The Top 5 Characteristics of Highly Effective Teams
Like many, I’ve had a lifelong fascination with animals and the natural world, and look for opportunities to immerse myself in God’s creation. I’ve been blessed to enjoy a fair amount of adventure travels throughout my life, including a memorable trip in 2018 with my youngest daughter, Brooke. This was a high school graduation trip, the summer before her senior year, and we visited several locations in Africa. We started with some mission work, visiting a couple organizations we support in Uganda, and then we went on a gorilla trek in Rwanda, and finally, capped off the trip with a safari at the Maasai Mara in Kenya.
The Big 5 of Africa
One of our goals during the safari was to catch an in-person glimpse of what’s known as the Big 5 of Africa, which originated as a hunting term, and evolved into a description of the top five animals to see. The idea of seeing the Big 5 (elephant, water buffalo, rhinoceros, lion, and leopard) makes it onto personal bucket lists around the world. Now obviously, you’re likely to see many other animals, but these five top the list. We were fortunate enough to encounter all the Big 5 animals on our trip, and I tried to capture their magnificence in the photos you see below.
The Top 5 Characteristics of Highly Effective Teams
Travel is well-known as a means of “broadening one’s horizons,” and these trips do open my mind to new perspectives that can be applied to everyday life. So, how might the aspirational concept of the Big 5 translate into the business world? When I think about a group of key business learnings, the five most important characteristics for a highly effective team comes to mind. High-functioning teams are crucial building blocks for any company, especially a fast-growing organization such as ProVia.
Much like The Big 5 African animals, there are many other characteristics I could talk about that effective teams employ. For example, I could include all 19 of ProVia’s values. But, as the list grows, you soon see that no one team can meet such a high standard. The five I describe here are what I feel are the most important and have the biggest impact. As such, they’re worth considering when evaluating whether you and your organization are setting yourself up for success.
Trust
Trust is the most important characteristic that influences the success of a team. This is the foundation. If team members trust each other, many other things will easily fall into place. If a leader can’t trust their team, little will get accomplished. As a team member, strive to be the most trustworthy person you can be.
Competence
To ensure maximum performance, a team needs experts, the go-to people who know their area of responsibility inside and out. Each member must be able to do the work. Along the way, it’s important that training and learning take place, but ultimately team members must be able to do what’s required of them.
Initiative
Team leaders can’t afford to push individual members. Each individual must understand the work to be completed, and take appropriate steps toward completing this, without continuous monitoring.
Attitude
Attitude is more important than many realize. We are all responsible for our own attitude. We own it, and we control it. Leadership should address bad attitudes head on, and reward good ones. If a bad attitude can’t be corrected, it must be removed for the sake of the team’s success.
Communication
Great communication is the single most effective way of ensuring that a leader and the team stay in step with each other. Bad situations can be avoided when people talk. Always be working on improving your communication, and the communication within your team. We can always get better.
The Big 5 at Your Company
Throughout your career, one of the most important things you’ll ever do is participate on, assemble, and manage teams. Exceptional teams are made up of exceptional team members. Hopefully these ideas can be a resource for you to consider when engaging with or building your own exceptional teams. And perhaps this will inspire you to make sure that “The Big 5” can always be found at your company.
Last Updated: June 29, 2023
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