Tip 208 - Characteristics of Team Effectiveness

Patrick Lencioni, author of The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, shows how teamwork is essential to organizational success. Effective teams, regardless of industry, tenure, or size, demonstrate common characteristics.

Reflect on your team as you use the checklist for assessing team effectiveness.

1. Deliver excellent results while providing team members opportunities to grow and develop.

2. Become part of and commit to a shared vision, one that presents a meaningful challenge.

3. Have complimentary skills to get the job done and respect each person’s talents.

4. Committed to working together, recognizing that they depend upon one another’s efforts.

5. Seek to align, integrate, and synchronize everything.

6. Hold themselves accountable for outcomes.

7. Build high levels of trust and commitment to working well together.

8. Motivated to put their best effort to perform the tasks assigned to them.

9. Provide value to constituencies and are relevant to those served.

10. Achieve recognition for the services they provide.

Most team leaders are able to check some of these characteristic. If you were able to check most, great work! Those that went unchecked are opportunities for improvement.

Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare. - Patrick Lencioni