10 Tips to Build a Winning Team

Successful Leaders understand that teamwork is the glue that holds the organization together. Without teamwork, companies fail, employees quit, or even worse, employees quit mentally but remain on the job. True leaders also understand that teamwork has a multiplier effect – no longer does 1 + 1 + 1 = 3, but now it’s 1 + 1 + 1 = 300! The synergism that develops from a group of people working together in formation creates ideas and profit where nothing existed before.

Take a look at most successful athletic teams and what drives their path to success. They don’t win championships because one or two stars work independently, but because all of the players work together as a finely-tuned machine. Each member has a role, which is integrated into the team as a whole. The team is a living, breathing entity that would cease to operate should one individual not complete their assignment.

To build a winning team, consider these 10 tips that are guaranteed to strengthen any team to achieve success.

1. Develop Personal and Team Goals: What are your goals? What do you need to accomplish your goals? Identify those activities and work on them daily.
2. Prioritize: Put your priorities in writing and coach team members from those priorities. “Writing crystallizes thought and thought motivates actions,” says Paul J. Meyer.
3. Keep Score: All athletic teams keep score; they know where they are and where they want to go. What is scoring and winning for your team? How do you know when you and your team are winning?
4. Continual Improvement: Your team is a work in progress. Continually look for ways to improve processes and systems.
5. A.S.K. (Ask, Seek and Knock): Make sure that you and your team members ask for and offer help from each other.
6. Have a PMA (Positive Mental Attitude): Stuff happens! Focus on what you want to make happen within your team and for your customers – not the problems, setbacks and crises.
7. Control the Controllable: Focus on what you can control, rather than what you can’t.
8. Communicate: Reduce gossip, rumors and complaints by communicating daily to your team. The best way to communicate is to ask questions and listen.
9. Trust: Developing a successful team requires trust, and trust is developed by understanding each member of the team and knowing their needs, wants and desires. Spending time with each member while using the above list solidifies you and your team.
10. Patience: Developing your team also requires patience and is much easier to develop when you have a clear vision of what you want your team to do. Map out where you would like to see the team go, with everyone on the same page, at the same time, all of the time; in other words, “Teamwork!”

Together with Operation Kindness, North Texas’ original and largest no-kill animal shelter, I created Kindness, Inc., a unique team-building program that gives employees the opportunity to step out of the office and into Operation Kindness’ landscaped park to build their team while giving back to the community. We developed the corporate leadership program to help employers encourage teamwork, philanthropy and career development by bringing their office together for team-building activities and interactions with adorable adoptable animals.

Kindness, Inc. invites team members to participate in all-day corporate training, which includes three different workshops that address how employees can better understand communication styles, increase teamwork and improve intentional communication. More than simple office exercises, each company benefits from personal interactions with Operation Kindness animals. Each workshop is paired with interactions with the shelter’s animals to reinforce the important lesson team members will learn throughout the day, keeping the workshop fun and engaging.

Employees are able to enhance their communication skills, improve individual and team accountability, boost priority management and empower coaching skills – while energizing their team. Kindness, Inc. is designed for groups of 10 – 20 employees. Each participant is provided lunch, a team t-shirt and certificate of participation for $250 per employee.

Founded in 1976, Operation Kindness is the original and largest no-kill shelter in North Texas. Its mission is to care for homeless cats and dogs in a no-kill environment until each is adopted into responsible homes and to advocate humane values and behavior. In 2016, Operation Kindness will celebrate their 40^th anniversary and their achievement of saving more than 80,000 animals since their inception. Annually the shelter assists more than 5,000 dogs and cats, caring for an average of 300 animals daily with another 100-150 animals in foster homes.