Nurturing Winning Teams

In a world obsessed with personal glory, inspirational individuals and strong people who can lift a failing organization by the scruff of its neck and shake it into a winner, teamwork is often an understated, under-recognized virtue.

However, being social creatures, most people love to work in teams (that are not dysfunctional). If a team allows an individual to safely present ideas for discussion, be heard, and be valued as a contributor, the chances of the team being successful and the organization being successful are significantly higher.

High-performing organizations such as Cisco, Google, and others are promoting teaming and networking within their organizations. This is hardly surprising because a Deloitte study says over 70% of organizations see gains in performance on switching to a team-based approach. There are multiple benefits of working in teams:

1. Increased Effectiveness:

Tougher tasks can be split among people so that complementary skills can be leveraged.

2. Social Pressure:

Teammates tend to rely on each other, and a well-functioning team can step up to minimize slack.

3. More Innovation:

Winning teams are a whole greater than the sum of their parts. Diversity of thought and a climate of trust can go a long way in creating a culture of innovation.

4. Conflict management:

Conflict is not a bad word, unmanaged and uncontrolled conflict is. If everyone were to agree with everyone else, new ideas would either not appear or not be encouraged enough. A leader’s responsibility is to channel conflict so that people can respectfully present their own ideas, not be attacked for them, and help create better and stronger output.

5. Pay & Benefits:

Leaders need to balance the intrinsic hunger that people have for achievement with behavioral nudges accomplished by rewards and incentives. A well-structured rewards and benefits plan ensures that employees get financial benefits as well as the necessary recognition for displaying the right behaviors.

It is great to have individuals who are ‘game-changers’ in a team, but it is far better to have an entire team that can change games as well. One of the greatest athletes of our generation, Michael Jordan sums it up rather well, “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.”

About the Author

Sam Reeve

Sam is the CEO and founder of CompTeam.

His core focus is leading companies through transformational change by optimizing talent initiatives with reward programs to achieve long-term strategic objectives.

Sam’s diverse experience includes the design and optimization of performance-driven variable compensation plans for executive, sales and core employee populations of growing companies.

Prior to founding CompTeam, Sam has worked in compensation functions of notable firms such as BlackRock, McKesson and Automatic Data Processing (ADP). Sam is a global certified compensation consultant (CCP, GRP) with over 20 years of experience in Total Reward Strategies.