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I Advice - To Team or Not to Team?
The best brands always try to do the right thing, so that their reputations will remain unsullied. But beyond that they grow, evolve and get better with time, while maintaining their special qualities from the past.We all have a personal brand with social, cultural, intellectual, and personal needs that may not necessarily be addressed in our daily work. Address these needs and you begin to improve your brand. Here is my agenda for building your brand. Join and participate in community and professional organizations Generate media cover
What This Means to Us
In our organizations we most likely have both sorts of teams. We have teams that w
It’s that time of year, when employee evaluations are due, where we evaluate the behaviors in employees that annoy us the most and try to figure out what to do about them. Below are ten behaviors that experts all over the world have identified as irritating, problematic, or counterproductive along with a proposed solution to the problem. The ten are in no particular order, but each one has its own set of circumstances which impact a company’s productivity or morale in some way.Promotion and/or Pay Raise Seekers Who Haven't Earned Their Stripes“If
All of us are smarter than each of us.
1 + 1 = 3
. . . are just two common phrases that reinforce and prove how pervasive our belief in teams is.
And that belief is justified.
Sometimes.
There are many times in our civic or church groups, and in our businesses and professional associations that we need teams of people to work on an issue or a project. And sometimes we would be better off without a team - with individuals contributing as individuals.
What?
No team?
You got it.
At least not the type of team you probably think of, when you think of a team.
Two Basic Types of Teams
To keep things simple, I believe there are two basic types of teams. There are basketball teams and there are track and field teams.
Basketball Teams
Basketball teams (or soccer or hockey) are teams that require, by the nature of their task, that everyone play as one unit. On teams in these sports the players are interdependent. At any moment of any game, in order to be successful, the entire team needs to be working in harmony. The role of each player is designated by their position (which takes into account their innate strengths and acquired skills). However, the situation at any moment during the flow of the game, may require any player to take any role.
And on good teams of this sort, all players are willing to be flexible, to assist, to change roles, to “do what it takes”. Because they know that without working together, they can’t achieve their team goals of victory. The nature of the game forces interdependency among the team members.
Track and Field Teams
Players on track and field teams on the other hand (except in a few relay events) are not interdependent, they are independent. Shot putters have a skill set that is largely unrelated to the sprinters. And the high jumpers can be personally skilled and successful without any tangible help or support from the distance runners.
At the end of the day (or meet), the team can win if enough of the individuals do well. In other words if enough individuals win, the team will win. The most successful of these teams will have highly talented individual contributors, supporting each other to reach their common goal of winning. In this way they are definitely a team. They may feel allegiance to the group. They certainly can have pride in being a part of the group. They want each other to be successful. They know that they can all be more successful when each individual is more successful. They can have a common goal (to win the meet or championship). But the fundamental relationship between the players isn’t the same as it is on a basketball team.
What This Means to Us
In our organizations we most likely have both sorts of teams. We have teams that wo
As the old saying goes, “you never get a second chance to make a first impression.” In today’s business world, of course, that first impression usually does not come from a face-to-face conversation, but from whatever you can tell your future boss about yourself on paper: your resume.But knowing what information to put on your resume is a challenge. You want to tell your future boss about every noteworthy thing you’ve ever done, but your future boss only has a precious few seconds to look at your resume and the countless others that pass their way. How do you cr
What?
No team?
You got it.
At least not the type of team you probably think of, when you think of a team.
Two Basic Types of Teams
To keep things simple, I believe there are two basic types of teams. There are basketball teams and there are track and field teams.
Basketball Teams
Basketball teams (or soccer or hockey) are teams that require, by the nature of their task, that everyone play as one unit. On teams in these sports the players are interdependent. At any moment of any game, in order to be successful, the entire team needs to be working in harmony. The role of each player is designated by their position (which takes into account their innate strengths and acquired skills). However, the situation at any moment during the flow of the game, may require any player to take any role.
And on good teams of this sort, all players are willing to be flexible, to assist, to change roles, to “do what it takes”. Because they know that without working together, they can’t achieve their team goals of victory. The nature of the game forces interdependency among the team members.
Track and Field Teams
Players on track and field teams on the other hand (except in a few relay events) are not interdependent, they are independent. Shot putters have a skill set that is largely unrelated to the sprinters. And the high jumpers can be personally skilled and successful without any tangible help or support from the distance runners.
