Like in years past, I was fortunate to be a presenter once again at last month's annual Down Syndrome Affiliates in Action Leadership Conference. Since I returned I have been honored by the number of people who shared their thoughts with me on one session I offered called "You're Not Leading, You're Stealing: It's Time to Lead". This idea comes from that session. |
Professor Michael A. Roberto of Bryant University offers the first seven characteristics of quality teams. Art Lersch of the University of Wisconsin Extension offers the eighth:
- Stability.
- A compelling shared vision, goal or purpose.
- An enabling structure within a beneficial environment.
- Well guided and mentored.
- Members aware of its current stage of team development.
- Has the ability to tolerate conflict without fracturing.
- Mines for constructive conflict and avoids group-think.
- Seeks out, honors, respects and leverages the differences between team members.
What This Ideas Means for You: The closer the teams you lead and the teams you are a part of have the above characteristics the more effective, the more efficient and the more capable of acting on your mighty purpose you will be.
What were the characteristics of the best teams you were part of? Please use the comment function below to share with the community.
You can also request access to the most current version of the workbook for this presentation here.
The Bigger Idea: So many leaders feel alone in the work they do and this is a great burden to them. I speak to leaders every week who are experiencing this burden and I have been one of them. This is unnecessary and tragic, because these leaders could build real teams around them if they just knew how.
This stuff is powerful - Alexander the Great literally conquered the entire world known to the ancient Macedonians with his friends (his captains were called "friends" and most of them actually were). Imagine what good you could do with a team you are close with (has the above 8 characteristics).
You may not get to work with your best friends but you don't have to work alone.