The Great Eight: Wrap Up

boots-by-jsalita

(This post was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where I’m a team member. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

I’ve served on a whole lot of teams in my life, some great, some not-so-great, and I can say without hesitation that the team I work with at Leading by DESIGN is the best, healthiest, most connected team I’ve worked on. I think the four of us (Rodger, Jeff, Gerald, and me) actually hit all eight characteristics of a great team. (Can you list them by now? If not, here they are once more, with links to each blog post in this series: Common GoalsCommitmentCommunication, TrustTalent, Knowledge (of each other and of self), Grace, and finally Chemistry. And just for good measure, you can also read the introductory post to this series.)

And let me be clear that as individuals, we’re nothing special (sorry team). We are regular people with our own beliefs, values, gifts and voids, passions, wiring, and a heck of a lot of dysfunction (sorry again, team). But we still manage to live into these characteristics of a great team, and I think that we make something special as a team. 

Continue reading

The Great Eight: Chemisty

stormtroopers-by-jd-hancock

(Today’s post is written by Rodger Price, owner of Leading by DESIGN, where I am a team member. It was originally shared on the LbD blog and is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

Chemistry is the last of our eight characteristics of great teams.

This is the most difficult of the eight characteristics to write about as it’s the one I understand the least. I believe we can teach you how to grow the other seven characteristicsContinue reading

The Great Eight: Grace

double-rainbow-by-ales-kladnik

(Today’s post is written by Rodger Price, owner of Leading by DESIGN, where I am a team member. It was originally shared on the LbD blog and is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

Grace is a unique aspect of great teams. It’s also something that is seldom talked about by experts in team performance. Do you remember what we meant we used the term “grace” at our offsite where we explored the eight characteristics of great teams? The definition we used was “undeserved favor.”Continue reading

The Great Eight: Knowing Yourself and Others

mirror-by-www-naciendoenholanda-com

(Today’s post is written by Jeff Boersma and was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where Jeff and I are team members. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

If everyone were just more like me, the world would be a better place—or at least my organization would be—or at least my team would be.

Besides being an entirely narcissistic statement, it would not be the case that if our teams simply had more uniformity, they would be better. But when are differences valuable? When are they harmful?Continue reading

The Great Eight: Talent

jugglers-by-pauline-gesta

(Today’s post is written by Rodger Price, owner of Leading by DESIGN, where I am a team member. It was originally shared on the LbD blog and is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

In order to be a great team, there are specific tasks that need to be done very well. The word “talent” describes what is required in order to achieve each of these tasks with excellence. Great teams have the right mix of people who have the talents needed to achieve these specific tasks.

John Wooden—the legendary UCLA basketball coach and one of the all-time best assemblers of any kind of team—was known for not allowing a focus to be put on any one talented superstar, but for always making sure the focus was on the overall team. But even with this reluctance to focus on great talent, Wooden is quoted as saying, “I’d rather have a lot of talent and a little experience than a lot of experience and a little talent.” As committed as he was to the character of the team, he knew the importance of having the right mix of talent.Continue reading

The Great Eight: Trust

Bird on hand by Luca Venturi Oslo

(This post was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where I’m a team member. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

As I write this post, there are 6,289 books on trust available under the Business and Money category on Amazon. What can we possibly add to all that wisdom? Maybe nothing. But please keep reading anyway.

Trust is foundational to great teams, and so far—even in those 6,289 books—no one has developed the magic, one-size-fits-all formula to create trust on a team. Every team is different, but the need for high trust in order to be a high-functioning team is a constant.Continue reading

The Great Eight: Communication

Hear Speak Say no Evil by Japanexperterna.se

(Today’s post is written by Rodger Price, owner of Leading by DESIGN, where I am a team member. It was originally shared on the LbD blog and is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

Communication is truly one of the key characteristics of great teams. Effective communication is rarely identified as a strength in the teams I’ve had the privilege to observe over the past twenty years. In fact, when doing a cultural assessment, most of the teams I’ve worked with rank it as one of their top five weaknesses. I’ve also heard that it’s the number one reason marriages fall apart. (Not sure if that’s true, but I do recall hearing it from a marriage expert.)

Communication is a pretty simple idea: someone wants to (or should want to) send a message of some sort, and someone else wants to (or should want to) receive that message. It’s simple to understand—and really challenging to do.Continue reading

The Great Eight: Commitment

Baby Hand by Daddy-David

(Today’s post is written by Jeff Boersma and was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where Jeff and I are team members. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

In Patrick Lencioni’s The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, he lists five characteristics of a dysfunctional team. One of those five is the lack of commitment. When people have not had the opportunity to air their opinion or challenge others, they often do not have the buy-in necessary to move forward with the rest of the team. The important role of the leader in this—your important role—is to force clarity and closure. Let’s talk about how you can grow in this important leadership role of developing commitment.Continue reading

The Great Eight: Common Goals

Arrow by cogdogblog

(This post was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where I’m a team member. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

Imagine you are running a race. All the runners gather together, stretching muscles, bouncing on the balls of their feet to warm up, drinking a last few sips of water, popping in their earbuds. The loudspeaker fires up to give the final warning, the starting gun goes off, and all the runners take off.

But in this race, there is no marked course. The race officials believe that the course the runners should take is obvious. Why mark it? They emailed the course to the runners a few months ago. The runners all do their best, but as the race continues, different people turn off on different roads, each one sure they are following the correct course.

The race officials are baffled as few runners trickle into the finish line, some right away, some hours later, and a whole lot not at all. Didn’t the runners read that email outlining the course?

Continue reading

The Great Eight: An Introduction

Jazz Band by TheodoreWLee

(This post was originally shared at Leading by DESIGN, where I’m a team member. It is written for our LEAD 365 alumni, although all are welcome to read it.)

Throughout our year together in LEAD 365, we focused on three “buckets” of leadership—three areas that great leaders need to focus on:

  • Being a person worth following
  • Creating clarity around purpose/mission, vision, and values
  • Building a great team

In our building a great team sessions, we introduced you to a list of eight characteristics of great teams. Remember the details? No? The eight characteristics are what we believe the very best teams have, and what are necessary to build an amazing team. Here they are again to jog your memory:Continue reading