Building Teamwork

I am a keen of observer of humans and how they work together.

As an entrepreneur, this is a useful hobby.

Every business is a people business. It is the people that work in my business that make the business work.

I am not just in the real estate business, I am also in the relationship business.

The quality of my organization is dependent on the quality of leadership and teamwork.

Leadership and teamwork are not mutually exclusive. They are two sides of the same coin.

In the post-information age, leaders must take turn to be followers. A leader who does not know how to be a good follower cannot be a good leader.

Business is a team sport. Both leaders and followers must learn to work together as a team.

In my studies of leadership and teamwork, I discovered there are five key dimensions that can help me to build a great team.

T – Teamwork

Teamwork starts with the people in the team. Many people believe that TEAM stands for Together Everybody Achieve More. It should stand for Teams that are Effective Achieve More.

To develop such a team, we need to seek out the right talent to do the right job and at the right time.

The emphasis is on seeking the right talent – and not the best talent. The best talent may not have the right fit with the job and organization.

In addition, we need to ensure they are educated, enabled, and empowered to perform their duties. We need to continue to help them improve so that they can get better results.

E – End Points

In HSR, we have a saying, “Results is the true measurement of life.”

An effective team must know what win-win results they seek to achieve for their organization, team, and individual members. There may be a need to subordinate personal interests for the interests of the team and organization.

An effective team begins with the plan for the results. Results define the effectiveness of a team.

As they say, if we keep doing the same thing, we will always get the same results. If we want to change the results, we must change the way we do things.

To get better results, we must be committed to a process of continuous and never-ending learning, improvements, and growth.

A – Alignment

To ensure the team reach the end-points, every member must support and be aligned to the team’s philosophy. It includes the team’s mission, vision, values, and operational model.

In the process of working together, the team must be committed to formal and informal communications. Every member must learn to resolve conflicts, collaborate with one another, and co-create solutions to overcome challenges along the way.

M - Motivation

As servant-leaders, we must always remember that every member in our team is a unique individual with gifts and talents.

Each of them joins the team with their own purpose, needs, and dreams.

If we don’t have a heart to love and serve them, we do not qualify and deserve to be a leader.

We need to empathise with them and help them find meaning, excitement and fulfillment.

We need to bring out the best from them and help them enjoy the best at work and in life.

S – Systems

To ensure that we have the most effective team that will reach the desired end-points, the team members must not only be in alignment and be totally motivated, there must be systems.

If there are no systems – that’s also a system.

The system should meet the following criteria.

1.       Results

It should achieve the desired results.

2.       Record

It should be recorded in writing. That will compel us to think through the issues more deeply and to enhance clarity.

3.       Replicate

It should be a system that can be adopted by another team and they should be able to achieve the same, if not better results.

4.       Refinement

It should be subjected to constant changes and improvements so as to achieve better results.

Successful people learn to work with and through great organisation. Great organisation depends on great leadership and teamwork.

Go4It!

I hope this message will find a place in your heart.

By the way, I have also recorded other reflections.

Please go to ‘Notes’ found below my profile picture.

Visit my Inspiration blog at http://liewinspiration.wordpress.com

Visit my Transformation blog at http://hsrpatrickliew.wordpress.com

Please read them and continue to teach me.

Life is FUNtastic!

 

Question: How can we build better teamwork?