The Difference Between Good & Bad Teams & The Perils Of Ignoring The Invisible Team - He Said She Said Edition

From the coffee on your breakfast table to the fuel in your car, to the education of your children, everything in life is a team effort.  So in this week’s He Said, She Said Michael, and I explore the trials and triumphs that go into the formation and success or failure of a team.

He Said...Michael

Good Team/Bad Team

For both teams the foundation is people.  It doesn’t mean the good team is filled with incredibly talented people, and the bad team is devoid of talent.  It is the blend, focus, desire, adaptability, and accountability that makes the difference between the two groups.

Blend:  Marketing makes money, Administration is the conduit between research and development, manufacturing, and sales.  Each “segment” of a company is necessary for the other to function, and each requires distinct skills to accomplish their tasks well but do I need all stars in administration?  No, I need competent, reliable people who possess integrity and buy into the company’s mission and values.  I need all stars in my sales department because without generating revenue my business can’t compete.

Don’t let the words all stars blind you to the full meaning of blend.  I also need personalities that check their egos at the door and realize they are each participant's, who succeed or fail as a part of a team.  If anyone thinks he or she is bigger than the team, the collaborative effort does not fulfill its true potential, and that team is destined to break up.  If the team effort falters badly, the malaise can affect other team members, and bickering and resentment will rear their ugly heads in some guise within the work environment.  This is why leadership at the top and within any group is so important because it pulls this weed from the workplace before it has a chance to establish itself and choke the team.

When a producer makes a television show and casts an unknown in the lead he or she is overjoyed at the opportunity he or she has been given and works all hours and to the best of his or her ability to make the show a success.  There is no ambiguity the actor or actress is working for you (the producer).  The show is a hit, and now the actor’s profile is visible to the public.  His agent says many nice things to his client, and the client is inundated with requests for interviews and offers of new projects.  He or she has gone from famine to feast in 12 episodes.  

In season two the actor is working with you.  Season two is a hit and so season three begins to film.  Now the actor has a bigger trailer, substantially more money and sadly the agent who is well aware of the fragility of fame massages the client’s ego and wants to make as much money as possible rather than build his or her clients career.  Now the actor feels like “somebody” and the team becomes secondary to the individual.  The smart thespians keep their feet on the ground and focus on their job.  The egos on legs make life difficult for some members of the crew because now they feel that you are working for them and in a myopic way of seeing things you and the rest of the crew are working for the actor.  There will always be stars in any team at any company but as with the participants in the nightly sky above us a real shining star knows it shines brightest with the support of its colleagues who frame it.

Focus And Desire
A team’s performance is tied to its focus and desire.   Devoid of personal opinions, ego, and personal agenda what is the team focused upon?  If a team is not focused, personal and group performance will suffer.  Focus establishes measurable results in effort, time and money expended on a project.  It ignites a desire within the individual and the group and facilitates true collaboration because everyone is pulling in the same direction.

The Biggest Lies Perpetuated By Social Media

What used to be a bumper sticker on cars and trucks now faces me each day on social media wherein I’m inundated with one-minute philosophies and canned opinions.  Some are amazing insights into life and business, most are not and some are downright misleading and harmful.  You have to be reliable and just showing up is two-thirds of success fall into the latter categories.

You have to be reliable;  Reliable at what?  Mediocrity, Competence, Excellence?  It’s too vague to have any value.  Reliable only becomes valuable when it is measurable and to a high standard.  An amateur golfer can hit one shot in every game that would be the envy of any professional.  The difference is the successful professional hits myriad shots on every hole equal to that one shot of a high standard achieved by the amateur.  Consistently working to a high standard with the desire to improve or the potential to reach a high standard has value to any company or team.  The employee who just shows up on time serves their time and leaves on time isn’t enough of a value proposition to any enterprise.

Adaptability

My friend is a sailor.  He regularly takes his boat out to sea and the requirements to reach his destination are always the same.  A crew, sails, engine, rudder, and wheel are the foundation of every journey, but current, wind, access and personnel make each trip unique.  The skipper must constantly assess the terrain and use the resources at his disposal to reach his chosen destination.  A good team will be focused but will also be agile and adaptive to needed changes to reach its destination on time and on budget.

Accountability

The Perils Of The Invisible Team

The above is José Mourinho one of the most successful managers in football (soccer history)and awarded the accolade of being the best Portuguese coach of the century by the Portuguese Football Federation. (1.) In 2015, he masterminded Chelsea Football Club to becoming the Premier League champions in the richest and most competitive league in the world.  In August of 2015, he signed a new four-year contract at the club and in December of 2015 after losing nine of sixteen league games his team of champions playing all, but three of the same opponents languished at the bottom of the division resulting in Mourinho being fired from his position as manager.  So what makes a team of “winners” decline into a team of “losers” in less than twelve months?  In a word accountability.

Each year a business is presented with opportunities and challenges and each year a manager of a team must assess his strengths and minimize his weaknesses.  The past is a clue to the future, but it is not a guarantee of future success.  That glory is always merit based and must be earned.  Complacency kills, so the first mistake of this manager was not asking and answering the questions that the new business year presented to him.  The priority for loyalty must always be to the company and team over any one individual.

