Building a Winning Team Culture

It is my opinion that one of the most important jobs of a leader is building team culture. One of the reasons I love the Atlanta Braves so much is that you can tell how much the team loves being together. Alex Anthopoulos and Brian Snitker recognize that a winning team is more than one (or two) star player(s). Teams can't have winning seasons on the back of a single player; the same is true in business. They relied on their coaches to build the best as true leaders do.

Among the compliments I’ve received following my announcement, two of my favorites were 1) that my servant leadership was appreciated, and 2) that I built a ‘fiercely loyal team’.?The creation of this 'fiercely loyal team' was no accident. I'm going out on a limb and saying it was because of my leadership.

During my time leading Professional Services (later renamed Partner Solutions) at Alegeus, I had between four and six individual teams at a time. Although we had small pods, or teams; it was important to me that all 25ish of us served as one team. Each team may have had different projects; but we shared one mission. Here are some of the practices I put in place to create a winning team culture.

• Trust first – I know many people say you have to earn trust; I like to flip that expression on its head. You don’t have to earn my trust, but please don’t break it. If you hire people or work with people, why do you want to start out on the wrong foot? You saw something in this person that made you want to hire them or work with them, right? Then act like it. Trust them! Work together to solve a problem, build a great product, establish a team, or whatever your mission is, trust each other to meet your shared goal.
• Learn through failure - Did you know that people aren’t perfect? No really! We make mistakes, and most of the time they don’t result in anything catastrophic. It is usually something we can try again…differently. It is said that Thomas Alva Edison failed 2774 times before he created a patent-worthy design of an electric lightbulb. If he didn’t persevere, we may still be in the dark. Don’t belittle your people for mistakes, help them learn through them. In fact, go a step further; encourage your team members to share the lessons learned through their failure so others don’t have to make the same mistake. Want to go all in? As a leader, admit your own failures.
• Find strengths in differences – I know this is going to come as a big shock, but did you know people are all different? We come from different backgrounds: personal and professional. We have different skills, learning styles, personalities, motivations, and hobbies. If you truly want to make a difference and be an effective leader, get to know your people. Be aware of your clients, projects, and products and find the best person for the job based on what they have to offer.
• Accessibility – The bigger your team, the harder this is; but it is so important. Set the example by being available to your team; from this they will learn to be available to each other; as well as other internal and external partners. I'll share a future post on some ideas to do this effectively.

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