Building a Powerful Team

I used to think there was some ‘hidden voodoo’ involved with building a powerful team……..and maybe there is……I have been involved with team building for most of my adult life. I have learned that whether you are at church, on your local city council or in a huge corporation, good team building is an ‘art’ and also necessary for the health of any organization.

If I could pick just 2 things out of the many things that I feel are crucial to team building they would be:

1.)    Do not pick people that always agree with you. The quickest way to ultimate failure in business is to form a team of ‘head-nodders’.  If I have a team of 10 people, I make it a point to add at least 2 people that I usually would not associate with. I prefer young folks with an open mind and less experience. If you run a company that needs ‘out of the box’ thinking, do not be surprised when you get ‘traditional’ input if you pick only ‘traditional’ people for the team. Also, if everyone agrees with you, you are probably going to miss some really obvious blunders.

2.)    Give team members room to fail. Building a team of people and allowing no room for failure is a sure way to go out of business before you can get your business off the ground.  People must be held accountable but they must also be given room to make mistakes. In fact, until you have tasted failure, I contend that you cannot fully know success.

I love building teams and I have to admit that one of the greatest gratifications in business is when a team comes together and all the chemistry seems to ‘click’. Each person will know their role and will contribute as required. Maybe we’ll add a few more items in the coming days regarding successful teams.

Your thoughts?

kml

2009