Part 2: Overcome the 5 Dysfunctions of a Team

Teamwork comes down to practicing a small set of principles over a long period of time with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence, not a sophisticated theory. Patrick Lencioni's model is worth refreshing periodically for anyone interested in the real power of teamwork. Building vulnerability based trust cannot be achieved overnight. Team exercises that work: share personal histories, identify the single most important contribution each member makes to the team plus one area to improve or eliminate, personality profiles, 360 degree feedback. The key with 360 feedback is to divorce it entirely from compensation and formal performance evaluation.

Kathryn is the new CEO in Lencioni's book who turned a dysfunctional executive team into a cohesive one. Her style worth noting: under heated situations, she spoke in a confident and relaxed way, far more in control than the other party expected. She was careful to hold back her opinions in order to develop the skills of her team. When it became clear the team had fully digested the magnitude of the situation and had nothing more to add, she went ahead and broke the silence. She understood that a strong team spends considerable time together, and by doing so they actually save time by eliminating confusion and minimizing redundant effort and communication. Most management teams balk at spending this much time together, preferring to do "real work" instead. She decided it was time to trim down the number of her direct reports when her staff had grown to barely manageable eight.

Leaders need to create a culture of accountability on the team by encouraging and allowing the team to serve as the first and primary accountability mechanism. The leader must be willing to serve as the ultimate arbiter of discipline when the team itself fails, but this should be rare. The dysfunction happens when a team, instead of focusing on achieving goals and results of the team, focuses on other things: most commonly team status or individual status. Many teams simply do not live and breathe in order to achieve meaningful objectives, but rather merely to exist or survive. Unfortunately for these groups, no amount of trust, conflict, commitment, or accountability can compensate for a lack of desire to win. Teams that are not focused on results rarely defeat competitors, lose achievement oriented employees, encourage members to focus on their own career and individual goals, and are easily distracted.