I got an email from the Straits Times Editor saying that my article will be published in today’s newspaper. Building A Successful Team is something close to my heart and I hope to share this with you.

To read the entire unedited article, click on How do I Create my ‘A’ team?

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When it comes to working in teams, most people often hesitate in asking for help. In fact, some leaders often think of the many reasons why their staff do not want to take up certain projects or additional work.

In my work with people, my experience tells me that unless I can share the reason for doing things with other people and delegate work out, I can never truly be transformational in what I do. The role of a leader is to create a team and galvanize them towards an objective. However, in most cases, whenever we think of the people we need to spearhead certain initiatives or even join our team, we can sometimes give a lot of reasons why he/she is not willing to take it on. We say NO for them.

Statements like the following:

“I’m sure that she will be great for this role, however she has just completed a major project and I don’t think she will take up a new role right now.”

“It will be great to have him on our team, but there’s just no way he will come in. Our remunerations will never be close to what he’s getting.”

I understand that those above are real concerns, but if we do not ask, we will have totally closed the door for that person to work with us. In fact, there are many instances when I am surprised over and over again that people do want to give more of their time, money or effort to something they believe in.

Here’s a conversation I had with whom someone I wanted on my team:

“Glad to have been able to know what you are passionate about and the marvellous skills that you possess. Right now our aim is to develop and mentor new members. Personally, they are a great bunch. However, if I have you helping out in the mentoring process, I know they will surely soar in their work scope. There’s no promise of more incentives, but I can guarantee that this will be an extremely fulfilling work because you will be able to teach and impact lives.”

Guess what? This lady with superb counselling skills joined us and played a pivotal role in building the team.

Never say NO for other people. Give them a reason, share with them your vision and they might just surprise you with a big resounding “YES, I’m willing to be involved!”

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I’m curious. Have you ever heard of people who call themselves “self-made”? For example, I’m a self-made millionaire….

Honestly, I don’t believe that statement is true at all. I mean, is there such thing as that you alone made yourself famous/rich/successful/___________ (fill in the blank)? For every person that ‘made it’ there are actually tons of people around this person supporting him/her.

Let me prove to you:

People who are successful in business, usually have a team of people who are working with or for them. They don’t do everything themselves.

If you are very rich, its because someone has probably mentored you before, or shared successful principles to your very soul.

Before you ever think you are ‘self made’, I hope you consider 3 these 3 groups of people who are rooting for your success…

1. People who are infront of you (your mentors or people who have imparted wisdom to you)

2. People beside you (your spouse, partners or colleagues)

3. People who are behind you (your staff)

There’s a saying:

If you want to go fast, go alone
If you want to go far, go together

Hope you remember that self-made people don’t exist, only successful people with strong teams do. Therefore, build great teams and you will be great too!

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please write your comments on the top right of this post.

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Often times we need to create a team to get a certain task accomplished. If you are still working alone thinking that things get done quicker by doing it yourself; you have not seen what it means to divide the work and double the effectiveness through a dedicated team. Your income and productivity is really tied to your ability to create and work in a high performance team. Ignore this law at your peril!

Creating an effective team can sometimes be a difficult task. This is due to the fact that people are very dynamic in character and getting that many differences to work together for a common goal is in itself challenging.

Below are three steps to creating a successful team that will be focused, committed and achieve the desired results.

1. Define the Expectations

If a team is created without expectations, the team will inevitably fail. Expectations need to be in place and clearly defined.

My Personal Tips:

- Give a solid background on why the team was created. The team members need to know their purpose.
- Let them know the importance of their role. Team members that understand that higher management will be waiting for the outcome is always motivation to get the job done well. Even in a top company like Genetech, janitors know that they have to do a good job so that the rest of the company can focus on developing life saving drugs that will make a difference!
- Support the team. Make resources available to the team if they request them. You cannot expect a team to produce the desired results if they do not have the right tools.
- Give the team perspective: the company needs to communicate to the team how their role in the team will help the company. Show them how the outcome will directly impact and affect the company and the initiatives they have laid out. Knowing how something will fit helps in building a puzzle. Essentially, this is what you are asking your team to do.

2. Commitment and Ability

These are both important factors when building a team. Select team members that are committed in accomplishing tasks. A personality trait that goes far with a team is the willingness to accept challenges with drive. Find a good variety of distinct attributes to create a successful team.

3. Central Control

There should be one person that is distinguished as the person who “coordinates” the group. It is important to note that this person does not contribute to the group thoughts and processes all the time. This person only intervenes to keep the group on track with goals set by the team.

Utilizing these three points will be a great start to accomplishing your team goals. Always be sure to set aside time to review these points with your team. The consequences of not allowing enough time is to backtrack, which takes even more time. So… ready to create your ‘A’ Team now?

If you like this article, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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I watched this video and felt that the amount of effort in ensuring that everyone dances to the same rhythm and pattern is simply astonishing.This only happens when people keep rehearsing and striving for perfection in their art.

If you like this video, please subscribe to our blog by getting the Free Report on “7 Transformational Secrets to creating a Dynamic and Cohesive Team”. If you have comments, I would love to hear them. Please post them below.

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Here are some insights to Teamwork that I picked up from the Recent F1 Night Race in Singapore:

1. Clarity of roles

Every single person in technical team knows what their job description is and they execute their task to perfection. The pit stop crew (which involves changing tires and refuelling) practices about 80 times every race weekend and about 1700 pitstops per season. That means that if your purpose in the team is to clean the visor of the driver, you will be doing that all the way. There is no glamour between different job scopes. There are no individuals, only team players.

2. Speed and Precision

Each pitstop takes approximately 5-9 seconds. Imagine, with 25 crew working at the same time, they have perfected the art of quick change and not getting in the way of each other. There are a total of 4 wheel men to remove each tire and it takes only 4 seconds to do it.

3. Everyone listens to each other

Most people will think that F1 Drivers are the stars of all teams. The person behind him, called the Race Strategist is equally important. He/she decides when to make a pitstop and what strategy to adopt when the race progresses. Even drivers will have to listen and follow the strategist’s plans. A good strategy will put their car right infront of rival cars when they exit the pit lane.

4. Trust among team members

The Front Jack Man has to stand infront of the incoming F1 car even when it is approaching the pit lane at 80km/hr. He has to trust the skills of the driver to stop right infront of him as he quickly jacks up the car for the rest of team members to do their jobs.

Here is a short clip of a pitstop I took from the recent F1 Night Race in Singapore

See more exciting photos and videos of the F1 Race at Kenneth’s Facebook.

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