The Madison Organization
Formally Austins Corner
Teamwork
The Complete Guide to Teamwork
The first step is to learn your own strengths and weaknesses as part of an ideal team and to be able to identify your strengths and weaknesses and those on your team. To know the difference between the team you lead, and the team you are on, and which is your first team.
The next step is to learn which language of appreciation makes you feel most valued and appreciated as a part of a team and how to show genuine appreciation to those you work with the most and can see how your actions affect others based on the way they most feel appreciated.
The final step is broken into five stages.
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Learning to be vulnerable and build trust.
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How to engage in productive but uncomfortable conflict.
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How to commit to group decisions even if you initially disagree.
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How team members can hold each other accountable.
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Showing individual team members and different teams how their work all affects the same goal.
Ideal Team Players possess a combination of three essential virtues of Hunger, Humility, and people Smarts, which enable teamwork and make it more likely members can overcome the five dysfunctions that derail teams.
These principles come from three books that encompass the complete guide to outstanding teamwork.
How To Get The Most Out Of This Guide
With The Least Amount of Work
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Take the Assessments
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Ideal Team Player: To know more about whom you're working with.
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Language of Appreciation: To know how to show them meaningful appreciation.
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Team Assessment: Let the team grade itself on how well they think they work together.
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Use this guide to learn more about the areas that need improvement.
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Help individuals grow in the strengths needed to make a strong team.
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Practice showing each other the different ways everyone feels the most appreciated.
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Use the Team Exercises to build trust, practice conflict, and ensure commitment and accountability towards shared goals.
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Use the Interview Guide to hire Ideal Team Players for your future team members.
Overview
Part 1: Attributes of an Ideal Team Player
From the book The Ideal Team Player, we learn that teamwork starts with the individual. We will review the three attributes and individuals who possess all three, two, or just one. Included are interview guides, employee assessments, and how to develop current employees.
Part 2: Attributes of Appreciation
When working as part of a team, it is essential to know how to show meaningful appreciation, as shown in The 5 Languages of Appreciation in the Workplace. The languages of appreciation are like personality traits, and each employee will value a certain language more than another. Knowing what your most valued language of appreciation is, is as important as knowing how to talk with those you work with. Knowing how you fit in a team with your strengths as an ideal team player and knowing how to show appreciation in the best way it can be received is the second step to a successful team.
Part 3: Attributes of a Team
Knowing the personal attributes of the individual team players is the first half of a successful team. The second half is understanding the attributes of the team players as a team. Just as the individuals have strengths and weaknesses, the team as a whole will also need certain strengths to function properly. Using The Five Dysfunctions of a Team we will study these team attributes, addressing the dysfunctions and how to overcome them.
FAQ
Who should read this? Anyone who works as part of a team. Director level and above should consider reading the books for a more thorough understanding.
What if my team already functions well? Understanding this material will ensure you understand why your team functions well. If you don’t know why it works, you can’t reproduce it or fix it if it breaks.
What if my team works in sales or something similar and they don’t really function as a team? There is no silver bullet for teamwork, you may only use pieces of this guide. However, the tone of an organization is usually set by the managers or executive team of an organization and this can help explain the ideas without requiring every employee to read each book.
Do I need to read all of this to understand everything in this guide? No, being familiar with the overview of the ideas is enough, then reference this material and the books when you need to go deeper.
