These are the five essential elements to establishing and running effective teams.

Balanced team roles

You have to start building a team by recognizing that people are different. Every team member must not only have their ‘technical’ skills such as being an accountant or salesperson. They must also have a valuable team role.

Experts in team behavior have identified the key team profiles that are essential if a team is to function well. Anyone person may perform more than one of these roles. But if too many people are competing to perform one of the roles or one or more of these roles are neglected, the team will be unbalanced. They will perform in much the same way as a car does when a cylinder misfires.

Shared vision and goal

It is essential that the team has ownership of its own measurable and clearly defined goals. This means involving the team in business planning. It also means keeping the communications channels open as the business grows.

The founding team knew clearly what they were trying to achieve and as they probably shared an office they shared information as they worked. But as the group gets larger and new people to join, it will become necessary to help the informal communication systems to work better. Briefing meetings, social events, and bulletin boards are all ways to get teams together and keep them facing the right way.

Have a shared language

To be a member of a business team, people have to have a reasonable grasp of the language of business. It’s not much use extolling people to improve return on capital employed or reduce debtor days if they have only the haziest notion of what those terms mean, why they matter or how they can influence the results. So you need to develop rounded business skills across all the core team members through continuous training, development, and coaching.

Compatible personalities

While having different Belbin team profiles is important, it is equally vital to have a team that can get on with one another. They have to be able to listen to and respect other people’s ideas and views. They need to support and trust one another. They need to be able to accept conflict as a healthy reality and work through it to a successful outcome.

Good leadership

First-class leadership is perhaps the most important characteristic that distinguishes winning teams from the also-rans. However good the constituent parts, without leadership a team rapidly disintegrates into a rabble bound by little but a paycheque. 

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