How to Build a Cohesive Team

"In today's team-based organizations, winning the respect and cooperation of colleagues and staff members is critical if you want people to help you get things done.  You need to create a cohesive team and foster an environment of cooperation to successfully complete complex and critical projects."

• Consider the group's mission when selecting a team. Choose team members who have performance capabilities that are best suited for the task at hand--don't choose them based on existing relationships.

• Put together a diverse team. Limiting the group to people with similar interests and experiences will limit the final result. Recruit individuals who represent a mix of viewpoints and perceptions. Also, if support is needed from various parts of the organization, select team members from these departments.

• Identify the strengths of your team members. Ask members what tasks they feel they are most suited to accomplish in the project. That way when you delegate assignments you will know which members are best equipped, and most eager, to perform them.

• Be clear about member responsibilities. Good teams have a multitude of complementary talents. Each person has strengths to bring to the team effort. All the members need to understand what is expected of them and what role they will play.

• Focus, focus, focus. If you keep the unit pointed in the right direction, members will have a clear sense of direction. You need to communicate your team's vision each and every day and use it as a behavioral guide. To help them link their everyday actions to the vision, engage existing and new members in discussions about what they're doing and why.

• Make all members accountable for team results. When the team is successful, they can share the glory; when the team is less than successful, they must share the consequences.

• Condition team members to believe they are part of a successful group. Be certain members know that their team is made up of winners, and that they wouldn't be there if they weren't winners, too. Build esprit de corps by stressing team accomplishments.

• Earn members' respect. People follow a leader they trust and respect. Carry through on promises. If you say that you'll do something, they want to know they can count on your word.

• Get feedback about how to improve the team's performance. New members can often see things more clearly than insiders. Even if you disagree with member suggestions, let them know that you were glad to hear their ideas.

PASS

• Corporate restructure. Trump made a wise decision to restructure the companies. Although the women's team had begun to gel in the last episode, they had clearly demonstrated an inability to collaborate effectively. Change is inevitable. According to Price Pritchet, more than half of all U.S. companies restructured in the 1990s. Leaders must continually analyze how to structure their organizations and teams to make the most of their potential. When conflict, plunging profits or underperformance are issues, restructuring can be a good option. One thing is for sure, companies that refuse to change and adapt will be ill-equipped to succeed in this complex fast-paced global marketplace.
   

• Analyze strengths and weaknesses of a new team.  Jennifer, project manager for the new restructured Apex team, began by asking her team members to assess each other's strengths and weaknesses. Recognizing she lacked a direct perspective of these new team members, she asked them to assess each other to get an objective view. She then used this information to place her team members in roles that played to their strengths. Inevitably on teams, different personality types will affect team performance. Wise leaders take the time to help team members assess communication styles and preferences. This allows team members an opportunity to understand where other team members are coming from, particularly when conflict emerges. There are several good assessment options for leaders and their teams to learn more about each other's behavior styles and preferences, including the Myers Briggs Type Indicator or the Thomas-Kilman conflict mode instrument.
   

• One bad apple can spoil the entire box. Leaders of business or football teams know that occasionally you have a rotten apple on the team -- someone with a bad attitude who is not a team player. Some people just don't play well with others. Leaders can fail their teams by allowing a bad apple's behavior bring down the morale and performance of the entire team. There are times when leaders must make hard decisions. Wes needed to get rid of Stacy. Her attitude had great potential to destroy his team.

  FAIL

   

• Ownership.  Stacy was fired by Trump for her failure to take responsibility for her inability to persuade others on her team. In business and life, our ability to take responsibility and ownership for our piece is important to resolving conflict and working effectively with others.
   

• Attitude, attitude, attitude.  Stacy's attitude had truly gone to the dogs. In this episode, she barked that she "wasn't a dog person." She doesn't appear to be a people person either. She constantly complained, blamed everyone else, interrupts others, talks over people, never took personal responsibility, debated everyone, demonstrated she was a poor listener and lacked emotional intelligence. Need I go on? Perhaps most important, she lacked the most crucial component of business and leadership success: a positive attitude.  By the way, Chris' attitude stinks too. Instead of offering better solutions, he bitterly dubbed his team's business strategy as "frigging nuts" (he has such a way with words!) and complained about the demeaning tasks he had to perform on dogs, "it was so degrading." Instead of pumping the team up when their sales were slowing down, Chris tells his team, "We're gonna lose." Would you choose this man to lead your team to victory? Whatever happened to, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going?" The true test of leadership is performance in tough times, not just good times. Ivan Misner, best selling-author of "Masters of Success," spoke before business leaders of BNI (Business Networking International) in Seattle about the importance of attitude to business success. People aren't promoted who have lousy attitudes. One of the most important things to assess in a potential new hire or new team member is attitude because leaders can't effectively change an individual's core beliefs or personality. Aptitude can be trained, attitude cannot.
   

• What does your target market value?  Mosaic lost despite using cause-related marketing by tying their profits to a charity. They originally attempted to tie into a New York firefighters charity. Cause-related marketing is a great way to show positive public support, but to maximize this advantage the charity or cause should be tied either to the product or the preferred charities of your target market. Surprisingly, Mosaic selected "Kitty Kind," a cat charity that lead to the greatest quip of the show by Trump, "The last thing dogs want to know is that they are helping cats!" Trump has a sense of humor after all!
   

• Open learning.  Trump gave Stacy the feedback, but she still doesn't get the ownership concept. After being fired, she was interviewed in the taxi still determined to blame others. "Wes tried to pin our loss on me; I was trying to help him, but I have learned a lot." Apparently not. The No. 1 lesson Stacy should have learned from this experience is that she needs to take personal responsibility and accept accountability. In the same breath that she brags about her learning from the show, she gives us clear evidence she really didn't get it. To succeed in business and leadership, being an open learner is absolutely critical. Stacy proved she was unable to learn from her mistakes. Stacy should go back to being a lawyer. But wait, aren't lawyers also judged on their ability to persuade?

MAUREEN MORIARTY
SPECIAL TO THE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER