Celebrating the Team!

I am not talking about celebrating as a team, or celebration the achievements of the team, but I am talking about celebrating the team itself. It is a great thing to have a good team. It is a great feeling to be a part of good team, and all that comes with the team bonding. We celebrate the fact that we are such an awesome team, a fun loving team, a high performing team - where we look out for each other, where we motivate and inspire each other, and where we have a good time together.

How many of you in your teams have a personal bond with the families of your colleagues? How many times have you gone out and bonded with the families of your team mates? This is what I call celebrating the team where you feel its worth going beyond just a professional relationship. Such a team is like an extended family and you connect with each other very well.

From pulling each other's legs without anyone taking offense, to celebrating birthdays (no it's not only about cutting a cake) and other special occasions, to maybe going out to a movie together not because you have the team budget, but because you want to! It's hard to explain the exact qualities and feelings of what makes a great team that's worth celebrating, but there have been teams of mine that I have truly felt bad to leave and have been over the moon when I bump into them during a get-together or other events.

Smells like Team Spirit!

One thing that I have sorely missed in my current organization is 'feeling' part of a team.

Now, I have worked with great people in the different teams that I have been a part of. I feel privileged to be working with them, I truly do. We have a great professional relationship going, and a very good personal connect even. But there is something that feels lacking. Something that brings everyone together at a completely different level and something that takes our relationship well beyond the pure execution duties at work.

Whereas in my previous organization where I spent a decade of my professional life, we used to celebrate a lot, and spend a lot of time together. We used to do things beyond the professional life together - some of these things being enabled by the organization itself, while a lot others we did of our own accord. Be it business outings and off-sites, be it the occasional lunches, be it the simple coffee breaks to unwind where we don't talk about work, or be it the weekend outings with the families.

Inspiration, Motivation, and High Performance!

There are those that are focused on their work and are super professional while in office. However that is not something that fully motivates me. I feel left out and wondering whether I am in the right place, when I see teams around me (physically or virtually - no thanks Facebook!) bonding and having a good time, no matter how much of an impact I am creating in my own role / small team.

I like to have a close personal bond with my colleagues and I like everyone to be as informal as possible with work dealings while at the same time being professional about their deliverable and not taking anyone for granted. Having such a relationship also brings out a high performing team where there is a healthy competition to out perform without any hard feelings or infighting. Being friendly also doesn't mean you can just walk over somebody junior.

As I think more about this, a prerequisite to this is actually having a team. This means a co-located physical team and not a team that is globally distributed. This doesn't mean 2-3 people working together and calling it a team (please, no offense meant to any of my recent and past 2-3 member teams) - it's just not the same thing!

A good team is small enough that it is a cohesive unit, is not large enough that people start forming groups within the same team, and at the same time it is large enough that people are able to backup and support each other without burnout. I'd say an immediate team of 10-12 people takes it close to perfection.

Diversity

What I have also seen is that diversity matters to a great extent. Some of the great and fun teams that I have been in have had amazing diversity - close to 50% gender parity. Having a diverse spread of experience right from fresh grads who are like a sponge willing to learn, to experienced folks who are the lighthouse of the team that we can look up to for advice and help grow ourselves professionally. Diversity is also about the regions from where the people come from and the languages they speak. There is never a dull moment in such a team as there is so much to learn from and discover about others. Each person comes with their unique quality and strengths and add so much more variety and strength to the team.

No, diversity is not a buzz word or a move to bring about equality, but it is definitely a cornerstone of great team and a great team culture. I have been in teams where the first thing that you would do when you wanted to 'chill' was to go out for a drink. Even though it was a male dominated (or male-only) team, not all males were drinkers and the one that didn't drink would feel like an outcast. On the other hand there were teams that I was in which had a good split between drinkers and non-drinkers and the non-drinkers would have their own share of fun with the mocktails and jokes about how the drinkers are getting all buzzed. Oh and don't forget the diversity of vegetarians and non-vegetarians!

Summary

It is important to build a team and foster a team culture. I would implore managers to build a high performing team of not just high academic performance, or high professional performance. There has to be high emotional quotient, high diversity, high team spirit, and high bonding. Build such a team or focus on fostering such a culture in your teams and high performance will be a by-product.

As for me... I miss some of my former teams, but all things come around in a full circle. I am privileged to be in the company of amazing and high-performing individuals who I look up to and learn a lot from, and I am waiting for the day that we become a team that I can celebrate with, or maybe even build my team that is worth celebrating!