Why does it matter if my team is strong? I have lots of high achieving people on my team.

Does this sound familiar? Ever heard anyone say that?

I have and it makes me sad (and frustrated) since it is completely opposite to the truth.

I love Patrick Lencioni’s quote:

A group made up of talented individual contributors does not count as a strong team. When I tell people this, I am often greeted by a bit of disbelief.

Think about sports teams (and use soccer as an example). A soccer team has 11 players on the field: a keeper, defenders, midfielders and strikers. A team that may have some super stars, but who don’t work together as a team, will not be as strong as a team with strong (but maybe not super star) players, but who work as a cohesive team. The best way to get the ball up the field is to pass it; often times, it takes multiple passes – forward, backward, across the field. Seldom can one or two players do it alone.

The same holds true in our organizations. Sometimes we have that superstar on our team who is amazing, but perhaps no one wants to work with them. Or the individuals all work alone in their individual silos and leave the collective force untapped.

One of the questions I’m often asked is: “OK, so teamwork is important, but how do I build a strong team?”

The great news is it’s not complex. The bad news is that it takes deliberate work. For some, though, that work can be really fun!

A Desire

To create a strong team, the leader, and individuals need to have the desire to work towards becoming a strong team. Start with how you choose team members. In your application or interview process, ask questions related to teamwork (choose situational-based questions where you can elicit their views on teamwork – eg. Can you tell me about a time when it would have been easier to do the work alone, rather than with your team and how you handled that?)

Recognize positive teamwork, rather than simply individual results. Individual results are important, but ask yourself when you praise or reward someone, are you doing so because they did the work or achieved the result on their own (possibly even at the expense of others) or if they did it as part of a group effort. If you notice someone has helped another person accomplish something, ensure you praise that contribution.

Build Trust

In his book, The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, Patrick Lencioni claims teamwork can not exist without a stable layer of trust. His 5 Dysfunction pyramid places an absence of trust as the base dysfunction and states that without it, you can’t achieve great results. He also writes:

“Teams that lack trust waste inordinate amounts of time and energy managing their behaviours and interactions within the group. They tend to dread team meetings, and are reluctant to take risks in asking for or offering assistance to others. As a result, morale on distrusting teams is usually quite low, and unwanted turnover is high.” (p. 196)

A strong team starts with vulnerability-based trust. Start by asking what builds and destroys trust for each person so you can come up with a base idea of how they view trust. Create a team agreement that lays out the behavioural expectations for the team (a good place to start is by asking the question: What do you need to feel like you can be open and honest with this group? Then use those answers to create the list of behavioural expectations).

Have some fun

Let’s face it; when we have fun with those we work with, we let down our guard. We get to know each other which helps us be willing to jump in and help. How can you add fun into the mix? Can you ask a question at the beginning of each meeting (allocate 5 minutes to this activity at the start of meetings whenever possible)? The questions can be simple (such as what is your favorite TV show? What is a cool place you’ve visited? If you had 24 hours to yourself, what would you do?) Through answering these questions, we actually learn about others which in turns helps us build trust too. If you have a big team, try a “this or that” question such as coffee or tea? Cats or dogs? Skiing or the beach? as they can be answered fairly quickly. We often worry about the time this takes away from the meeting, but managed well, taking this time to build relationships will pay dividends in the long term.

Be Deliberate

Strong teams don’t just happen because we do a group activity or answer some group questions. The strongest teams understand each other and are generous with their assumptions. This takes deliberate planning and intention. Doing a behaviour assessment such as DISC and training to help understand each other can help a lot. Completing a Five Behaviours of a Cohesive Team assessment will give you a report which also gives you specific ideas for your team to improve the results for each of the Five Behaviours.

Ineffective or fractured teams cost time and money. They are often a source of internal politics, repetitive meetings (as people haven’t truly debated the ideas so you can never make a decision), upset feelings due to poor communication and even high turnover.

The Covid 19 pandemic and switch to virtual work has made building strong teams more challenging, but not impossible. With deliberate planning and commitment from the team, you can build strong, effective, cohesive teams which ultimately make the work more fun and you can spend your time changing the world, rather than mired in conflict and politics.