Regardless of what it is that you want to achieve, it will be more difficult, if not impossible, to do so without the help of others. People help each other every minute of every day and it makes the world a more beautiful place. Every relationship you have is a team i.e. more than one person, coming together to achieve a common goal(s). When you build effective teams, you help each other to achieve your individual goals and both parties achieve more together than they ever could apart. Effective teams help people go further; faster.

When I take on new coaching clients, I am making a commitment to help them achieve their goals and they are helping me to grow my business, through payment. They also help me to learn more about my areas of expertise thus improving the quality of my service. I do not accept every client who makes an inquiry. There are 4 criteria which must be met before I can accept that we will make an effective team. These 4 criteria can be used to assess any team to ensure that it is an effective team.

​The 4 criteria which I use​ to assess effective relationships have been adapted from an outstanding book called ‘Success Intelligence: Essential Lessons and Practices from the World's Leading Coaching Program on Authentic Success’ by Dr. Robert Holden.  Understanding these criteria will help you to understand what is needed for an effective relationship.

There is an old saying that there is no ‘I’ in team. This is meant to emphasise that there are no individuals in a team. The truth is that a team is full of individuals. Each individual has their own goals, values and beliefs. They also have unique knowledge, talents and skills.

The first successful step in building an effective team is for each member of the team to get to know each other. Knowing each other’s name is not enough. You need to get a good understanding of each other; from values and goals to talents and skills. This deeper level of understanding will help you to determine how best to work together.

Effective teams know each other’s strengths and weaknesses; and can easily organise their activities in a manner which ensures that each team member spends most of their time working on the things they are good at. This will ensure that you get better results from the team.

Also, knowing what each other wants, needs, likes and dislikes helps ensure that each team member derives as much satisfaction as possible from being part of the team.

​Every team is working together to achieve some form of success. Unfortunately, they are not always clear on what success is. Some members of the team may not have any vision of the end goal, while other members may have conflicting views of what makes a successful outcome.

For a team to be successful there must be a clear, agreed definition of what success is. Clarity of vision will serve to motivate every team member and keep them focused on the successful outcome.

The major problem with not having an agreed, team vision of what you are trying to achieve is that each individual member of the team has their own vision. Their vision won’t necessarily be what is right for the team. But if you don’t have a team vision, they are going to focus on their own vision. The more team members you have; the more people you have potentially pulling in different directions.

You now know every member’s talents and skills. You know their values, their beliefs and you have an understanding of how they work best. You have agreed a clear definition of success. Now it is time to devise a strategy for those people to work together, in the most effective way possible, to achieve that success.

When you fail to get to know your team and you do not ensure that each member is chasing the same goal, you have no option but to choose a strategy and force it upon the team. It may work well for some members but others are likely to find it problematic, for a variety of reasons, and this can lead to friction and conflict within the team.

Friction and conflict makes for ineffective teams which perform poorly. Covering steps 1 and 2, before deciding on strategy is essential to prevent this from occuring.

When everything is agreed and discussed openly, it helps to create an environment where everybody wants to work effectively together. This makes it much easier to come up with a strategy which makes best use of the talent and skills at your disposal.

We often think of synergy as something which must exist within teams so that they can achieve more together. However, as soon as we look outside the team, we forget the concept of synergy. This can be a critical mistake.

Just as individuals work together for mutual benefit, teams can do the same. In some cases it is not obvious that you are in a relationship with another team e.g. when I coach a client via ​Zoom, our team is in a synergistic relationship with ​Zoom’s team.

The bigger the project, the less likely it is that your team will possess all of the required skills. As a team it is important that you take the time to identify potential synergistic relationships which can help to bridge the skill gap.

​Effective teams are an essential part of life and business. Whenever two or more people come together to achieve a common goal, a team has been formed. With four simple steps, you can make sure that your teams are effective teams. When you have effective teams, everybody is happy to be on your team. They will give their all to achieve the agreed goal and they will achieve it faster than any one individual could have done on their own. Effective teams produce better results, keep members happy and reduce friction and conflict. It really is worth the effort to set your teams off on the right path.