Does personality and mindset determine team success?
Good technique, fitness, the interaction of the players and an inspiring coach who is strategist, motivator and observer at the same time, decide in sports whether the team enjoys the game and success - or not? Isn't this also the guarantee for success in good teamwork in companies?
Modern teamwork means,
- that properly assembled teams betterand bring faster results than haphazardly thrown together groups
- that people in the team organize, manage and lead themselves, which creates a high level of skill pressure among those involved.
The requirement of personal responsibility of modern teams in organization and leadership sets different standards in the composition of the teams and in the staffing of the team leadership function.
What is the right team combination?
When putting together a team, many companies pay attention to the various hard skills, but not enough to the personality and mindset of the potential team members. In most cases, values and visions are not taken into account. It is precisely the mindset and the personal characteristics (soft skills) that decisively shape the behavior of the employees in the team.
What if there are only creatives in the team, but no critics? What if the mindset does not contribute to the achievement of the company's goals?
In teamwork, companies expect their employees to have social competence and self-reliance, but do not take these soft skills into account when selecting team members. Instead, in many companies, more consideration is given to the DIVERSITY factor in team selection.
What does considering diversity in team composition mean?
By paying attention to diversity, the team gets different competencies and also even more or different perspectives into the team. It often also brings better representation of other stakeholders into the team. However, diversity is counterproductive when it results in the formation of mini-groups on the team. WHY?
What is the right team size?
Teams should organize and lead themselves and should therefore be as large as necessary and as small as possible. Three to seven people are optimal, ten the upper limit. Small teams can easily share ideas among themselves. With too many team members, the risk of conflicts increases and the coordination effort also increases. Often, when teams are too large, members also no longer work together effectively; instead, individual employees withdraw and no longer contribute to discussions. If a larger team is necessary, the group size should be divided, because these risks increase exponentially with the number of members on the team.
Specifically, it requires good communicators who coordinate properly, who share information and other resources, who address conflicts openly and constructively, and who respect and support each other.
What skills does the team leader need?
The team leader must be able to motivate and appreciate people:
- He should be able to withdraw mentally to an observer position zand let the team organize itself. This creates motivation, energy and a sense of unity.
- He should value team members because each competency contributes equally to success or failure.
In addition to appreciation, a central management task is to establish identification with the team and thus to shift the internal competition to the outside.
