The Five Competencies of a Championship Team

Posted: August 9, 2012 | Categories: Leadership, Team Building

One of the benefits of having my own company is being able to select who I work with.  I prefer to work with teams that operate at the championship level.  It is more fun, and far more rewarding.  But you say, “If they are champions, why do they need me?”  If you are a good bowler, golfer, or baseball player, do you ever stop wanting one more pin, a lower handicap, or a higher batting average?”  Championship teams operate differently from so-so teams.  In addition to focus, extra effort, and character (See link to 2/6/12 blog below), the champions all do the following:

1.  Working agreement:  (See link below) whether formal or informal, winning teams know how they work together best.  Everyone is important, and so are their needs.  Building a working agreement establishes a frame of reference that keeps each team member with a healthy mindset with maximum focus and minimum distraction.
2.  Winning mindset:  Powerful teams welcome challenge and see setbacks and disappointments as an opportunity to try again more intelligently
3.  Problem solving skills:  Not only to the champs have a good attitude about difficulty, they stick to the problem solving process and see it though without skipping a step.  That is why they are so good at focusing on the problem and not the personality.
4.  Skillful, synergistic communication and coordination: Not only do they have a process for solving problems, they also have the skill that goes with it.  Everyone’s input is important, and meetings and discussions produce quality results because they have idea fluency and incorporate collective wisdom.
5.  They know their roles.  It’s one thing to say, “That’s not my job”.  It is another to do someone else’s job for them.  Champions know their roles, and they count on their teammates to do the same.  These winners put heavy demands on themselves and create a “structural tension” that gives them that winning edge.

Putting these all together, I think we can best sum it up with a quote from Hall of Fame Coach Vince Lombardi:

“You’ve got to be smart to be number one in any business.  But more importantly, you’ve got to play with your heart, with every fiber of your body.  If you’re lucky enough to find a guy with a lot of head and a lot of heart, he’s never going to come off the field second”

http://www.durhamcoach.com/blog/2012/02/08/championship-teams-do-all-three/

http://www.durhamcoach.com/blog/2011/10/19/does-your-team-have-a-working-agreement/