TEAM CULTURE
Creating A New TEAM CULTURE
BY DR . MARSHALL GOLDSMITH
DO YOU PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS ? THIS IS A GREAT QUESTION . IF YOU ANSWER IT HONESTLY .
YOUR ANSWER could lead to your success or demise as a leader . It could be the key factor in your personal and family relationships . SO , LET ’ S ASK IT AGAIN . DO YOU PLAY WELL WITH OTHERS ?
Many of us may think “ plays well with others ” is a category for grading schoolchildren , not grown-ups like us . We tell ourselves , “ I ’ m a successful , confident adult . I shouldn ’ t have to constantly monitor if I ’ m being nice or if people like me .”
We may hold ourselves blameless for any interpersonal friction ; it ’ s always someone else ’ s fault , not ours . “ The other guy needs to change . I shouldn ’ t have to . In fact , I don ’ t need to , it ’ s his fault !”
Or we ’ re so satisfied with how far our behavior has already taken us in life that we smugly reject any reason to change . In other words , “ If it ain ’ t broke , don ’ t fix it .”
When my good friend Alan Mulally became CEO of Ford , he set to work to create an environment where the executive team , notorious for not working together , could learn to play well with each other . Through Alan ’ s leadership , the focus of the team and ultimately the focus of the entire company became , “ How can we help one another more ?”
It worked . The company survived through incredibly difficult times , and returned to achieving great success again through working together . If Ford had been a schoolyard , and the executives schoolchildren , they would have gotten the highest of marks in “ playing well with others .”
HOW WELL DOES YOUR TEAM PLAY TOGETHER ?
You can answer this question with your team by trying this simple fourstep process , which I call “ team building without time wasting .” The steps are :
1 . In a team meeting ask each team member to rate “ How well are we doing ?” vs . “ How well do we need to be doing ?” in terms of teamwork . Have each member do this on paper . Have one of the members calculate the scores — without
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