Question of the Day – Building High Performance Business Teams

Question - Success in creating championship business teams is grounded in implementing a strategy that facilitates, guides, and encourages perpetual innovation, learning, and growth. It must be targeted at all levels, strategically aimed at developing culture, teams, and individuals.

Teamwork remains the one sustainable competitive advantage that has been largely untapped in mid-market companies. Building an effective team is not easy. If it was, we would see many, many more of them than we do. There is a definite set of behaviors and a body of knowledge that enable great teams to happen. Teamwork does not require great intellectual insights or even masterful tactics. More than anything, it comes down to courage and persistence.

Implementing teams or teamwork without proper training is about as successful as learning to drive by reading a book. You may understand what to do, but how to do it is another matter. Bypass training, and teams mature slowly. Some may never become productive. Unfortunately, what many business people have equated to team performance was delivered by a stuck group. This would equate to fielding a bunch of un-coached amateurs in a highly competitive professional sporting event. It's not pretty. And, some very unattractive business results have been created by unprepared and untrained groups trying to function as a team.

Team learning is the process of aligning a team to get them focused and prepared to work effectively together. This avoids wasted energy and helps to create the results the team members want. Team learning builds disciplines of shared vision and personal mastery. Motivated and talented individuals want to be successful. Sometimes they have to read the directions or heed the recipe. There are definite performance principles successful teams follow. Fortunately, they can be learned.

 The Academy of Family Business has the knowledge, curriculum, and coaches to help you achieve high performance teamwork. To learn more about developing best practices and their application, please visit us at: info@myAFB.org