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teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare.
Success comes only for those groups that overcome the all-too-human behavioral tendencies that corrupt teams and breed dysfunctional politics within them.
“Trust is the foundation of real teamwork. And so the first dysfunction is a failure on the part of team members to understand and open up to one another.
“Great teams do not hold back with one another,” she said. “They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.”
“Remember, teamwork begins by building trust. And the only way to do that is to overcome our need for invulnerability.”
Politics is when people choose their words and actions based on how they want others to react rather than based on what they really think.”
“If we don’t trust one another, then we aren’t going to engage in open, constructive, ideological conflict. And we’ll just continue to preserve a sense of artificial harmony.”
“Once we achieve clarity and buy-in, it is then that we have to hold each other accountable for what we sign up to do, for high standards of performance and behavior. And as simple as that sounds, most executives hate to do it, especially when it comes to a peer’s behavior, because they want to avoid interpersonal discomfort.”
Some people are hard to hold accountable because they are so helpful. Others because they get defensive. Others because they are intimidating.
While each of these tools and exercises can have a significant short-term impact on a team's ability to build trust, they must be accompanied by regular follow-up in the course of daily work.
most important action that a leader must take to encourage the building of trust on a team is to demonstrate vulnerability first.
By building trust, a team makes conflict possible because team members do not hesitate to engage in passionate and sometimes emotional debate,
Ironically, teams that avoid ideological conflict often do so in order to avoid hurting team members' feelings, and then end up encouraging dangerous tension.
One simple but effective way to do this is to recognize when the people engaged in conflict are becoming uncomfortable with the level of discord, and then interrupt to remind them that what they are doing is necessary.
commitment is a function of two things: clarity and buy-in.
More than any of the dysfunctions, this one creates dangerous ripple effects for subordinates.
More than any other member of the team, the leader must be comfortable with the prospect of making a decision that ultimately turns out to be wrong. And the leader must be constantly pushing the group for closure around issues,
In the context of teamwork, however, it refers specifically to the willingness of team members to call their peers on performance or behaviors that might hurt the team.
Members of great teams improve their relationships by holding one another accountable, thus demonstrating that they respect each other and have high expectations for one another's performance.
More than any policy or system, there is nothing like the fear of letting down respected teammates that motivates people to improve their performance.
Team Rewards By shifting rewards away from individual performance to team achievement, the team can create a culture of accountability.
An absence of accountability is an invitation to team members to shift their attention to areas other than collective results.
Results-Based Rewards An effective way to ensure that team members focus their attention on results is to tie their rewards, especially compensation, to the achievement of specific outcomes.
Perhaps more than with any of the other dysfunctions, the leader must set the tone for a focus on results.
