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6. Unsure of how to assign team roles? Allow roles within the team to evolve naturally. Cement
relationships. Even though some—maybe including you—will resist it, parties, games nights, picnics
and outings help build group cohesion. Allow roles to evolve naturally rather than being specified by
job descriptions. Some research indicates that people gravitate naturally to eight roles and that
successful teams are not those where everyone does the same thing. Successful teams specialize,
cover for each other, and only sometimes demand that everyone participate in identical activities.

7. Want to know the secret to team building? Delegate and empower others. One true team builder
is giving people tough tasks to do, the resources to do them, and the authority to make decisions
about it. Delegating increases motivation, releases your time to move on to other things, and gets
more work done. Delegating is scary at first. They probably can’t do it the first time as well as you
can. But with coaching and support, they will learn and eventually either do it as well as you can or,
better yet, do it better.

8. Focused on the individual? Leverage the power of words and rewards. Use we instead of I. Use
team, us, together, more. Say let us. Let’s get together. We can do it. We’re all in this together. Signal
that you are thinking team. Do you talk teams and reward individuals? To the extent that you can,
reward the team more. Take some incentive money and divide it equally among the team members.
Set team goals and line up team rewards.

9. Team stuck in a rut? Create a climate of innovation and experimentation. Don’t prescribe how to
do everything. How things are done should be as open as possible. Studies show that people work
harder and are more effective when they have a sense of choice. Encourage quick experiments. Most
innovations and experiments will fail, so communicate a learning attitude toward mistakes and
failures.

10. Need an outside perspective? Engage a team coach. Because a team coach is external to the
team, they can objectively help you problem solve and provide you with feedback to avoid some of
the temptations that can demotivate a team. The team coach could be a human resources partner or
an external professional who specializes in coaching.

11. All work and no play? Build a sense of joy and fun for the team. Research noted in The Wisdom
of Teams by Katzenbach and Smith found there were several common threads among high-
performing teams, including having fun. Fun is a by-product of the team’s sense of commitment to
each other and performance. If your team doesn’t seem to be having fun, look for likely causes. Are
the team members committed to the goals of the team? Are the team members committed to one
another? Fixing one or both of these issues might result in more fun.

12. Ready to lead? Set the standard by modeling it. Use your behavior to shape the behavior and
performance of others. You have an opportunity to set the standard for the team. Many people resist
developing new behaviors if they don’t see those behaviors rewarded or demonstrated by more
senior people. If behavior changes are required to improve team performance, they must start with
you.

13. Team in a downward spiral? Study the characteristics of low-performing teams. Much research
has been done on why teams fail. Your team is probably not unique. Read The New Why Teams

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