5 Reasons Your "Team" is Not a Team

“Finding good players is easy. Getting them to play as a team is another story.” 

-- Casey Stengel

Although there are countless books about creating better teams, participating on and leading teams remains a top frustration in most companies. Here are 5 reasons your “team” might not actually be one:

1. There are no shared goals or values.

Your “team” may believe it is working together and headed in the same direction, but when push comes to shove, each of you pursue activities that serve your individual interests and behave without accountability to each other. In other words, your oars are rowing in different directions.

In contrast, you know you are a team when you are a group that shares a few core values and pursues a measurable goal that will define the team’s success. Once a measurable team goal is set and values identified, each of you ensure every person on the team understands how to behave according to those values and is held accountable to do so. Further, you understand how each person contributes to achieving the team goal through individual competencies (e.g., ability to build consensus, drive for results, etc.) or technical expertise.

2. There is low trust or no trust.

With little or no trust, members of your so-called “team” withhold their best and secretly look for ways to “win” at someone else’s expense without regard to a common goal. 

Team trust is strongly correlated with team commitment and follow-through on promises made to each other. To work together effectively as a team, each or you must believe the others have your back.  Also, when setbacks occur (and they almost always occur), you have to believe/trust everyone else is doing his best. This helps your team avoid the blame game and to get back on track quickly.

3. There is not a clear path to achieve the team goal.

When you only have a destination but no map to get there, a group of individuals will spend precious time wasting uncoordinated effort in different directions.

Mapping the route to achieve the common team goal assists your teammates in understanding how and when all team members’ contributions come together to achieve success. A clear path often includes quick wins to gain momentum and milestones to mark the way.

4. Communication is not open, honest, and transparent.

If people on your “team” are more concerned with withholding information and opinions while masking what they really see happening, team accountability and effectiveness are severely hampered.
To behave as a team, you must communicate in a forthright manner to get on the same page, to stay on the same page, to coordinate action, and to hold each other accountable to team commitments and values. 

5. “Team” members are overly focused on their own contributions, wins, and reputations.

Ever seen a scoring basketball player point to the teammate who passed him the ball? Acknowledging contributions by teammates reinforces the notion that each person’s success is dependent on the contributions of others, no matter how small or behind-the-scenes.  No one does it alone. Recognizing each other’s contribution to the team fosters better relationships and, in turn, more trust.




WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR NEWSLETTER, BLOG OR WEBSITE? You can, as long as you include this information with it: Beth Strathman is the adviser for senior leaders who want increased productivity and profitability by becoming firebrands in their own companies. Learn more about her company Firebrand Consulting at: bethstrathman.com.

Is Your Team Culture "Incognito"?

 Incognito:  with your true identity kept secret.

Merriam-Webster.com

With the recent allegations of bullying regarding Richie Incognito of the Miami Dolphins, I started to think about the team’s leadership and its role in creating and reinforcing the team’s culture through its standards of conduct.  What would you do as a leader to define and enforce proper conduct on the job when the industry demands unrelenting, hard-hitting mental and physical toughness and violence?  What is acceptable conduct toward teammates or even opponents?  Are teammates able to navigate the contexts for when hurtful or violent behavior is OK (on the field) and when it is not (with teammates)?  Did the formal leaders (coaches) abrogate their roles by asking one teammate to develop another?

It’s a leader’s responsibility to define, model, enact and reinforce company and team culture.  Culture is the set of shared norms, experiences, and beliefs that distinguish one organization from another.  It defines what is acceptable and not acceptable within the group.   And underlying the culture are shared assumptions about the way the world works.  In some sports organizations, is there an assumption that to be physically tough on the field you have to be physically tough off the field as well?

Leaders, whether formal or informal, reinforce and redefine cultural norms based on how they act, what they pay attention to, what they praise and reinforce in others, and how they react when challenges occur. Richie Incognito is a member of the Dolphins' player council.  So, whether or not the allegations are found to be true, Incognito’s conduct – whatever it really was -- most likely has carried weight with the team to this point.  Arguably, other team members looked to him for how to behave.

In additional to leaders, superstar performers on your team must be held to the same standards as everyone else; otherwise, a mixed message is received by your employees, muddying the waters about what is expected.  Such a mixed message can signal employees that it’s everyone for himself, leading to a lack of trust and a team that doesn’t work together toward a common goal.

Are your team leaders and superstars consistently displaying the kind of behavior that reinforces your team culture?  If not, what are you prepared to do about it?

We don’t know what Richie Incognito’s behavior was at this point.  He could have conducted himself in a very appropriate manner, or he could have crossed the line with his behavior toward his teammate.  Either way, was the Miami Dolphins’ team culture evident in his behavior . . . or was it “incognito”?