Lately I’ve been talking to a number of people about their teams. And, to tell you the truth, I’m shocked!
Do you know how many people work in a team and don’t even know it?
Seriously, think about the people who you work with. How would your relationship change if you considered these people a part of your team rather than people who work for you, or who have brought you on to work for them?
Maybe you haven’t studied teams and you’ve come-up with your own layperson definition of what a team is. That’s understandable.
To make sure we’re all talking about the same thing, it might help to define the word “team”.
Three Ways to Define a Team
1) Oxford
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- As a noun: two or more people working together
- As a verb: the act of coming together to achieve a common goal
2) The Experts on Teams: Kozlowski and Bell (2003)
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- A team consists of two or more people that interact socially to complete specific tasks. Team members rely on each other to get work done and share one or more common goals.
3) The Experts on Virtual Teams: Townsend, DeMarie & Hendrickson (1998)
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- Two or more people who work in different geographies or organizations and communicate using different types of technology such as email, video conferencing, telephone and chat to accomplish a specific task or goal.
What Does All This Academic Yada Yada Mean?
It means that if you’re working with someone to get something done you are a team!!
It doesn’t matter if they are a service provider, you are client, it’s a contracting relationship, you come from different organizations, or you live in different parts of the world. If you both succeed or fail depending on the completion of that task or goal….you’re a team!!!
I know what you’re thinking. “If I don’t get sales then I fail but the person who is working for me can go out and get another client so they haven’t failed.” According to that logic, you didn’t fail either. You can get another client as well!
Let’s look at it another way and imagine you are their only client. If you fail then they fail. Their success is tied to your success so again…you’re a team!!
Let’s go back and start looking at the people who help us succeed whether they are employees, contractors, service providers, or whatever you call them and treat them as team members. They’re more than just people who do work for you. You are more than just a client.
You’re a team!! How does that feel?
If you’re going to have success in your business and achieve your goals you’ll need a few essential pieces. For one, you need intense focus. When you’re focused on a particular outcome you’ve got to be ready to play full out and make a very deep commitment to getting results.
Next you need awareness. What are you doing right and how are you holding yourself back? If you don’t know this you can spend a lot of time working extremely hard with no results, a lot of exhaustion, and a feeling of emptiness inside – “what am I doing wrong?”
Once you’ve developed awareness, it’s all about self-mastery. Having awareness without making the necessary changes will not enhance your life. What are you aware of that you need to change right now?
And, finally it’s about time mastery. It’s about using your time effectively, making fast decisions and commitments and changing your mind slowly. To start getting fast results you’ve got to make fast decisions. If you’re ready to make a life changing decision and get some fast results apply for your complimentary decision-making session immediately. Fast decisions get fast results.
