Building Winning Teams….Fast

As either a leader of a team or a member of a team, you believe deeply in the power of teams to accomplish great things together. At the same time, you also feel that the team you lead and/or belong to can be greater than what it is now. You are inspired to move your team forward. And you want to act now.

This is where Rajeev can help.

Over the last decade, Rajeev has helped over 10,000 leaders and over 400 senior teams, including teams led by Chair of Boards, CEOs, Executive General Managers and General Managers. These teams have ranged from being completely dysfunctional at one end of the spectrum to being high performing but looking for the next leap, at the other end of the spectrum, to everything in between,

Rajeev’s vast experience with diverse teams has led him to three key conclusions:

1. There is no silver bullet solution

Rajeev believes that becoming a High Performing team doesn’t happen by accident or as a result of a one-off strategic offsite. Rather, becoming a winning team is a process and the result of deliberate decision, focus, effort and conditioning.

2. The leader sets the pace

A team can’t become high performing unless this is a deliberate high priority for the leader. Rajeev believes for a team to become high performing, the leader plays a critical part, including:

  • Scheduling significant time for the team to work together
  • Creating a safe environment to enable constructive conflict
  • Being coachable to practice new things
  • Role modelling through actions, the desired practices and behaviours
  • A willingness to play by the agreed rules and also the courage to hold others to those set of rules

3.  To become high performing, teams must practice the following key imperatives:

i) Interact Constructively

The quality of teaming is in direct proportion to the quality of conversations that happen within a team. However, in any team, there are invisible and hard-to-measure forces at play that influence the quality of the conversations. Great teams recognise the presence of such invisible forces and are constantly working to bring these to the surface so that they can work on them consciously.

ii) Align Deeply

For a team to become high performing, deep alignment must exist across the following three areas:

  • Purpose – Why do we exist as a function?
  • Goals – What is most important for us to accomplish?
  • Roadmap – What is our strategy and game plan to achieve our most important goals?

iii) Operate Deliberately

All great teams are passionate about getting a high return on their time together. To do this, they are clear and united on: 

  • Who’s in the team?
  • What are our roles?
  • What is the purpose of our team? 
  • What is our collective work? 
  • What meetings are required and for what purpose?
  • What rituals and routines will enable us to maximise the quality of our teaming?

iv) Execute Tenaciously

The only true measures of a winning team are its ability to hit its targets and do so in a manner that is sustainable and engaging. Great teams execute strongly, hold each other accountable and are continually focussed on getting better, both as a team and as a business.