How many times have we heard of this word Team and another hypothetical word Team Spirit(its indeed a hypothesis if you can’t feel or understand it),may be few hundreds,may be few thousand,may be few million or may be more.Now whats so great about it?Well if you try analyzing journey of your life how many times did you find yourself in a group,which may happen being part of college football or basketball team,being a part of dance group,may be sharing a room in a hostel,moving forward to the most important point working in a organization.You will find most of the time you are working in a team or group rather than working alone.So it becomes more obvious for us to understand the essence of a team and working together we can achieve better results than summing up our individual efforts.It also help us upgrading ourselves from our current level to next higher level(which I believe should be the motto of every individual).Here I want to put some points as to how make a great team in any organization
1)Make a team of individuals who are different(in what sense?)When I mean different,it means they all should complement each other with each having unique ways of doing thing,with unique imagination(whats the benefit?)The benefit of doing this will if all of them are same then to tackle any problem or issues they will use the same way which all of us understand is not going to help in long run because in life you will not always find problems which are same or which you have tackled before they will always be different for that you will need out of box solution(now is it making sense?)
2)Make every individual in team as leaders with no followers(how absurd is that…..not its not…..rather very simple)Give every individual freedom in doing his/her work and make him/her own the project or module because by ownership it attaches responsibility with which comes more dedication and focus and the result nonetheless to say will be in simple term great!!!!
3)In the above line when I said freedom it denoted freedom to loose(oh i have gone crazy…..is it?)Now how many times we have stopped ourselves from doing something because we had a fear that we will loose or the result might be negative.I can bet many a times.Now why is that because we have made a comfort zone around ourselves and are happy within it,whenever we are asked to move into some unexplored territory away from our zone of comfort,fear creeps in why because of failure,rejection or whatever (words you want to put to signify negativity)Now if I remove that fear of loosing by giving you freedom to do things irrelevant of outcome,what will be result(just stretch your brain cells….you will get the answer)
4)Make a habit of congratulating excellent failures and removing the excitement of mediocre success within the team(howzzzat…)Well I believe in the philosophy that we don’t miss our goal because its too high but achieve it because its too low.So mediocre success are result of effort which was put to reach a goal which was not that far away.If a ordinary individual has put in extraordinary efforts to achieve some impossible goals(impossible in itself means I’m possible)then even if he fails his failure needs celebration because next time he is bound to succeed with results beyond imagination
5)In order to lead this team you need ……what good manager(naaaaah…..)able leaders who should lead from the front,who just doesn’t sit in the laurels that he has got team within him and his whole and soul purpose is to manage this people.A leader is one who sees a ray of light in end of the dark tunnel when all his team member have given to the darkness,who have the courage to stay calm and focused even if his team is perplexed.One who gives all the credit bestowed for success to his members and all the brickbats on himself in case of failures(high expectation from the manager……again i repeat leaders….they are not interchangeable)
6)Don’t make habit of doing a team meeting always inside a closed board room(it sucks…..)instead go for coffee or drink parties discuss your theory or creative ideas over there,as personally think your mind works the best when its free that doesn’t mean it cannot be free in a board room but the traditional way of those meetings are not very effective(according to me.)
7)Lastly never allow any individual to skip his meal or the evening coffee because he is too busy(not doing something which has urgency),because never try to work when your energy are low, always keep in mind that creativity is driven by stomach(who said so…..try doing something with empty stomach…..you can gauge your focus and imagination) so never starve yourself in the name of being busy instead try feeding yourself with the best food which you love then see the difference
Hmmm the monitor looks hazy ….why ? beacuse I am 7 pegs old and think am drunk and on 7th heaven so I will keep this article to this 7 points………..till then cheers
Manish Singh
Soubhagya Senapati
Product Management in Startup's 