The Characteristics of an Effective Team

In my formative years in a life of professional sport, I took for granted the importance of teamwork. It felt like a cliché…after all, it was pretty obvious that if we wanted to win, it wouldn’t be as a result of a batch of individual random acts.

I believe the importance of teamwork is well understood by the CROs I’ve engaged with. And the role has a specific duty around improving collaboration between sales, marketing, customer success and service teams (as well as product, operations, and other teams). But what I see less of is a practical approach to ensuring that teamwork actually happens. And less so, how CROs can judge how effective their teams are operating together.

In order to encourage brilliant teamworking, CROs need to deploy some simple practical tactics and techniques – and ones which can be measured so they know what’s working.

Here’s a basic formula that I like to use when building and judging effective teams:

1. A clear goal ??

A clear goal is necessary to ensure that all team members know what the team objective is and what has to be done for it to be achieved

2. Results driven structure ??

Team members need to understand how they’ll be rewarded for individual effort and outcomes

3. Competent team players ??

Everyone across the team needs to be (and perceived as) credible, possessing the essential skills and abilities to perform

4. Unified commitment ??

A sense of ‘teamship’ with basic rules needs to exist in order to foster team spirit

5. Collaborative climate ??

A collaborative climate requires a trade-off between individual competitive efforts and co-operative efforts of team members

6. Standards of excellence ??

Group members should have high expectations of others, and call each other to account

7. External support and recognition ??

Teams will perform better when they receive external, as well as internal, recognition

8. Principled leadership ??

Authentic leadership, reflecting individual values, needs to be applied consistently and fairly to all players in the team

Building an effective team is not an overnight task, of course. But starting with a basic framework (like this one) creates a decent foundation.

One lesson I’ve learned when landing this framework is to be totally transparent with the team on what I’m trying to achieve. In the past, I have taken my team offsite, shared my desire to be a part of a fantastic team, and asked them how we can achieve the standards required. I’ve started with this list and asked them, individually, to rank where we think we are today. We’ve then discussed and set targets on where we should be by the next quarter.

In practice, what’s followed is any number of actions across the areas, for example, improving the exec-level vision, clarifying some KPIs, harmonising rewards, etc.

Taking this more inclusive approach has undoubtedly proved more effective. It’s also allowed me to get to know my team better…and witness the more passive-aggressive team members or “No/Nos” (see John Kotter’s great book “A Sense of Urgency”).

I’d love to hear what challenges you’re encountering when trying to improve teamwork – and what tactics are proving successful. Let me know!

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