Sitting down behind Mourinho to his left in the picture is former Chelsea FC doctor Eva Carneiro.  Prior to his team’s decline Mourinho was publicly angry and dismissive of the team doctor stating he was unhappy with her, calling her na?ve and banning her from her position on the bench. She was later dismissed from the club and had to resort to the courtroom to seek recompense.  Is it any coincidence that her dismissal and public embarrassment by Mourinho led to a slump in the team’s performance or did the double whammy of dismissing someone who cared for the team members and an accomplished female being ridiculed in such a public manner come back and bite Mourinho in his rear end?  Results speak for themselves.  If the team leader had controlled himself better in the initial disagreement and not let ego usurp judgment, the event would not have happened.  Once it had occurred if Mourinho had accepted responsibility for his actions and apologized the team would probably still have prospered and given their all for the manager on the pitch.  Instead, he chose to posture at the expense of the team resulting in his and her dismissal and an expensive season of futility for the Chelsea Organization.

Mourinho’s trail of poor choices ignored the rules of business and the team of personnel that gives life to a business.  He also offended females throughout the country.  In the main each player has an invisible teammate who he goes home to each night.  She is his greatest confidant, supporter, and rock to lean upon for encouragement and advice.  This “invisible team” of mother’s to the players children, wives and partners have just as much influence on a team as a manager, and a good manager is always appreciative and cognizant of that fact.  Did Mourinho become a bad manager overnight?  Of course not but hopefully his enforced sabbatical from his profession will remind him of the importance of accountability at all levels within a team.

She Said...Joanna
This week’s topic was my choice and I’m going to be a bit cheeky really; I hope Michael and you will indulge me! Today there is going to be a He Said She Said WITHIN a He Said She Said. I decided to ask my children about what they thought about teams (what makes a good one? A bad one?) and what they would do (or had done) if they found themselves in a bad team. Here are there replies…She Said is up first.

My 13 year old – a girl

You know you’re in a bad team if…

• You don’t communicate
• You don’t work together
• You don’t share each other’s ideas and actually use them
• People judge you on looks (or other criteria), rather than on what you can do
• People don’t do what they are actually supposed to be doing
• People are not doing their work correctly
• People are not following by the rules that the leader applies

You know you’re in a good team when…

• Everyone’s trying their best
• You can rely on each other to get the job done right
• There’s a connection between people
• You’re having fun and it’s enjoyable for everyone
• You discover what everyone is best at doing

Have you ever been in a bad team, and if so how did you handle it?

I was put in a team with two others for a school project but the other two girls just didn’t seem to want to do any work. I tried to get them engaged; by asking questions about what they know about the topic or what they might prefer or like to do but I got no answers. I tried telling a teacher but the first one I told said to me, ‘Stop telling tales!’.

So I told a 2nd teacher, the one who assigned us the project, and he just told me to do it by myself. I was frustrated but I was really into the topic and wanted to get a good grade so I did all the research, got items printed off, even bought all the supplies needed for presenting our project.

I asked the other two girls to simply cut out and glue some photos – that’s all they had to do and they wouldn’t even do that. In the end I did do it all by myself. I got a good grade – but it didn’t really mean anything to me because they got the same grade for doing nothing.

Shortly afterwards I got put on another project with one of the same girls. When it looked like she was going to keep on taking advantage of me I decided to try a different tactic. I just stopped doing any work and this girl started moaning at me and asking me why I wasn’t doing anything. Eventually she got on with it and once I saw she had got about 50% of the project done I said, ‘Good, NOW I can start to work!’

Only a little while later, in another subject, she and I got put together again on a project. This time though, because of the way the project responsibilities had to be split we could work separately and then bring our contributions together to make one larger project. I did all my work and got a good grade. The other girl didn’t do any work and failed the project.

Thing is, I would have preferred to have just worked as a proper team each time – it would have been more fun.

 My 9 year old – a boy:

You know you’re in a weak* team if…

• You see someone who lacks confidence; who doesn’t seem to know what they are doing
• If people just argue over everything
• You can’t trust them as friends
• People do it their own way, and don’t do it the way it’s supposed to be done

*I used the word bad but my boy rephrased it as ‘weak’ – it was an interesting choice of word I thought so I included it here.

 You know you’re in a good team when…

• People know what they are supposed to do
• They want to be good people and friends to each other
• They are enemies to other teams but don’t think that they are better than the others
• People don’t disappoint the others
• Even if they don’t win they say ,’Come on, it’s not the worst that could have happened’

Have you ever been in a weak team, and if so what did you do about it?

If I’m in a weak team and I want to make it better I try to make the other people confident; tell them that they can do it better than the other teams. I would help them think clearly so they know what to do; tell them what to do if needed. I would help my friends, and if they can’t do one certain bit, are stuck and can’t get past it I will tell them, ‘You can do it!’. If it’s like a puzzle or something I would come and help them. You’ve got to make them not enemies and to trust one another. And that’s what I believe.

 So there you have it – a He Said She Said out of the mouths of babes. Certainly some interesting concepts and viewpoints on teams, conflict, competition and approaches to improving team work, I think you’ll agree, that apply equally well to the world of work as they do in school.

Even Houdini would find it difficult to overcome the constraints of the current LinkedIn algorithm, but Joanna and I have a solution, but it will only work with your help. If you think this article worthy, please share it with your friends and colleagues.  Thank you.

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References Michael

1. José Mourinho  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jos%C3%A9_Mourinho

Mourinho unhappy with his team doctor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cq0sThI6wVQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1NlKMozQIk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5TIYfIkbb2U

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/mar/07/eva-carneiro-chelsea-doctor-jose-mourinho-constructive-dismissal-public-apology

Photography References:

José Mourinho  By Brian Minoff- London Pixels (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Sail boats tacking near Britannia Bridge: By No machine-readable author provided. Velela assumed (based on copyright claims). [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Film set by By Cinema man (Own work) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

Bumper sticker on EV. By jurvetson [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

Michael Jordan and Phil Jackson.  By Steve Lipofsky www.Basketballphoto.com [GFDL (https://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0-3.0-2.5-2.0-1.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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