The Teamwork Trifecta
Imagine an organisation as a bus, you are the driver (leader), and the goal is to take this bus from “good” to “great.”
The Right People in the Right Seats on the Bus:
- Leaders should focus on getting the right people on the bus first. This means hiring and retaining individuals who align with the organisation’s values, culture, and vision.
- Once you have the right people, the next step is to ensure they are in the right seats—meaning they are in roles that leverage their strengths and skills effectively.
- Lastly, it is about performance and how we power the bus to reach the destination (our business goals). This means building a cohesive leadership team and challenging the 5 dysfunctions most common in teams.
In summary, the bus metaphor underscores the importance of assembling the right team, placing them in roles that maximise their potential, and driving toward greatness together.
An ideal team player embodies three virtues: humility, hunger and people smarts.
Humble – Lacking excessive ego, emphasising team over self.
Hungry – Looking for more to do/learn, self-motivated, thinking about what’s next.
Smart – Having common sense about people, perceptive about groups and individuals, and are active listeners.
One of the most important ways to succeed in your workplace and life is by developing the ability to be a team player. Being able to work effectively with others to achieve a group goal is more important than ever in an interdependent and changing world.
Yet ideal team players are uncommon. As leaders, we say we want team players, but we can’t clearly define the individual qualities we’re looking for—and so we end up hiring people who undermine teamwork (it doesn’t take many to destroy a team). In addition, many leaders and organisations pay lip service to teamwork, but they don’t devote serious attention to making it part of their culture.
Everyone possesses certain “geniuses,” or intelligence types, and all successful teams consist of members possessing a combination of each type. By identifying which traits your team members have, you can maximise both productivity and individual fulfillment.
An intelligence type is intrinsic to the individual, meaning the types reflect what that person is naturally good at. Each intelligence helps people excel at one of six essential activities required during any project, from developing your next product to planning a family vacation to establishing a summer fundraiser for your local charity group.
These are the six intelligences in the model
Wonder: Perceiving Opportunity
Invention: Innovating Solutions
Discernment: Vetting Ideas
Galvanising: Mobilising People
Enablement: Supporting
Tenacity: Seeing Things Through
The last element of The Teamwork Trifecta is The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team.
The Five Dysfunctions of a Team explores how teams fail to work cohesively together through a dynamic, five-part model of dysfunction.
1. Absence of Trust
2. Fear of Conflict
3. Lack of Commitment
4. Avoidance of Accountability
5. Inattention to Results
Like it or not, all teams are potentially dysfunctional. This is inevitable because they are made up of fallible, imperfect human beings. From the sports arena to the executive suite, politics and confusion are more the rule than the exception. However, facing dysfunction and focusing on teamwork is particularly critical at the top of an organisation because the executive team sets the tone for how all employees work with one another.
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