Teamwork: Why it’s Not About the Team

You’ve heard the clichés time and time again:

“There’s No ‘I’ in Team.”

“We Not Me.”

“The Team Comes First.”

Umm maybe not. Whilst teamwork is essential (especially in our fast-paced ‘work with everyone’ workplace), these clichés encourage us to disregard the individual in service to the team. That simply doesn’t work and here’s why: A team is fundamentally a collection of individuals, whom all possess different strengths. As leaders, we should be acknowledging individuals and addressing the needs of each person – every ‘I’, every ‘me’ – on the team.

A team is only as strong as each individual member

I take (and need to find more) time to find out what makes each member of my team tick and then connect the pieces to create a cohesive team. It’s a bit like assembling a 3-D puzzle. There’s no ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach to doing this. However, try the six steps below. They help me in understanding more about the individuals I work with and lead. Here are my steps to creating a high-performing team.

Step 1: Set the direction but vary the modes of transportation

Every person on your team must be fully aware of what you’re collectively trying to achieve. It’s a no brainer. And then every individual must be able to translate this macro-level purpose into specific, individual actions. In the best-selling book “The Wisdom of Teams,” authors Smith and Katzenbach explain that the best teams spend a great deal of time shaping a purpose and then translating this purpose into specific performance goals for each person. I think of it like this: We have one direction that we’re travelling to – but each of us may take a different plane, train, or automobile to get there. And that’s absolutely fine, as long as we all understand the end destination and agree to the date upon which we will arrive.

Step 2: Think passion, not strength

Much is made of playing to someone’s strengths and putting them in a position where their experience and capabilities can be leveraged. Sounds logical doesn’t it? However, I’ve found that people aren’t always aware of where their strengths lie – or think that they are deficient in areas that they merely haven’t developed yet. So, instead of asking my team members, “What are your strengths and weaknesses?” I ask them “What do you love to do?” That sparks a conversation where their true passions come through. Once that happens, we can talk about what roles they’re interested in or what skill sets they might need to cultivate. And that, naturally, brings out the best in people – it makes them shine. It’s a lovely process to watch. Why not try this approach on yourself? I did and it made me change the way I work (there’s another blog there somewhere!). So the question is, “what do you love to do”?

Step 3: Embrace the weaknesses

We all have weaknesses, challenges, and shortcomings in our skill sets. One of mine is numbers. I transpose digits so 861 might become 681 which can lead to all sorts of challenges from writing down phone numbers to budget calculations (thank goodness for technology). If you know everything and can do everything well – who is going to want to work with you? As individuals we don’t need to know all the answers. I encourage my team to contact others who have skills or knowledge they can draw on. If every team member knows that they can shout when they need help, it builds a system of reciprocity and trust: you helped me this time and I’ll have your back next time. It also creates a safe space for failure. It may seem paradoxical, but acknowledging individual weakness can actually promote team strength.

Step 4: Throw out the hierarchy I’ve been working for 30 years and there are still things I learn from someone who’s fresh out of uni or starting an apprenticeship. I aim to make my team, and the virtual teams I’m part of, as flat as possible so that each individual can speak up and share their ideas. This approach works wonders – as evidenced by a New York Times Magazine report entitled “What Google Learned from Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team.” Google researchers found that in team meetings, the members of the highest performing teams speak in roughly the same proportion and shift leadership roles as topics change. As one of the researchers concludes: “As long as everyone got a chance to talk, the team did well. But if only one person or a small group spoke all the time, the collective intelligence declined.” Do you ensure that everyone in your team gets her or his 5 minutes?

Step 5: Promote diversity – in non-traditional ways It goes without saying that companies should promote diversity. And, to create high-performing teams, we need to hire people with fundamentally different attitudes and mindsets. As a recent Harvard Business School article explains, people should surround themselves with teammates, “whose differences in perspectives, habits of mind, and core assumptions challenge and push them in new directions.” I’ve seen this in action time and again: individual differences truly do drive better teams. An idea can be turned into a brilliant campaign when individuals build on each other’s work.

Step 6: Nip issues in the bud Despite the conventional wisdom of putting the team first, if a single individual is unhappy, it can suck the rest of the team into a negative spiral. Negativity breeds negativity. You need to catch this early and work out options for the unhappy person with them. What’s the issue? Is it personal or work orientated? If it’s work - can it be solved while they’re in the current role? Perhaps they could apply for a different role within the team? Perhaps they could move to a different team within the company? Or perhaps with some coaching to help them process their dissatisfaction, they may overcome their negativity. (You’d be surprised how many issues can be resolved when someone’s feelings are acknowledged.)

I’ve quoted some lofty institutions and research above but if you remember just one thing from reading this blog I hope it is this: don’t rely on management books and articles to create high-performing teams, talk to your employees and listen. It’s amazing how simple conversations can deliver so much information. Armed with this insight, you can truly do what’s best for the ‘me’ as well as the ‘we.’

What have I forgotten? Are there other ways that you focus on individuals to drive team results? I’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

First published on LinkedIn, April 2016