This is not to say that highly qualified staff are not an important asset to you, of course they are, just a note to remember that the highest performing teams are not always those with most experience or the most prestigious qualifications – they are a group of people with the right skill set, good communication, a common goal and a desire to succeed as a team.
This type of team works for each other. They communicate effectively and have a clear plan and tactics. Of course a major strength I have noticed time and time again is that the most successful teams will sacrifice individual glory for the common good of the business. This may sound like the dream team and it’s not out of reach. Here are 3 starting steps:
1. Make sure that you generate a sense of camaraderie amongst the team. Don’t pit them against each other because highly competitive environment doesn’t breed loyalty from your staff.
2. Acknowledge success. (And make sure the team do so for one another too!)
3. Operate an open office. Team members need to feel free to ask any other member for help with any given topic they may be working on.
And finally, I’m afraid it’s not all about support and praise, you, as leader, need to be prepared to make tough decisions. You must be prepared to remove a team member who drags the process down, they’re not contributing to the success of the team and inaction to handle this weakens your teams trust in you. You must act in their best interests and they’ll act in your.
Lesley Meechan
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Harnessing The Talent in Your Business
Getting the Best From Your People
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