I don’t know if you can really generalise across all teams what makes them great. I’m still young and learn something new about teams every day. That said, this is what I’ve learned so far and these are values that I try to keep in my own work, and encourage in others. This topic is inspired by the ‘thin book(tm)’, “The one minute manager builds high performing teams.”

My criteria for the following 10 traits are the ultimate outcome, not necessarily just working with great, smart people:

1. Ownership of the idea: that should be clear. In my experience, the kind of people who take ownership are the kind that pull all-nighters to get things done.
2. Clarity of goals: having a clear idea of what we want to achieve, with the understanding that these things need to be discussed regularly, is invaluable as far motivation and focussed work is concerned.
3. A strong work-ethic: by which I mean, being an honest, hard worker, and also someone who keeps others on track.
4. Open communication: nothing kills teams as much as frustrations, problems, or compliments left unspoken.
5. Trust: not the same as open communication, often you need to be able to count on your team-members, blindly, rather than having to tell them what to do. And vice versa!
6. Multi-disciplinary backgrounds: I still believe in the three core-disciplines of teams being: detail, social, and vision, but I also think working with people, who have a different (educational / work) background to your own, can be tremendously rewarding in terms of thinking out of the box.
7. A both fuzzy and clear division of tasks: Sometimes, it’s needed that people pull themselves away from their own tasks and help others. Overall speaking, I think it’s very useful to have a clear division of tasks, with everyone in the team being aware of what they have to do.
8. Broad-mindedness: Maybe I’m biased here, but there’s nothing like working with people that have an international background, who think beyond boundaries. This trait can also be developed by just keeping an open mind though.
9. Competitiveness towards the outside: as a team, our goal is to win.
10. Reduced ego on the inside: as a team, no one is better than the other, and the best synergies are developed when egos are left at the door.

I’d love to hear about some of the traits that you discovered in great teams you worked with.

Vincent

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