Part One: A Common Goal
Organisations are built on teams and a great organisation is built on a great team. A great team is the sum of the passion, focus and efforts of all individuals. These individuals bring their collective diversity, creativity, intelligence and motivation to create a well-rounded, confident and capable team. However, there are a few other key elements aside from what individuals bring that great teams have in common.
There are three key themes that bind some of the most innovative, driven and motivated companies across the world.
- Common Goal
- Psychological Safety
- Thought Diversity
These three elements of a great team aren’t defined by location, hierarchy, if you’re in the office or a remote worker. Every factor is equally as important, and you need all three to be a great team. Let’s explore what it takes to foster a great team in your organisation…
What is a team? A team can be defined as:
A group of people working together to achieve a common goal.
Understanding this is the first step to knowing how to build a great team.
This is part one of our three-part series on “The Three Non-Negotiables for a Great Team”
Common Goal
For a team to work together, they need to have a common goal. A common goal is the shared purpose that allows you to create a compelling vision. An important aspect of working towards a common goal is cooperation, it is why we believe it is the number one outcome of leadership. Without cooperation, the desired outcome won’t be achieved, and you’ll be left with a disjointed, uncooperative group of people most often working toward their own goals.
Cooperation isn’t just great for achieving a shared goal. There are several positive benefits such as:
- Employee performance due to being more engaged
- Organisational productivity due to a higher level of collaboration
- The Team complements each other’s strengths and weaknesses
- Boosts efficiency through greater levels of agility
- Fosters more honest and open communication
- Increases effectiveness as people work toward higher expectations
- Establishes trust through connection
Cooperation is more than just people getting along. There is a deep sense of trust and respect for one another. There is a quiet confidence in one’s own abilities, but also a humility that facilitates knowledge sharing and learning.
“Teamwork makes the dream work”
John C. Maxwell
The Learning Zone is achieved at the highest points of trust and safety, motivation and accountability. Peak team cooperation is where everyone feels empowered to learn and to teach. This creates a more confident and able team that trusts and respects and feels accountable to each other. All the positive attributes of a cooperative team go hand in hand and work seamlessly. It turns like a well-oiled machine!
However, for cooperation to exist, we need psychological safety.
We will discuss in detail the importance of the second non-negotiable – psychological safety in a team environment, in next week’s blog. Stay tuned across our socials (click here for LinkedIn) for leadership development tips, thought starters and more!
