Team work and team management - characteristics of a winning team

A cohesive, well guided and motivated team can produce results much more than the sum total of what individuals members in the team can produce individually.

Here are some tips to build an amazing team.

1) QUALITY LEADERSHIP

If the leader lacks leadership and human-handling capabilities, his team, even if empowered with the most talented persons, may fail. He must be an excellent motivator and a task master, endowed with the right mix of toughness and humaneness.

His technical knowledge need not match some of the specialists he may lead; but he should be strong enough in fundamentals so that he can sharply grasp the gross technical aspects and give the right direction to the team, leaving the finer aspects to the specialists.

His ultimate success depends on the effective management of conflicting egos and personal agendas of the various talented individuals in the team, with unwavering focus on achieving the goals.

2) ADEQUATE POWERS

The team leader must also have the capacity and freedom to pick and choose his team members. Where the team leader has personal knowledge about the strengths, capabilities and limitations of each member of the team and is able to form the team with an unbiased mindset without external influence and extraneous considerations, the very first step of team formation is well augured for tasting success.
The leader should have adequate financial powers and freedom to take his decisions. Likewise, the team members must also be divested with well defined powers and limits on financial freedom and they should be encouraged to operate within their range without referring to the leader on petty matters.

3) RIGHT DELEGATION

The 2000-year old ancient book of wisdom "Thirukkural" (Tamil- India) says: "The administrator should know which person is capable of doing which task using which means and assign THAT task to THAT person" (52-7).

4) GOAL ORIENTATION

The team leader must have clear vision about the task in hand and the goal to be achieved. Targets and time frames must be perceived to be achievable by all the team members. On the contrary, if unrealistic goals and time frames are unilaterally thrust upon the team, excessive stress and strain will be visible in the working of the team, which will prove to be counterproductive.

5) TEAM SPIRIT

A team can produce amazing results only if every member is committed to the goal to be achieved as a team and not to the personal goals and agendas. For example, in foot ball, a player who has personally scored the two previous goals should continue to play for getting more goals to his team rather than trying to achieve his hat-trick. In an effective team, each member CO-OPERATES rather than COMPETES with each other in producing the final output.

6) BALANCE

An amazing team shall comprise of the right and balanced mix of innovative, creative and daring people as well as well experienced, system-conscious and cautious people - it's like the gas pedal and the brake in a car.