Nine Steps to Build, and be Part of, an Amazing Team
Highly successful individuals grasp that greatness is achieved through united team effort. Whether leading a company or pursuing personal goals, aligning with the right people, and collaborating is the key to success. This universal principle, observed daily, offers valuable lessons in team building and collaboration, transforming aspirations into reality.
The Hierarchy of Teams
Understanding the significance of having a team is crucial for progress. Assessing your team's current level helps guide efforts for optimal collaboration and improvement.
Level 1: At the bottom is a common experience: the dysfunctional team. Despite possessing skills and a strong work ethic, team members lack clarity on roles, mission, and advancement, leading to chaos, uncertainty, fear, and dread. These dynamics form a tangible barrier, hindering the team from overcoming dysfunction. Dysfunctional teams often result from individuals, especially entrepreneurs, unintentionally transitioning from their original focus on products or services to managing people.
Level 2: Moving to the second level of the team hierarchy, we encounter high-performance individuals. This phase involves adding talented individuals with specific skills to address dysfunction, leading to a more efficient team. However, a team primarily comprised of high-performing individuals coexists with each other rather than operating as a unified and aligned entity. Although daily chaos decreases, and clients are well served, intentional collaboration to elevate the team's overall operation remains lacking at this stage.
Level 3: Moving up to high-performance teams, multiple members collaborate effectively to achieve shared goals, leading to notable success and a rewarding experience. However, a potential challenge lies in the "good enough" trap, where even high-performance teams may plateau, risking stagnation or a decline in results. This mindset can prompt a regression to individual silos or, in extreme cases, a return to chaos.
Level 4: At the pinnacle of the hierarchy is the dream team, operating at a level of authentic co-elevation. In this ideal scenario, team members actively assist each other in becoming their best selves while collectively advancing the business, organization, or group's most crucial goals. The focus is on elevating both individual team members and overall outcomes. Notably, achieving this level of teamwork extends beyond team leaders or bosses; it involves everyone, as each member contributes meaningfully to support one another.
Action Steps to Enhance a Team
Step 1: Make everyone a winner. In a dream team, individual success is intertwined with the collective success of every member. The team strives to co-elevate, lifting each other to achieve exceptional results beyond what would be possible individually.
Step 2: Build a team of advocates. While some teams disappoint or deliver the minimum, and others strive to delight clients, dream teams go further. They understand the need to defend their clients, acting as true advocates. Advocacy becomes the core of a dream team's value promise, surpassing mere satisfaction or added value.
Step 3: Maximize your competence. In dream teams, ambitious individuals are driven to enhance their skills for personal and team success through systematic development, including mentoring, coaching, and performance management. This culture, instilled from top leadership, aligns with each member's intrinsic motivation for excellence.
Step 4: Have the right people on the bus. Dream teams consist of volunteers not in terms of freely giving time, but in being aligned with goals, possessing passion, and relevant skills. Volunteers in such teams believe in the cause, actively contribute to others' progress, maintain a positive attitude, and are adaptable, ready to modify the environment or their approach if needed.
Step 5: Create your foundation. Dream teams establish clarity on shared values, defining what they aim to create and achieve. Once the purpose is clear, they proceed to formulate a strategy and establish a foundation supporting their vision. With these aspects running smoothly, teams then recruit talent aligned with their vision, strategy, structure, and systems.
Step 6: Show up, commit, and contribute. Every member of a team wants to be recognized not just for their contributions to the group/ organization but also for their significance as a person and an individual. Dream teams know how to do this and, as a result, get even stronger commitment and performance from everyone involved.
Step 7: Create quiet confidence. Dream teams confidently share their profound knowledge on key issues crucial to their goals. This confidence is built through extensive expertise gained from direct experience and research. Armed with facts, insights, and proven success, these teams exude a quiet confidence that commands serious attention without the need to shout.
Step 8: Stay on track. Dream teams don’t automatically remain dream teams—and they recognize that fact. They employ systems and processes, such as goal-oriented benchmarking, that can help ensure they remain on track.
Step 9: Communicate for maximum impact. Dream teams require transparent communication and a free flow of information among members. Each team member's influence is maximized through continuous improvement in honest, accurate, and open communication, avoiding hidden agendas.
Final Thoughts
Whether you lead a team or are a team member, taking specific steps can elevate the team to dream team status. This process not only enhances individual roles but also uplifts the entire team. The result is a tight knit, aligned group committed to success and continuous self-improvement, striving to become the best versions of themselves.
The information in this material is for general information only and is not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual. Integrated Financial Partners does not provide legal/tax/mortgage advice or services. Please consult your legal/tax advisor regarding your specific situation. This report is intended to be used for educational purposes only and does not constitute a solicitation to purchase any security or advisory service. Past performance is no guarantee of future results. An investment in any security involves significant risks and any investment may lose value. Refer to all risk disclosures related to each security product carefully before investing. Investment advice offered through Integrated Financial Partners, doing business as Konvergent Wealth Partners, a registered investment advisor.