Eight Characteristics of Successful Teams

Successful teams deal proactively with their conflicts and adapt quickly to changing market conditions.

What makes successful teams? During my time as a fund manager for private equity investments at Triodos Bank and later as a bank manager responsible for lending, I had the opportunity to observe many teams. The successful teams dealt proactively with their conflicts and differences. They were able to quickly adapt to changing market conditions.

A March 2023 HBR article (“How to Build a Superteam That Keeps Getting Better”) highlights additional noteworthy aspects of successful teams.

Successful teams learn faster than others. How do they do it? My observation is that learning and development often proceed too slowly or fail to happen at all. This isn’t solely due to the people involved. Often, it is systems, internal structures, and hierarchies that we have created ourselves, and where we then lack the strength to break them down again. Successful teams are able to overcome those obstacles fast. They adapt their behavior and do not take issues too personal. They are able to focus on the task at hand.

Successful teams experiment frequently and with ease. The culture and values within the team are such that they recognize mistakes as learning opportunities and treat them as such. Mistakes happen everywhere. That is normal. Too often, however, teams do not learn enough from their mistakes. They return to business as usual too quickly, instead of carefully examining what can be learned from mistakes and how their own behavior needs to be adjusted.

Successful teams work with questions. Too often, team-leaders think they must have an answer for everything. Successful team leaders, on the other hand, turn a question into a process and involve those directly affected in the search for a solution. Successful teams do this even without a team leader. They move from a problem to a question, to a process, to a shared understanding, to adjusted courses of action—and they do all of this quickly, in short meetings attended only by those directly affected.

Successful teams ask the right questions. The right question gets straight to the heart of the problem. It might be: What’s on your mind right now? Or: Where are things getting stuck? This brings the current problem to the surface immediately and is addressed as described above: Problem – formulate a question – develop a shared understanding – work out consequences together – implement them.

For successful teams, feedback is a blessing. Giving feedback this way is an art. It should be given in a way that makes the other person feel encouraged and supported. This requires nonviolent communication, the right words, a clear view of the problem—not saying it personally, not taking it personally, but always focusing on the issue at hand, with the customer in mind. If I say, “I can’t make sense of the way you’re doing this,” that undermines the other person. If I say instead, “I like your approach; I can imagine us integrating it into the process this way,” then I’m empowering the other person. And that’s exactly what matters. Sometimes you have to think long and hard about how to give feedback so that it strengthens and supports. It helps when the other person proactively asks for feedback.

Successful teams know why they do what they do, and for whom. The shared and active cultivation of the common mission—the “why” behind every activity of the team and its individual members, that is, its meaningfulness (is it essential or not? Does it contribute to shared value creation or not?)—is a key source of strength for successful teams. A successful team regularly sets aside time for this. This can take place weekly in a 15-minute session, where a team member briefly shares a thought related to the Why in 2–3 minutes and the team then engages in a constructive dialogue about it for 10–12 minutes.

Successful teams have good team leaders.

Good team leadership ensures that the processes mentioned above take place. However, a good leader is also able to relinquish its “leadership” at any time if a thought or idea expressed by another team member is more beneficial to the cause. This can be called “dynamic subordination.” It is always about the cause. No matter who suggests what, if it serves the cause, it is implemented.

Successful teams handle stress well. They actively apply the HeartMath coherence techniques. Every team member has the Inner Balance Sensor and uses it for at least 3 sessions of 5 minutes each day (morning, noon, evening). This teaches them to regulate their own emotions, feelings, and breathing in such a way that measurable coherence between the heart and brain is created. The effect on others is immediately noticeable. Meetings become shorter because team members are more “present” and therefore get to the point faster; decisions improve; each individual’s immune system is strengthened; and team resilience is enhanced. As a result, interactions with customers also become clearer, more human, and more relevant.

Warm regards

Alexander

Sources, among others:

HBR: Ron Friedman “How to build a superteam that keeps getting better”

Add-Heart podcast by HeartMath: “Making better decisions under stress. Accessing heart-coherence in life, work, and leadership. Deborah Rozman with Amy VaaS.”