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The Three Keys To Successful Team Building

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If you compare success in business to success in sport - and a lot of people do even if the two endeavors are quite different - then one fact will keep coming back to you. When you’re looking to achieve success, the model of one person working on their own to achieve it is not going to work. If you want success, you need to work as a team. And even the greatest sports teams had a player or two whose name fades with time, but the fact remains that they were integral parts of a team that could not have succeeded without them.


So when it comes to getting a business rolling, it is important to remember how a team works. It can be tempting to hire ten identical go-getters who could sell anything to anyone, but this is liable to create conflict and an unpleasantly competitive workplace. It may equally be tempting to pick the ten quietest, hardest workers you know - and while they’ll give every task their all and deliver ahead of time, they’re not going to push the envelope.


Creating the perfect team requires a certain amount of alchemy and the recognition that there is no magical blueprint. But keep to the following instructions, and you won’t miss often.


Recognize that you can’t recreate greatness


It’s tempting to look at teams who delivered beyond expectations and try to ape everything they did. People have written a great deal on the topic of what top sports coaches could teach CEOs. A smart team leader will, however, realize that trying to recreate the best is a fool’s errand. Quite apart from anything else, teams who have succeeded elsewhere succeeded elsewhere. They struck gold under their own specific circumstances. By all means adopt their values of hard work and team spirit, but don’t take it further than that - aim for your own success.


Recognize the value of an ethos


As we have already noted, a team of clones will not ensure success in business. You will need a collection of different personalities who work well together. What they all need to have in common, however, is the desire to achieve great things for themselves and for the team. A strong and defined ethos should be the groundstone of any training program; check out a few iSpring Learn Reviews to see how well-curated training can make all the difference. When you can communicate a goal to your team, you can get them to share it.


Recognize the value of time off


A wild-eyed devotion to making everything perfect is a good way to foster a goal-driven atmosphere. It is also a great way to ensure the whole project hits a wall just a few weeks into the process. Sometimes, workaholics achieve great things, and are praised for their determination. We hear a lot less about the workaholics who don’t achieve their goals and are left burned out by the experience, never quite regaining that eagerness. Be ready to give people time off, particularly if they have no specific deadlines pending. You’ll get much better results from a human who feels valued than from a robot who works out of duty alone.



If you’re looking to build a successful team, don’t focus on the romantic notions of what makes for “greatness”. Think instead of how you can build a team that wants to work for you, and let the rest happen itself.

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