Cultivating an Exceptional Team
When you look at some of the biggest successes throughout history, digging a little deeper exposes that the results and impact achieved were often a direct result of not just an individual’s blood sweat and tears inside and outside of the arena, but being part of an exceptional team.
Are you currently leading a team in trying to deliver a project, win a championship, or do something that hasn’t been done before? Have you recently joined a new team and want to add value and make an impact? Are you part of a team that is growing rapidly? Are you on a team that is struggling to find its stride?
I have been part of some sort of team since I was four years old, ranging from teams in sports, startups, and media, to teams that are brand new, to teams that were already super strong that I joined later. I have won three national hockey championships, played with and against Olympians, been an early employee at several startups, gone through business incubator and accelerator programs (Techstars Boston 2016 Cohort, District 3 Innovation Center), worked as a freelance journalist, developed TV shows for broadcasters like Discovery Channel, worked with Bauer Hockey to develop hockey sticks, and worked in tech as both a hardware and software product manager bringing new technologies to life in brand new markets.
I have also experienced debilitating injuries and health issues, been cut from teams, been a minority in the room, been benched, developed products that didn’t get widely adopted, been part of startups that failed, written stories that were never read, and lost loved ones under difficult circumstances. I am gay. I am a partner, a step mom, a daughter, a sister, and a friend.
I have experienced a few successes, and many, many, many failures.
In my experience, the key differentiating factors that determine whether something truly great will result from effort put in are grit, adaptability, and the overall strength of a team.
The following is my take on the key factors that contribute to cultivating an exceptional team — be it in sports, business, or family. (Note: this is based on my experiences and perspective only and does not reflect the views or opinions of any other individuals or organizations).
- Establish a unique, shared vision that each team member is personally connected to.
- Light the way. Outline the path.
- Create the right environment for both individuals and the team as a whole to perform optimally and constantly improve.
- Build a team whose makeup and culture mean that the group can operate with efficacy and in a way that is directly aligned with the larger vision.
- Have a clear and transparent decision-making framework so that the team understands how decisions are made, are given appropriate context around why decisions are made, and have a voice during the decision-making process.
1. Establish a unique, shared vision that each team member is personally connected to
What is the thing the team is trying to achieve and why is that a good thing to try to achieve? What problem is it solving? What is the value of achieving it? Who will it impact? How will it impact them?
Each individual on a team should be able to repeat the team’s purpose verbatim, and the answer should be the same across the board — not just repeated but embodied.
What is the team’s why? What does the team believe in? What does the team do and why do they want to do it every day?
Everything that any individual on the team does should relate directly to this higher purpose.
If there’s no shared vision, if the vision isn’t clear, or if it is bought into by only a portion of the group, it doesn’t matter how talented individual contributors are — the team’s potential and impact will not be fully realized.
Shared values, vision, and beliefs also attract the right followers.
2. Light the way
Once the vision is established, outline the path to getting there. Providing the team with both guardrails to light the way and the steps needed to be taken along the journey will help to align all of the granular details of the team’s efforts.
What is the path? What will it take to get there? What are the key challenges the team needs to overcome? What are the known unknowns and the unknown unknowns? What is the bar for performance?
It’s ok if you don’t know everything. Be honest and objective — identify what you don’t know and figure out what is required to help learn those things. Own the learning.
To be successful and work as a cohesive unit, leaders need to arm a team with:
- Clearly defined goal
- Resources
- Time frame
Changes to the path are going to happen. When they do, arm the team with why they are happening and specifically what needs to change, when. This should be very clearly and explicitly communicated early within the entire team to encourage buying into slight changes in trajectory to continue to align with the greater goal or north star.
3. Create the right environment for both individuals and the team as a whole to perform optimally and constantly improve
Create an environment where team members feel safe physically, mentally, and emotionally. Actively make team members feel included and recognize individual contributions, no matter what their role on the team is. Use language that is inclusive and approaches everyone on the same level. Ask questions instead of making assumptions. Set up 1:1 meetings to better understand how team members are feeling and what their challenges are. Show that you care about team members and respect them — make an effort to connect with them in some way on a continuous basis. Listen while others are speaking. Be open to having the tough conversations that need to be had in an objective way. Encourage participation by noticing if someone isn’t speaking up and ask them what they think so they know that their voice is important. Lead with empathy and openness to create an environment where everyone feels like they can be the best versions of themselves.
