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Factor: N/A
Cluster N: Doesn’t inspire or build talent
Career staller and stopper 104: Failure to build a team
104. Failure to build a team

There is more talk of teams than there are well-functioning teams. Most managers grow up as strong
individual contributors. That’s why they get promoted. They weren’t like the rest of the members of the
team. They were not raised in teams. They owe little of their success to teams. As a matter of fact, most
of them could tell you stories about how some past team held them back from getting things done. But
teams, although strange and uncomfortable to many, are the best way to accomplish some tasks such as
creating systems that cross boundaries, producing complex products, or sustained coordinated efforts.
It’s really rewarding to be a member of a well-functioning, high-performance team. Well-functioning teams
can outproduce the collective of what each individual could do on their own. Most individuals would
choose to work for a boss who was able to build a well-functioning team.

“A great person attracts great people
and knows how to hold them together.”

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe – German poet, scientist, and diplomat

A problem
• Doesn’t believe much in the value of teams.
• Doesn’t pull the group together to accomplish the task.
• Delegates pieces and parts.

• Doesn’t resolve problems within the team.
• Doesn’t share credit for successes.
• Doesn’t celebrate.
• Doesn’t build team spirit.

• Treats people more as a collection of individuals than as a team.

Not a problem
• Usually operates in a team format.

• Talks “we,” “us,” and “the team” versus “I.”
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