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Sharing Breakthrough Discoveries About How People Avoid—or Take—Ownership

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FAQ on teams and leadership

FAQ's on Teams & Leadership

Click on a linked question here at the top of the page to go to it's answer below. Or, just scroll through the questions and answers below.

What is a team?
What are the basic principles of teamwork?
Are there different types of teams?
How is a team different than a group?
Who can be on a team?
How does a team form?
Why is trust important to teams?
Can one person make a difference on a team?
What is leadership?
Who can exhibit leadership?
Should teams have an assigned leader?
Shouldn't the technical expert be designated as the team leader?
What is the difference between "leadership" and "leader?"
How is a leader different than a manager?
What equips Partnerwerks to provide team and leadership expertise?
How do I start a team correctly?
How do I get someone to do what he or she agreed to?
How do I get someone to trust me?
How do I get meetings to start on time?
How do I work with someone who doesn't believe in teams?
How do I motivate someone who doesn't report to me?

What is a team?

A team is a group of people whose personal outcomes are obviously linked to a collective outcome -- such as a successful project -- and who work together to maximize collective and individual outcomes. "Team" also refers to the quality of group relationships that allows ordinary individuals to achieve extraordinary results together -- such as a project that surpasses its goals.

What are the basic principles of teamwork?

Shared outcome. Sometimes called the lifeboat principle, i.e., when people are in the same boat together, individual differences and outcomes matter less than the collective outcome.

Shared commitment. People who don't care as much as others about a shared outcome become dead weight, i.e., free loaders.

Equal voice. Flat social structure. Rank does not imply correct judgment. People commit to what they have a say in designing.

Are there different types of teams?

Lots of people say that there are different types of teams. For our money, though, a team is either a team or it's something else. Despite surface variations in size, purpose, duration, formality and co-location, what make a team a team never changes -- i.e., an investment in a shared outcome.

How is a team different than a group?

A group is any assemblage of people regardless of whether outcomes are shared. All teams are groups, but not all groups are teams. All departments are groups, but not all departments are teams.

Who can be on a team?

Anyone. At anytime. For any length of time. If your family agrees to work together on Saturday to clean the house with the condition that no one is finished until the house is clean, then that shared outcome and commitment has the potential to make you into a team.

How does a team form?

A team forms when a group of people care about a shared outcome and perceive themselves responsible to each other for accomplishing it. You can be assigned to join a group, but the process of a group becoming a team is always informal, natural, emergent, and voluntary.

Why is trust important to teams?

Since personal contributions and rewards occur at different times but are interdependent on what others do, trust provides the confidence that both investments and outcomes will be fair.

Can one person make a difference on a team?

Adding or removing one individual can change team dynamics greatly. This is a chief reason why Partnerwerks teaches that teamwork is an individual skill set.

What is leadership?

Leadership is any behavior that moves a group closer to its outcome.

Who can exhibit leadership?

Anyone. Anytime. (See above: What is leadership?) It's leadership behavior that's crucial to teams, not an assigned leader.

Should teams have an assigned leader?

It depends. Assigned leaders don't necessarily provide leadership. Whether a group becomes a team depends on how people view potential individual and collective outcomes. Therefore, groups may be better off not having someone in a position of designated authority -- unless that person's team orientation skills are excellent. On the other hand, if the group's sponsor operates primarily from a hierarchical paradigm, assigning a leader will ensure that someone will at least be accountable for some result. It's unlikely in this case that the group will become a team, however.

Shouldn't the technical expert be designated as the team leader?

Assisting the transformation of a group of people into a team often has little to do with technical expertise.

What is the difference between "leadership" and "leader?"

Leadership is an emergent behavior that moves a group closer to its outcome. A "leader" is defined by his/her followers.

How is a leader different than a manager?

A leader creates change. A manager ensures that organizational rules and procedures are maintained. The roles are paradoxical. Most managers are not great leaders. Most leaders are not great managers.

What equips Partnerwerks to provide team and leadership expertise?

First and foremost, Partnerwerks associates are engaged in a continuing search to answer the question, "How does one play win/win in a win/lose world?" We have invested in formal academic study; primary and secondary research; ongoing field research on corporate best practices; participated in intellectual, practical, and idealistic debates; engage in our own personal growth and transformation processes; and study the wisdom of philosophy, religion and spirituality. Mostly, we try daily to demonstrate what we have learned in our lives, on our own teams, and with client's teams. What we can demonstrate, we can claim. What we can't demonstrate remains a good theory or idea.

How do I start a team correctly?

Use one-on-one face-to-face and meeting time to orient the team members. We teach a five-step process:

Ensure all team members have shared clarity about what the team is to accomplish. Be specific.
Elicit from each team member what's in it for him/her to be part of this team and its outcome.
Establish agreements or ground rules for team membership.
Turn the task into a clear and elevating goal.
Discover what each team member brings to this team, this outcome, this time.

How do I get someone to do what he or she agreed to?

Agreements are usually made in good faith. They are more often broken from lack of attention than lack of intention. Use any or all of the following to increase attention to an agreement. At the time the agreement is made or implied:

Negotiate to ensure the agreement is sufficiently complete.
Clarify and verify understanding on both sides of the agreement.
State aloud that you are extending your valuable trust and depending on the other(s).
Discuss what you will do if the other(s) don't keep the agreement.
Document the agreement in an e-mail or a letter.

How do I get someone to trust me?

Ask for another's trust by your actions. Make a small agreement and keep it. Then make incrementally larger agreements and keep them. Trust is built on making and keeping small agreements. Never make any agreement, no matter how small, that you don't fully intend to keep.

How do I get meetings to start on time?

Lack of schedule integrity is a huge annoyance and a contributor to low trust and resentment. First, stop contributing to the problem yourself. See above section on Trust. Then try these tactics:

Set meetings at a time people can agree to make. Due to travel time between meetings, ten minutes past the hour may be more realistic than on the hour.
Agree to the time the meeting REALLY starts, then start it at that time. Do this consistently for a few meetings and people will get the message.
End your meeting on time to show schedule integrity. If you need to meet longer, ask who can attend another meeting which will commence immediately.

How do I work with someone who doesn't believe in teams?

First, if someone truly demands a solo act, coach them to find a job or role where interdependencies fit that model. Then, if you want to take them on, try the following:

Agree to make the person a consultant to your team rather than a member. Do this to acknowledge their need for independence.
Next, ask him or her to consult to the overall project (not just on their assignment), to consult with all necessary team members, and to respond to a set check-point which corresponds in frequency with your team meetings.
Then, proceed according to team orientation and management principles.

How do I motivate someone who doesn't report to me?

Often, when people are resistant, they just want others to take responsibility for their emotional state. Whatever you do, don't get sucked into this responsibility! Instead of thinking that you must motivate such a person, tap into his or her existing well of potential motivation. Do this by asking, "What could be in it for you to work on this project with this team?" Don't tell, ask! Probe until the person finds something. Then make an agreement to help him or her get that by working with you on the team.

If you can't help the person find something that raises his or her energy and commitment, save yourself and get out! Otherwise, your performance will slide down to match the other's level of effort. (Why so? No one wants to carry freeloaders!)

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