Focus on learning and growth. Encourage and invite team members to ask questions, and answer questions directly and honestly. Encourage looking beyond to learn — gleaning learnings from other fields to bring value into the team’s collective knowledge. Encourage holistic debriefs after a project is delivered, after a practice or a game, or after a significant life event or argument. What went well? What didn’t go well? What could be done better? Use all of the information available and actively seek out data that can help make better decisions going forward, even if sometimes it might be really, really tough to face head on. If approached with a growth mindset, the biggest weaknesses of a team can be turned into its biggest strengths. Having the whole team think along these lines means that team members will be more likely to learn from each other and help each other grow.
Create an environment that is organized. The structure of the team should be tangible and clearly understood and well thought out. Relevant information that has been used to help the team in the past and that could help the team in the future should be well documented and easily referenced so that it is accessible. Ensure that things are organized as best as possible so that when adaptations or quick changes in trajectory are required, they can be handled in an informed and organized way that is well-communicated throughout the team.
4. Build a team whose makeup and culture mean that the group can operate with efficacy and in a way that is directly aligned with the larger vision
The goal of the team should be to move collectively as one vs. a handful of individuals. Prioritize character over talent when building a team. Know, very clearly, which roles are required and what is needed from those roles in order for the team to be successful. Build a team that has a balance of broad-level thinkers, deep experts in specific domains, and stitchers who connect the dots between the two. Have a very clear idea of what the identity of the team is. Do regular assessments of the strengths and weaknesses of the team in an inclusive way with the team openly. Once there is a clear and objective picture of what this looks like, this helps bring team members on board to make improvements and fill in the gaps.
Create a culture where each team member strives to be the best version of themselves and be exceptional at the small things to add as much value as possible to the group. It’s doing the small, basic things really well, repeatedly, that makes big things happen. Build a solid foundation of repeated good habits. Show up to meetings on time, have a clear agenda, communicate clearly, bake in learning every day, build great relationships with others, and keep things simple.
Each team member should be able to own what they do and be told what to do, but not how to do it. Create an environment of ownership and accountability, and where team members are not afraid of and actively encouraged to have fun.
Make communication a priority — for a team to work at its best, exceptional communication is required:
- Within the team (team members: team members)
- Across the team and leadership (team members: leadership (executive team, coaching staff, parents, etc.)
- Into and out of the team (team: customers, investors, partners, media, potential customers, potential employees, etc.)
5. Have a clear and transparent decision-making framework
Having a clearly understood decision-making framework — a clear idea of who makes which types of decisions and how decisions are made — helps to leverage the collective intelligence of the team, build trust, keep team members aligned to the greater objectives, and helps to foster better individual decision-making abilities that are in line with the team’s objectives.
When decisions are being made, context is key. The WHY and the WHAT should be thoroughly understood before approaching the HOW. Challenge constraints — how is the problem being framed? Can it be framed in another way? Check the basics — what are the essential facts? What is not known? What data do you already have? Gather context via input from key experts in domains that affect the decision to be made. Do a pre-mortem — what could go wrong? What are some of the possible outcomes? How can we choose a path that gives us the best outcome?
Avoid silos. It is the responsibility of the team to do the absolute best job they can do to inform decision makers, and it is the responsibility of decision makers to leverage the information that exists within the team to make the best, holistic decisions. Have early cross-functional discussions to better understand how things connect and relate to each other and could be impacted by potential decisions.
Be willing to think differently and change your thinking. Things will change along the way. The ability to think critically and adapt will help keep things on track vs. continuing down a path that may not make the most sense if variables have changed.
Whether you are building a team from scratch or working with an existing team, be patient and focus on the long-term objectives. Know what the general building blocks are to get there. Bring the right people in. Create an environment that harnesses their potential. Keep things tracking towards the north star.
-Lisa
Follow me on Twitter: @lisazane15
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