"What are the qualities of a great team? You've probably been taught that team success requires building trust, fostering psychological safety, and cultivating a unified mindset. Seems logical. You might have learned that consensus is important and hierarchies are bad. Okay. You've undoubtedly been given that old chestnut, "There's no I in team." A classic. Team building 101. It's conventional wisdom, and yet it completely misses the paradox of teams:"
"While companies often focus on merging everyone into a single homogeneous entity, truly great teams embrace the distinct, diverse roles and talents of their team members. Every high-performing group in an organization will have someone who takes the lead on making decisions (the Director), somebody who produces work and achieves results (the Achiever), another who keeps the group on track and on schedule (the Stabilizer), another who keeps the relationships healthy (the Harmonizer), and someone who challenges the group with ideas outside the norm (the Trailblazer)."
High-performing teams combine five complementary roles: Director (decision-maker), Achiever (producer), Stabilizer (scheduler), Harmonizer (relationship-builder), and Trailblazer (idea-challenger). Analysis of thousands of executives' evaluations of best and worst teams found that 97 percent of top teams had all five roles represented, while only about 21 percent of worst teams did. Imbalances produce dysfunction: surplus Directors create power struggles, absent Achievers stall execution, missing Directors prevent decisions, and lack of Trailblazers kills creativity. Successful teams prioritize role diversity and clear role representation rather than forced homogeneity or uniform consensus to ensure decision-making, delivery, coordination, relationships, and innovation.
Read at Fast Company
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]