Working towards team building

Every person on this planet either is or should be involved in team building! Because  species homo sapiens is designed to be connected, interdependent in relationships with people. Every human being is designed to become a team player. A family is a team, an athletics squad is a team, corporate employees constitute a team, and a government office is — or should be — a team.

During my long career as an athlete, coach, and sports psychologist working with families, and while providing consultancy services to business enterprises, it has become increasingly clear to me that the #1 issue on the minds of most sports coaches, team owners, entrepreneurs, executives, managers, and even shopfloor employees is, “How do we ensure we work better as a team?”

Whenever and wherever people join together (or are thrown together) to get a job done, they willy-nilly become a team. And the first priority of any team should be to learn to function as a unit, as effectively and smoothly as possible.

Since basketball was my career, it provided an excellent example of a team sport (when played correctly). I have learnt that the first imperative of team building is subordination of individual to team goals. However, in today’s world where individualism is becoming increasingly predominant, coaches and parents need to teach young people to become collectivist team players — a formidable challenge. Implicit in team building are trust and communication, the cornerstones for establishing any type of team.

What steps can we take to build successful teams?

There are many traits, thoughts and skills that need to be developed. Chief among them are trust, care, communication, commitment and developing a common vision.

Trust. Without trust there can’t be a team. Individualists tend to be untrusting because they are taught to look out for themselves and believe everyone will do the same. Trust is a sentiment which prompts individuals to rely on others. It can take a long time to build trust and all team players know it requires many initiatives to build trust.

Care. Caring can be particularly problematic when members of a team don’t know each other well. A first step is for members to know at least one teammate in some depth. This can slowly be extended to all the players of a squad as the season progresses.

There are many ways to accomplish this: big brother or sister relationships, sharing personal information in formal or informal settings, decreasing personal space in team meetings, and working together in pairs during practice games. A major force in team building is shared fun activities away from the gym or practice field — dancing, cooking meals together, and/or camping.

Communication. Effective communication is key to building team relationships. Too many people think communication is “talking” and spare little thought to the value of listening. Most listen only in preparation for what they want to say. In his best-seller 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Stephen Covey used the phrase, “Listen first to understand”. This can be done by active listening and other approaches which need to be frequently practised. When players learn to truly listen to their teammates, they can begin to move forward to build trust and care.

Commitment. In the US — and perhaps worldwide — there’s much less emphasis on commitment than in the past. This parallels societal trends toward individualism. Marriages frequently end in divorce, workers change jobs often, and young athletes hedge their bets by learning to play two or three games simultaneously — examples of lack of commitment. People who are unable to make commitments and follow through on them are unlikely to become good team players.

For coaches, it’s important when working with individualistic athletes to advise them that the best way they can achieve their own goals is through the success of the team. Although this allows them to retain their self-centeredness, with the passage of time they will learn the benefits of becoming good team players.

Shared goals. Without a common goal that all team players can buy into, teams fail. Team goals should include benchmarks for academic performance, behaviour, practice, conditioning, and on-court or field play. Shared goals need to be specific, challenging, measurable, and attainable within set deadlines.

Good luck with your team building efforts!

(Dr. George A. Selleck is a San Francisco-based advisor to EduSports, Bangalore)