What Makes Great Corporate Teams?
The Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy opens his 1877 romantic novel Anna Karenina with the now-famous line, “All happy families are alike; each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way.” One can argue American companies follow this same “Anna Karenina Principle”: All successful businesses are alike; each unsuccessful business fails in its own way.
If, indeed, all—or, at least, most—successful companies are alike, what are the attributes they have in common? How can we recognize a successful company when we see one? (Note: Certainly not by outward cosmetics. Many a business has used a flashy office building, high-priced interior décor, expensed-account lunches and even fleets of private jets to hide internal rot.)
Numerous business authors have also tried to discern what successful companies share in common. Popular entries in this particular literary sub-genre include The Effective Executive: The Definitive Guide for Getting the Right Things Done by Peter F. Drucker (1966), The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do about It by Michael E. Gerber (1986), Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap and Others Don’t by Jim Collins (2001), Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, also by Jim Collins (2004), and The Culture Code: The Secrets of Highly Successful Groups by Daniel Coyle (2018).
Based on my own 25-plus years as a business consultant specializing in leadership, compensation, and creating productive company cultures, I would argue great business teams share these seven elements in common:
1. A Clear Mission
Remarkable companies know exactly why they’re in business and focus all their talent and efforts toward that end. This sense of purpose permeates each aspect of their organization at every level, from the CEO down to the administrative assistants and workers on the loading dock. Or as the aforementioned Daniel Coyle writes, “Great teams have a clear purpose. They have catch words and phrases that very clearly embody who they are and how they should act. Those phrases are in front of them constantly, so they are not forgotten.”
2. An Atmosphere of Egalitarianism
The term “team spirit” is often overused, but great companies do, indeed, regard every member as part of the “team.” In this sense, each individual has a critical part to play in the organization’s success. No one is treated as dispensable, redundant, or “less than.” The COVID-19 epidemic revealed in stark terms just how crucial lower-paid service and support workers are to the economy; great companies already knew just how “essential” their front-line workers were and treated them accordingly.
3. A Strong Ethos of Commitment
There is nothing haphazard or halfway about an extraordinary organization’s behavior. For instance, when a decision is made, it’s full speed ahead with everyone’s buy in. As Jedi Master Yoda famously says in Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, “Either do or do not; there is no try.”
4. Psychological Safety
I have written about this before, but it bears repeating. Business culture experts like Amy Edmondson, Brené Brown and Daniel Coyle all posit successful teams create an environment where it’s safe to make mistakes, where it’s also safe to ask for help, and where one can safely question leadership decisions. In fact, in highly successful organizations where innovation and creativity thrive, mistakes and failures are celebrated. Why? Without them we do not learn nor gain new perspectives. Likewise, bereft of instructive stumbles, we are less able to make our next stab at creativity better.
5. An Atmosphere of Trust
Related to the above, successful companies not only harbor a culture in which team members trust they can take risks without fear of retribution, but they also build trust by practicing honesty and consistency. This means the C-Suite delivers not only good news with the tropes below, but the bad news, too. Similarly, when executives make promises, they keep them. Information also flows freely between departments; there’s a conscious effort to keep data from becoming “siloed” within privileged groups.
6. Accountability
Team members of exceptional organizations can freely call each other out when an individual’s performance or actions pose a threat to the group as a whole. As a result, people own up to their mistakes, resolve to do better in moving forward, and no one gets “thrown under the bus.”
7. A Focus on Results
Finally, success or failure is judged not by individual effort, but by the results produced by the collective. Yes, one team member may be an overachiever/superstar, but this is of little value if the company is failing; likewise, individual imperfections can be easily tolerated if the end result produces a solid bottom line.
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Does your business possess these seven key characteristics of success? If not, why not? As described in this recent Forbes profile, my team and I can help you create a winning company culture that attracts top talent, promotes innovation, and breeds long-term success. And it all starts by contacting me at laura@conoverconsulting.com. Reach out to me today to learn more.