Estimated reading time: 4 minutes
Businesses, enterprises, and entrepreneurs must accommodate team systems into their structure to grow and fulfil the vision.
John Maxwell has written several books on the subject, and as Maxwell Leadership Certified Trainers, we have access to his material and mentorship programs. The 17 Indisputable Laws of Teamwork: Embrace Them and Empower your Team and The Essential Qualities of a Team Player are 2 books I have studied.
For the past 30 years, I have been part of teams in various positions, countries, and places of employment, and in my own business. However, until I read John’s books, I hadn’t quite grasped and understood the value of teamwork, and it changed the environment. I quickly learned that I lacked skills in certain areas, so I started studying the principles and practices of teamwork. I evaluated and changed my leadership style. It’s possible because leadership can be learned.
Other books about the need for building on team leadership skills in preparation for such positions include Patrick Lencioni’s “The Five Dysfunctions of a Team” and Simon Sinek’s book “Leaders Eat Last”.
Most companies have two common team divisions, and I’ve worked in both environments.
They are:
- Traditional departmental teams – The members of such a team are from the same work area. As a trainer and counsellor at the University of the Nations for 10 years, I mainly worked in teams with the same focus – counselling and psychology.
- Cross-functional teams – The members of such teamwork across different areas of expertise. They are a team because they collaborate and make decisions regarding their areas of expertise. I function in a team like this in the Swiss Leaders Group.
Whether you are the boss of your own company, a CEO, a general manager or an employee, employers need to recognize the need for their employees to form teams. More importantly, maintaining a teamwork ethic requires 2 things. Firstly, a lot of collaboration and, secondly, transparency-related concepts.
The above 2 concepts include:
- Setting clearly defined goals for each team to pursue
- Getting everyone in the organization to buy into the idea that teamwork only works if everyone is on board. This includes letting go of the traditional work hierarchies to form collaborations with the other employees or people involved.
- Set up norms and practices that guide everyone on how to go about the teamwork concept
- Replace “brainstorming” with “brain swarming”. This allows the team to air their ideas and follow through with them.
The Laws of Teamwork
John Maxwell’s seventeen teamwork laws will improve your team-building approach. These laws aim to help you get more work done with the input of your team members. Briefly, some of these laws that have most impacted my life are:
“Individuals play the game. But teams win championships” Chinese Proverb
The law of significance
This law outlines the significance of taking on tasks as a team. He quotes a Chinese proverb, “Individuals play the game. But teams win championships”.
The law of the big picture
Each team member should be willing to take up various roles to help the common good. It emphasizes the importance of achieving goals instead of focusing on the roles played. This requires some adaptability in team members.
The law of the niche
Team members should stick to roles that help them add the most value to the team. This concerns their skill set.
The law of the Mount Everest
This law outlines that the greater the challenge, the greater the need for an effective team. Build the strength of the team to develop the ability to take on more significant challenges in the future.
The law of the chain
Just as the chain depends on the links’ bonds, so does the team. A weak link negatively influences the quality of the team, and leaders should be able to raise the bar high enough to either train the weak links to be stronger or, to put it bluntly – replace the weak links. Leadership in teams involves tough decision-making on the part of leadership.
The law of the catalyst
A catalyst is people within the team who are not afraid to go after what they want. Such people need to stay motivated as they can be a source of motivation for the rest of the team. They help the team stay on its toes.
Create a difference in your team
Create a difference in your employees’ effectiveness that’s apparent to everyone in the company. When you get people focused on their strengths, results improve immediately. And by making them aware of what they should individually improve—without taking away from their motivation—results keep improving for years.
You may also get a taste of success in teamwork by taking a few hours to enjoy our Teamwork assessment tool called “The Leadership Game“.
Additional resources
To discover more about the topics mentioned in this blog:
17 Laws of Teamwork
Leadership Development
Communication
Leadership Game
