Building Effective Teams

In my book 4 Secrets of High Performing Organizations, I point out that successful leaders have four things in common:

• Successful leaders develop and communicate a clarity of purpose and direction.
• Successful leaders develop and engaged and committed workforce.
• Successful leaders skillfully execute the things that matter.
• Successful leaders build strong, mutually beneficial relationships with important outside constituencies.

Teamwork is a hallmark of an engaged and committed workforce.  The September 2007 issue of Selling Power has an interesting article called How to Build Teamwork.  The article is based on an interview with Phil Geldhart, CEO of Eagles Flight, a training company (www.EaglesFlight.com).

In the article, Mr. Geldhart suggests 7 principles for building a strong team.

Phil Geldhart’s 7 Principles for Building a Strong Team

1. The team must have a leader who is responsible for delivering the outcome that the team is expected to achieve.
2. The team must have unanimous focus on a quantifiable goal.
3. The team must have clearly defined goals.  Every member need to know what he or she needs to do on a day to day basis to help the team achieve its goals.
4. The team must be willing to share its resources with one another.
5. The team must have frequent, effective communication.
6. The team must have consistent, united and enthusiastic effort.
7. Team members must periodically suppress their own egos.

I like what Mr. Geldhart has to say about teamwork.  His thoughts are consistent with my thinking on teams and teamwork.  In my team model, I suggest that successful teamwork is the result of three key components:

• Successful teams have a clearly defined purpose or charter – similar to Mr. Geldhart’s second principle.
• Successful teams effectively manage three key internal factors: Infrastructure, Trust and Spirit.
• Successful teams effectively manage relationships with key constituencies external to the team.

I will discuss each of these components in my next few posts.

That’s it for today.  Thanks for reading.  Log on to my website www.BudBilanich.com for more common sense.  Check out my other blog: www.SuccessCommonSense.com for common sense advice on becoming the career and life success you are meant to be and to get a copy of my new ebook Star Power: Common Sense Ideas for Career and Life Success.

I’ll see you around the web, and at Alex’s Lemonade Stand.

Bud

PS: Speaking of Alex’s Lemonade Stand – my fundraising page is still open.  Please go to www.FirstGiving.com/TheCommonSenseGuy to read Alex’s inspiring story and to donate if you can.