The only trait of a team

This post is part of the Your Plan of Action series for those new to the executing team (also called management by some. But not by the enlightened readers of this site.).

Recall that we were talking about a plan of action for becoming an effective leader of people, and that we had identified three disciplines on which new leaders need to focus:

• Setting the tone
• Creating teams
• Infusing your vision

We’ve talked quite a bit already about tone—now then let’s move on to teams.
Teams are really magical. Nothing is impossible if you are willing to share the credit for an accomplishment with others.

We’ve already talked a lot about teams; this is another example of how the principles of enlightened technology leadership are all intertwined and support one another. But there are a few things to say about how you actually go about the business of starting and running teams, and that’s what we’ll focus on in the next several posts.

The only trait

Like leadership and leaders, teams cannot be simply ordered into existence.

A team is created when a group of individuals, each contributing his or her unique talents and expertise, work together to achieve a single purpose. This is collaboration, and while the only trait of a leader is having followers, the only trait of a team is collaboration.

Interesting theory…what about practice?

Just as the term “leader” is overloaded with the concept of anyone in a position of authority in an organization, so too is the term “team” overloaded.

The team concept is in fashion these days, and any group of individuals stuck together to complete a project is called a team. But if they aren’t motivated, coordinated, and collaborating, they aren’t a real team. They are a collection of individuals.

What a team is not: an undergraduate example

We used to have “team projects” in my undergraduate computer-science classes. Either the professor would assign a group of us to work together on the project, or some of us who always sat together would team up. These group projects were almost always poster children for what a team is not.

We were four different people, probably with different majors, different outlooks on grades and studies, different social obligations and personal relationships, different goals in life and different goals for the class and the assignment.

There were no rallying points to pull us together—no motivation or vision for all of us to work toward accomplishing. We were not a team.

That might be ok in school…

In this situation the person who cares the most does the project and gets the “A” that the rest of the individuals take credit for. No doubt you’ve had similar experiences, either in school or in your professional career.

Yet it is a fact that—unlike in school—the projects we deal with on a daily basis in our technology careers are far too complex for a single person. So we have to know how to create and function in teams if we are to realize our ultimate potential as technologists: to create a better world.

Everyone’s gotta row

We’ll talk more about the structure of teams and how to build a starring role for all team members in the next post.