T*E*A*M
Ensuring Teamwork works!
Great teams ensure that the sum of the parts is greater than the whole. From successful moon-landing to winning world cups, how the teams come together for a common objective is what makes the difference.
For me, Team stands for
T = Trust
E = Empathy & Emotional Intelligence
A = Appreciation
M = Mentorship
Trust
Without Trust, a Team is nothing. A distrustful team will have people looking over their shoulder, gossiping about colleagues and creating balance sheets of credits and debits of favours! King Leonidas of the spartans explains the making of a Phalanx to Ephialtes in the movie 300—
“Your father should have taught you how our phalanx works. We fight as a single, impenetrable unit. That is the source of our strength. Each Spartan protects the man to his left from thigh to neck with his shield”
Imagine trusting your life to your neighbour — that is what trust is all about. It is this trust that builds the camaraderie in the armed forces, in circuses where they perform death-defying acts and in awesome families and organisations where it is implicit —
“Don’t worry, I have got your back”
Empathy
Understanding what the other person is going through and trying to figure out the rationale behind his/her actions is an art in itself. It needs you to think beyond ‘I’, credit for work and hierarchy. I have been pissed off when my ‘superiors’ used my work to portray themselves in a positive light without according credit. Then I came to know about their being in the firing line, that actually called for desperate measures. Invalid — yes, but could be better handled. Working as a team will enable the whole team to stay safe. Taking some load off colleagues who have become new parents, are undergoing a personal crisis and are new to the scene are actions that will go a long way in forging strong ties.
The caveat — you shouldn’t be taken for a ride — know the difference between being used and abused.
Appreciation
In the TV series Suits, Harvey and his boss Jessica demonstrate the fine art of appreciation very well. Inviting Mike to ‘grown-up’ boardrooms, delegating strategic assignments or even provide passes for plays and games — they take appreciation on a ‘you-need-to-earn-it’ basis. There is no lip service, just sincere appreciation! An even better appreciation is the total lack of micromanagement — but you got to earn the trust before that happens!
In cricket, we have seen ego battles between captains and ex-captains. Here, in the Indian team, Virat Kohli is effusive in his praise for Dhoni and credits the best decisions to him in the post-game summaries! And the best part, Virat’s value increases at the same rate as that of Dhoni, perhaps even faster!
Frequent appreciation loses its charm while the rare ones tire out the recipient. It has to be at the right time, at the right level and benefit in the right way!
Mentoring
The speed of the herd is usually determined by the slowest member of the herd. In high-performance teams, the story is no different. Each team member is capable of being a mentor. The team needs to have their sight on two speeds. One — the speed of the slowest member and two, the collective speed of the team. Taking on more challenging tasks and projects isn’t fun when internally the team is running on multiple speeds. Each individual should perform at his peak potential in the designated role enabling the team to move forward at peak performance like a well-oiled machine. How does the speed increase? Conscious mentoring and taking on stretch goals as a unit.
If everyone in the team advances together, you can’t stop progress!
As Bruce Tuckman mentioned, every team undergoes the formative stages of Forming-Storming-Norming-Performing. The speed of this journey to performing is, of course, in the hands of the members and how they have T*E*A*Med up!
