Five Key Elements to Managing Teams

As explained by Patrick Lencioni in “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team”, senior executives, middle management and assigned team leaders, must foster and expect that team member activities include the following characteristics:

1. Trust among team members (NOTE: easier said than done...trust must be demonstrated)

Building trust takes time. If trust is lacking it must be the responsibility of the team leader to focus first on building trust, i.e. getting team members to open up (among the team) and expose their weaknesses and fears to each other. In some cases, a team building exercise can be utilized. In certain business cases, due to time pressures, the leader may have to take responsibility for building trust or change the team to achieve the necessary level of trust for team success. Until everyone is willing to trust the other members of the team, progress towards team success will be limited.

2. Prepare to engage in debate around ideas.

Disagreements can lead to conflict, but conflict can be good. If ideas are not presented and debated, the team will miss opportunities to find the best solutions to problems. Respect for the thoughts and ideas of the other team members will be developed through healthy debate.

3. Learn to commit to decisions and plans of action.

Team results will only come about as a result of team commitment to team decisions, this includes agreeing on the specifics of action plans. If some team members are not consistent with their commitments, the team will not succeed.

4. Hold one another accountable against their plans.

Team members must be prepared to check among themselves to assure progress and overcome obstacles to progress. Ad hoc meetings may be necessary to coordinate actions between departments or groups to assure progress.

5. Focus on achieving collective results.

The vision and/or mission of the team must be accepted by all the team members and critical goals viewed as the collective responsibility of the team. If a return to profitability is a critical goal of an executive team, priorities and time commitments must be pulled from elsewhere. Focusing on results that in any way does not support the critical goal(s) of the team will lead to team failure.

Mr. Lencioni’s diagnosis is helpful in understanding team dynamics. Yet, a straight forward prescription for building successful teams is to A. Build attitudes of trust among team members, B. Communicate openly among team members, and C. Focus on common goals that are related to a clear purpose. The purpose, of course, must be based on the business vision, values and mission of the company or, at the very least, the specific mission assigned the team by company management.