Team Building lessons from Sports to Corporates!!

I do engage myself in various sports activities that enhance my overall well-being. I am an avid sports enthusiast, particularly enjoying cricket and volleyball. These team sports have not only instilled in me the values of collaboration and teamwork but also taught me the importance of strategic thinking and adaptability.?

While the current thinking in business schools holds that all someone with an idea needs to succeed are focus, clarity, and a good business plan, I have found out from my sports engagement work that bringing together a great team that’s united by strong motivation, determination, and bravery is much more important!!

My experience from cricket ground holds high relevance in corporate life and I can relate much better when I work with my corporate team members! As we need right combination of team members for our dream team in cricket, the challenge is in knowing what makes these dream teams work on the field and similarly in our corporate offices!!

Let’s focus on few key areas to strengthen our understanding about team building:

1.The Building Blocks – Talent, Team Climate and Collective Pride!

Very often, execution is the defining element and therefore the stumbling-block. It is one thing to know what to do, quite another or actually put that into practice. To be able to do that, you need good teams with good team-players, because quality execution often requires one set of people to help another set to deliver. The team must possess that work ethic and the players must be happy enough to follow it. So, whether you are playing a competitive sport or running a company, the same 3 things go into making a good team: great talent, a healthy team climate that is conducive to performance, and collective pride!

2. Surrendering the “Me for the We”

Attitude needs to be cultivated long-term and good teams are quick to encourage and reward good attitude while nipping errant behaviour in the bud. Good teams become great when players trust each other enough to surrender the ‘me’ for the ‘we’. It’s an engaging thought!

Surrendering the “Me for the We” does not in any way imply that individuals must kill their own ambition. It only suggests an alignment of individual goals with team goals and if there is a situation where these goals are in conflict, team goals mast take precedence. It also suggests a culture of co-operation and helping those who are falling behind in performance (and there will always be such people or businesses) to improve and do better.

3. Interdependence

In all businesses as in sport, there are always jobs or roles that are more visible and glamorous. Sales and marketing are like strikers who score goals and create records. Investment consultants are stars, like opening batsman. HR and TA are the importance of the holding mid-fielder position in football. This player is the tireless runner whose job is to nip the opposition moves in the bud.

Without getting onto the score sheet, without making the dramatic goal-line save, the mid-fielder stands like a rock and is only noticed when absent! Just as it is with a good HR Leader, the mid-fielder is an integral part of all good teams and among the earliest to be on the team sheet. To that extent this player is like a good non-striker in cricket who is the key to rotating the strike in a partnership and ensures that the better player has more of the strike!

4. Holding Teams Together

In creating the ‘we’, integrating all the diverse groups is critical. Diversity enriches teams by bringing in varied cultures and ways of approaching issues. The job of the leader is to ensure that there is free mingling of players to enhance knowledge and also to build team spirit. If the star players are aloof, or worse, disrespectful, it can create discord and dissent within a side.

A climate of camaraderie reduces perceived risk in situations when teams are trying something new or innovative. All experiments come with risk attached and the feeling that we are all in it together only helps share the risk. The key to trust and co-operation within a team is fairness and equality.

5. Stars Can Make or Break a Team

Players with a bad attitude, however talented they may be, can prove to be a burden on the team. While the team needs them as match-winners, they could end up harming the team in the long run by spoiling team dynamics.

If some people in the team believe that they bring more to the table than others, it results in a fractured team. Even if people come from different areas, the value that they bring to the team must be on par. The roles they play may be different; some might seem to have more critical roles than others, but every role must be respected. Mutual respect makes collaboration easy and the camaraderie in the team is largely due to this respect that team members have for each other.

6. Continuous Improvement

Another indicator of good team climate is the desire to improve continuously – both as individuals and as a team in all aspects of the business. In the world of cricket, there is tremendous appreciation for teams like Sri Lanka and South Africa that came on to the international scene later than the others but took very little time to catch up.

Teams like Australia, which have been on the top, work very hard to stay two steps ahead at all times. The desire to excel can only materialize if the team is willing to stretch and is open to trying out new things.?

7. Team Bonding

The ultimate test that the team is in good shape is the positive body language that creates the buzz in the dressing room. An optimistic attitude can be highly contagious. It manifests itself as the focus on the goal, the eagerness to deliver, seizing the opportunity and in going for the kill when the opposition is down.

Communication is the final barometer to test team health. Lack of communication, or one way communication, can spell trouble for any team. Ideally, communication would involve clarity of goals and roles, a respect for the views of all team members, a climate conducive to debate and discussion and finally, walking the talk. The last is critical.

One of the signs of happy and successful team-bonding is the pride that individuals have in not only their own success but also in that of their team mates.?

8. Collective Pride

Collective pride over the team’s success is the best glue any team can wish for! Reliving a successful team climate and recounting the experiences and challenges of winning, reinforces the team bond apart from generating confidence. People work not merely for salaries and perks, but for good companies, as more and more organizations are discovering!

Finally, as Our Indian Test Star – Mr. Rahul Dravid says, the team is like a pot. Some people put into the pot; others draw from it. Who puts in and who takes out depends on the people as well as the moment. Ultimately, a team that has more people putting in rather than taking out is a happy team, a team more likely to win!

Finally, who is a Team Player?

One who:

• has a ‘greater-than-me’ perspective.
• puts more into the team pot than he takes out.
• is willing to give up the “me” for the “we”.
• is willing to pass the ball especially when the other guy is in a better position to score.
• is willing to play in whatever position the team requires him to.
• gives 100 per cent, every time, under all circumstances.
• plays by the team rules.
• is encouraging and is happy to see team mates do well.
• is proud of belonging to his team
• is unafraid to express his opinions.