Team Building

Published by: Dennis Crowell, Executive Coach and Consultant .

Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive challenge, both because it is so powerful and rare.

Members of teams with an absence of trust...

-Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one another

-Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback

-Hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of responsibility

-Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes of others without attempting to clarify them

-Fail to recognize and tap into one another's skills and experiences

-Waste time and energy managing their behaviors for effect

-Hold grudges

-Dread meetings and find reasons to avoid spending time together

Members of trusting teams...

-Admit weaknesses and mistakes

-Ask for help

-Accept questions and input about their areas of responsibility

-Give one another the benefit of the doubt before arriving at a negative conclusion

-Take risks in offering feedback and assistance

-Appreciate and tap into one another's skills and experiences

-Focus time and energy on important issues, not politics

-Offer and accept apologies without hesitation

-Look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group

Team effectiveness requires team members to identify the single most important contribution that each of their peers makes to the team as well as the one area that they must either improve upon or eliminate for the team is effectiveness.