At the end of the day (or meet), the team can win if enough of the individuals do well. In other words if enough individuals win, the team will win. The most successful of these teams will have highly talented individual contributors, supporting each other to reach their common goal of winning. In this way they are definitely a team. They may feel allegiance to the group. They certainly can have pride in being a part of the group. They want each other to be successful. They know that they can all be more successful when each individual is more successful. They can have a common goal (to win the meet or championship). But the fundamental relationship between the players isn’t the same as it is on a basketball team.
What This Means to Us
In our organizations we most likely have both sorts of teams. We have teams that w
The Past, The Present And The Future, A Compulsive Gambler’s Thoughts Part 3 is a collection of poems that express what I was going through during the last ten years of my life. Through this experience I was able to better understand what I was going through before, during and after with my compulsive gambling addiction. You learn an awful lot about your self when you are able to put it into words. In part 3 there are two more poems Peaceful Feelings Came Over Me and Living Life To The Fullest.Peaceful Feelings Came Over MeRetrieving emotions bo
And on good teams of this sort, all players are willing to be flexible, to assist, to change roles, to “do what it takes”. Because they know that without working together, they can’t achieve their team goals of victory. The nature of the game forces interdependency among the team members.
Track and Field Teams
Players on track and field teams on the other hand (except in a few relay events) are not interdependent, they are independent. Shot putters have a skill set that is largely unrelated to the sprinters. And the high jumpers can be personally skilled and successful without any tangible help or support from the distance runners.
At the end of the day (or meet), the team can win if enough of the individuals do well. In other words if enough individuals win, the team will win. The most successful of these teams will have highly talented individual contributors, supporting each other to reach their common goal of winning. In this way they are definitely a team. They may feel allegiance to the group. They certainly can have pride in being a part of the group. They want each other to be successful. They know that they can all be more successful when each individual is more successful. They can have a common goal (to win the meet or championship). But the fundamental relationship between the players isn’t the same as it is on a basketball team.
What This Means to Us
In our organizations we most likely have both sorts of teams. We have teams that w
Sometimes the only the thing that determines whether or not you make the sale is how well you communicate with your prospects and customers. Communication really is an art that needs to be practiced and refined. You may think you know exactly what to say, but it doesn’t take much to turn a person right off. I’ve never been a big talker, and I never want to say anything stupid, so I mostly just keep my mouth shut! Good thing for me that listening is an effective communication technique, but it would also help if I practiced small talk to break the ice when it comes
Players on track and field teams on the other hand (except in a few relay events) are not interdependent, they are independent. Shot putters have a skill set that is largely unrelated to the sprinters. And the high jumpers can be personally skilled and successful without any tangible help or support from the distance runners.
At the end of the day (or meet), the team can win if enough of the individuals do well. In other words if enough individuals win, the team will win. The most successful of these teams will have highly talented individual contributors, supporting each other to reach their common goal of winning. In this way they are definitely a team. They may feel allegiance to the group. They certainly can have pride in being a part of the group. They want each other to be successful. They know that they can all be more successful when each individual is more successful. They can have a common goal (to win the meet or championship). But the fundamental relationship between the players isn’t the same as it is on a basketball team.
What This Means to Us
In our organizations we most likely have both sorts of teams. We have teams that w
Building relationships with various types of people is important for networking both personally and professionally. You should take networking seriously because it can be a real asset for you and your organization. For many organizations, networking is a key component for generating new customers. This especially holds true if you work in business development or sales. Regardless of your role, you should always be selling your organization because you may be able to find new customers or build new partnerships, which could lead to new sales.
What This Means to Us
In our organizations we most likely have both sorts of teams. We have teams that work in a process flow or project where the outputs of one person directly affect the work of the next – where the work and the people are highly interdependent.
We also have teams that look more like the track and field team. In these situations people are working toward a common mission and goal, but their work doesn’t intersect in nearly the same ways as for the highly interdependent teams.
Fair enough you say.
But in my experience, we tend to want all teams to think they are basketball teams. If the work or project dictates that focus, great. But if you have a track and field (independent) team, you don’t need the same focus on interdependence and traditional “team building” activities.
What Do We Do Now?
If you lead a team or form teams or are just a member of a team, you need to think about and talk about this distinction. Determine across the team (or future team) what type of team you are. Once there is agreement on the type of team you are, you can begin to set the right kinds of expectations for each other and for yourself. You can build more appropriate plans for training, development and team building.
Knowing which type of team your work or project dictates is the first step towards helping that group of people be more successful and the work being done successfully.
So maybe it isn’t really, “to team or not to team?”, but “which type of team?”
. . . that is the question.
Answer that one first. And, using the answer as a guide, watch all of your teams be more successful.
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