A Leader's Mini Guide to Team Building
Building a strong team is fundamental to being an effective leader. It is the top priority, in my opinion, for every leader and leadership position. If you lead people, your role is to develop a strong team environment for their development and the overall success of those people and your business. Team building can be a bit cliché. People have team building events, do activities in the name of team building, or simply use the terms "team" and "building" together to imply they are working as a connected unit. There are two ways to look at a team and their success. A group of people that work on a similar set of priorities or roles could be defined as a team. Or there is the collection of people with a common purpose who are aligned in their goals, actions, and support for one another. Which one do you think is more successful?
There is a lot more to being a ‘real’ team than just being called one. You can often see this with sports teams. When it is just a group of players who happen to wear the same uniform but don’t find success as a collective group, something is missing. We know all the players are talented — you only get to those levels by being good at what you do. But just being good is not enough to win at almost anything, especially any team sport. And leading an effective and successful business requires a team.
I could write pages about team building and its importance, but let’s take a brief look at five things that lay the foundation for successful team building and team leadership.
Trust
The ‘T’ in team stands for trust more than anything. If you cannot build trust within the team, you will fall short of your potential. Period. I started with trust, even though it is the most difficult and will take the longest because it is that important. The more trust that is established, the stronger the team will get. This takes time. Again, I am certain you can cite multiple examples of a long-standing team that works well together finding more success. They communicate better. They support one another at a higher level. They enjoy one another and wish success for everyone equally. That is a trusting team.
People
Teams are made up of people, yes. However, it is the mix of people that make the difference. The diversity, the talents they bring, and their willingness to connect with others will define the team’s ultimate success. Each team has its own culture, and the members of that team have to believe in what they are doing together. Talent alone is not enough, as I mentioned above. To use another sports example — how many number one picks in any sport go to a team and end up failing? That team got ‘the best’ player, yet it didn’t make a difference in winning. Unless other people and pieces are added to the team, success is not realized. Rarely is any team just one ‘person’ away from success. That said, one person can tip the scales in the opposite direction quickly. Connecting people to one another and utilizing their unique talents becomes the critical element of your selections for your team.
Roles
If people alone are not the differentiator, what is? There is not just one thing. It is the combination of having the right people — skills and character doing the right things. The role a person plays is as important as the person themselves. As a leader, defining each team member’s role must happen early, be clear to the entire group, and develop over time. A team member's role is more than just the job they do, the tasks they complete, or the title they carry. Great teams have role players that help connect all parts of the team together. These roles are the glue that helps strengthen trust. ‘Role player’ is not just a sports term either. You have probably heard it before, terms like, ‘she’s the voice of reason,’ ‘he keeps us moving forward,’ or ‘she’s the positive one.’ They may sound funny, but the team relies on these people to push forward, be conscious of the group, or to pick people up when things might go sideways. In most cases, they know their role intuitively. In others, your role as a leader is to help them see how they contribute more than work or productivity to the team.
Strengths
One of the best ways to help define roles and really ensure people enjoy the role they have on the team is to leverage and connect to their strengths. In a recent article, I spoke to spending more time utilizing what strengthens you. When one can fully employ their individual strengths to help the team, engagement is heightened. Another role of the team leader is to recognize those strengths and let them be used to help the team as a whole. Imagine the power of a team of people who can spend most of their time using what they feel they are best at. Combined with trust — which eliminates unnecessary cross-team competition — everyone, including the team, flourishes.
Coaching
These pieces require feedback and ongoing development. That is what coaching is all about. Again, you can have a group of people, all working with their strengths, understanding their role, but still not finding success. As the leader, your ability to coach those talents, define and enhance the roles, and connect strengths to situations is the last piece to successful team building. Few people choose not to be successful, but equally few people can reach their full potential independently. Effective coaching is effective leadership.
Trust, finding the right people, playing the right role, leveraging strengths, and coaching are the foundation of successful team building. There is much more to each than covered here. Hopefully, this ignites your quest for further understanding of what it takes to build a team successfully. The retail world is all about team working together. It requires hard work, time, and consistency to build strong, effective teams in an environment that typically faces high turnover, many competing mindsets, and ongoing pressure for performance. It can feel as though team building is impossible. As I have said many times — if it were easy, everyone would be doing it. The best leaders make the time, remain disciplined, and are passionate about building strong teams designed for success.
How can you use these five foundations to build the team you want to lead?
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