Vikki-Lee O'Meara  
At the center of every high
performance team is a common purpose - a mission that rises above and beyond
each of the individual team members. To be successful, the team's interests and
needs come first. This requires "we-opic" vision (What's in it for we?), a
challenging step up from the common "me-opic" mindset.
Effective team players
understand that personal issues and personality differences are secondary to
team demands. This does not mean abandoning who you are or giving up your
individuality. On the contrary, it means sharing your unique strengths and
differences to move the team forward. It is this "we-opic" focus and vision -
this cooperation of collective capability - that empowers a team and generates
synergy, the power of teamwork.
Cooperation means working
together for mutual gain-sharing responsibility for success and failure and
covering for one another on a moment's notice. It does not mean competing with
one another at the team's expense, withholding important data or information to
"one-up" your peers, or submitting to group think by going along, so as not to
make waves. These are rule breakers that are direct contradictions to the team -
first mindset.
High performance teams
recognize that it takes a joint effort to synergize, generating power above and
beyond the collected individuals. It is with this spirit of cooperation that
effective teams learn to capitalize on individual strengths and offset
individual weaknesses, using diversity as an advantage.
Effective teams also understand
the importance of establishing cooperative systems, structures, metrics,
incentives and rewards. We get what we inspect, not what we expect. Think about
it. Do you have team job descriptions, team performance reviews and team reward
systems? Do you recognize people by pitting them against standards of
excellence, or one another? What are you doing to cultivate a team-first,
cooperative environment in this competitive, "me-opic" world?Vikki-Lee :-)
Dec 16th 2010 02:11