The 5 Key Characteristics of Effective Teams

Organizations across industries are increasingly adopting team-based structures and linking organizational and managerial objectives to team goals.  Consider that:

•         81% of the Fortune 500 are building at least partially team-based organizations; 

•         More than half of Fortune 500 companies use some formal work teams as part of their operations. 

These powerful stats were just a few of the takeaways from the webcast, Why do Some Teams Success and Some Struggle. The Role of Behavioral Data to Develop High Performing Teams, co-hosted by PI Worldwide and the Human Capital Institute (HCI). In the broadcast, PI Worldwide’s Director of Learning & Development Michelle Kozin along with executives from Predictive Index^® clients NewCap Media and Remy International discussed their strategies and best practices for building effective teams, including the following 5 important characteristics: 

1.      Meaningful Common Purpose:   Individual contributors must collectively understand and commit to their team’s purpose. Therefore, it is up to the manager to clearly define the expectations and responsibilities for each role, and ensure alignment between the person and the role.  

2.      Clear Performance Goals: What does success look like? What is the group trying to accomplish? What work needs to be done to achieve the desired outcome? In high functioning teams, managers make sure that all contributors understand and accept both the end goal and the game plan for getting there.  

3.      Diversity of Skill and Personality: While managers should strive to have some consistencies in teams (i.e. See #1 and #2), bringing different people together who can offer different skills and perspectives will helps drive creativity and innovation.  Moreover, it will help bring balance to the team in terms of tasks, people, risk and rules. 

4.      Strong Communication and collaboration:  Effective communication between team members and from the manager to the team, sets the foundation for collaboration. Behavioral data can help managers get a better understanding of communication styles and motivating drives, all of which can help managers better predict how the group will interact, potential challenges that may arise and how they may approach shared goals. 

5.       Trust and Commitment- One of the key building blocks of successful teams is a strong sense of shared trust among team members.  A lack of trust impedes on individuals ability to build rapport and trust thereby jeopardizing productivity.

It is clear much of what makes teams successful is rooted in understanding the individual behaviors and motivating needs of the team members. Using assessments to obtain this data can impact a manager’s ability to predict performance and improve the effectiveness of the team.

Nancy is the President and CEO of PI Worldwide. Based in Boston, Nancy provides overall strategic direction for the organization with emphasis on global growth and product development with attention on creating outstanding client results. Prior to joining the company, Nancy was the CEO of Global Sales Alliance which was acquired by PI Worldwide in 2006. She joined PIWW at that time to assist with the global rollout of two products; she assumed the position of President & CEO in 2007. Nancy is passionate about helping client companies around the world leverage their talent with concrete scientific data and human analytics, impacting the quality of life and productivity of people globally.