8 Truths for Great Teams

  Governance   Talent Management   Teams   ProjectsAtWork  

Teams, not individuals, drive performance. No one person, however talented, can match the power of a team’s combined skills. But managing teams, with their hidden politics and complex interplay of human differences, is very different from managing individuals. Here are eight insights on what a well-run team looks like.

America loves a fierce individualist. And yes, there is something inspiring about the lone enterpriser or large business executive blazing a path into the valuable future. And yet, while our culture will always celebrate the individual, I insist that the business world must acknowledge the truth behind the (alleged) Aristotle quote: “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” In other words, the near future will be all about innovation for sustainable value creation, led by teams.

In a world that becomes more complex by the day, “command and control” is out and employee engagement is in. The days when a larger-than-life personality is allowed to steamroll over the rest of the company are over. This destroys morale, which destroys results. Teams, not individuals, drive performance.

And make no mistake. The best organizations, the ones with real staying power, are fueled by well-run teams.

In Doing More with Teams: The New Way to Winning, I emphasize that teams are more important than ever because the way we work and do…

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