Five elements of an effective team These are the five elements of an effective team. If you've ever worked in a group where team members didn't trust each other, you'll know exactly how it feels, compared to a team that has developed that trust among members. They're also quick to point out and accept errors. This is because, with confidence, you know that your colleague is not pointing out a mistake to get you into trouble or for their own benefit.
They point this out because it benefits common objectives on which everyone agrees. Honesty is vital to building real trust. It's not realistic to imagine a team of people who agree on everything, all the time. Conflict is inevitable, but what matters is the style of conflict in which the team is involved.
This is related to trust, because if you don't have a team whose members trust each other, you can't have healthy discussions about topics and ideas. When everyone has a voice and that voice can be expressed in a safe, trust-based environment, everyone on the team is much more likely to commit to any decision that is made at the end of the discussion. No one takes credit or blame, but all team members have to serve other team members, and one way to do that is through accountability. With a solid knowledge of these five elements, a team can make decisions quickly and effectively, take advantage of each other's different abilities, value all opinions, avoid destructive conflicts and have a solid objective that each member has an interest in achieving.
If trust is lacking, the team leader must first focus on building trust, that is, getting team members to open up (within the team) and expose their weaknesses and fears to each other. In some cases, a team-building exercise can be used. In certain business cases, due to lack of time, the leader may have to take responsibility for building trust or changing the team to achieve the level of trust necessary for the team's success. Until everyone is willing to trust other team members, progress toward team success will be limited.
It promotes trusting attitudes among team members. However, to develop high-performance teams, leaders must have a clear idea of the key elements that make up a high-performance team. These five elements interact to form the core of the team pyramid, while shared vision and personal awareness form the basis, with learning at the center. When the fundamental elements and these core elements of the team pyramid are in place, a true dialogue can ensue.
