No one can whistle a symphony;
it takes a whole orchestra to play it.
- Halford E. Luccock
Every leader strives to build a great team, but sometimes we don’t even have a team to begin with. Often we work with leaders who manage a large group of projects or oversee several functions in a business. At first they are a little surprised when we suggest they lead a group instead of a team. It takes a great deal of intention and effort to build great teams, and sometimes you just do not need to.
In the long run, it’s a relief to understand that your group is not and perhaps should not be a team. As a leader, you can focus on individual needs and stop trying to cultivate a team dynamic that does not exist.
On the other hand, many leaders try to lead a team as a group, attending to each person but not to the dynamic of the team. Here’s the key difference – interdependence. If you took one person out, would their absence fundamentally impact the rest of the team? Would you lose exponential productivity instead of incremental gains?
What is a team?
The definition for a team that we like best comes from research by Katzenbach and Smith: a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, set of performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.
How to Build a Great team
First, it’s important to note that leadership is conspicuously absent in the above definition. The higher performing your team, the less leadership you need. Sure, as the team begins there is a lot for the leader to do (see the tips below).
As the team gains momentum though, it’s best for leaders to get out of the way. The leadership role should transition to a largely external facing job: finding and securing resources, spotting and stopping threats, and managing key external relationships with other teams, clients, and stakeholders.
If you are in fact trying to build a team, here are some tips to consider.
Get the right number on your team.
Teams are made of small numbers of people. If you take one person away, the team would be radically changed and much less effective. Add people as long as each one delivers exponential increases in performance. Stop when the relationship becomes linear. Your entire company is probably not a team, so it’s not helpful to refer to them as one big team. Accepting interpersonal risk does not mean accepting incompetence.
Ensure teammates are complementary and integrated.
A group of sales people is not a team. Adding one more sales person to a group makes the group incrementally more effective. That person’s skills are additive rather than complementary. Adding a crewman who operates different systems and sees different information from the pilots to a helicopter team makes the overall warfighting capability of the team radically increase. As a leader you should be able to articulate the unique and complementary ability each person beings to the team.
A great tool to map out and integrate your people is a user guide for each person!
Craft and maintain a common purpose.
This is the SINGLE MOST IMPORTANT thing you can do as a leader. Without a common goal of winning more games, solving thorny problems, or supporting the company’s vision in a particular way, your team cannot thrive. Don’t stop at a mission statement though. You should create an iron clad team charter that explicitly spells out the mission, who is welcome and who is not, the values that drive behaviors, and what happens when members don’t abide by the norms. We create a simple charter on every team adventure, and even over a 48 hour event they help build culture and navigate uncertainty. If you don’t have one yet, prioritize this now!
Shift accountability to team driven.
You will know you have a strong team when they beat you to disciplining a member for acting outside the charter. Teams hold themselves accountable. When you start hearing people say things like “that’s not how we do things around here” instead of “you’ll get in trouble for that if you’re caught,” you know it’s time for you to transition to the external facing leadership role mentioned above.
