There’s an obsession floating around in the world of business, leadership and coaching. There are hundreds of definitions swirling, containing examples of what works and doesn’t work from a historic and current perspective. Multiple methods have been put in place by business executives and coaches alike, claiming they have the answer of how to create a winning successful team. One thing these leaders have in common is their ability to build great teams.

I’ve played the role from a business side and a sports side. I’ve been the entry level employee and in a senior leadership role. I’ve been a player, a head coach and an assistant coach. This has allowed me to see both sides of this particular leadership angle in relation to team building. There’s three main points of emphasis when building a team.

Get to Know Those You Lead – Listen

In order to carve out our leadership niche in team building, we must take the time to get to know those we lead and coach. This requires one on one situations with our team. This requires understanding our team in a group setting. This requires listening. As emotional intelligence continues to gain steam in the leadership world, awareness shines forth as the number one skill in highly emotional intelligent leaders. In order to become more aware, we need to listen more. Listening to those we lead allows us to determine and decipher what the individual needs are, and what they care about. Too often as leaders, we determine what’s best for our employees without ever asking. We may make decisions based off what other leaders are doing, but that may not be the answer for the team you are trying to build. Our teams need less ping pong tables, stocked fridges and future promises, and more attention paid to what drives each individual. Ironically, the more selfless we become in understanding and engaging our teams, we reap the additional benefits from the increased performance. The quickest way to achieve your goals is to help your team achieve theirs.

Obtain Buy In and Belief

Step two requires an overarching belief and buy in from your team. I assume we’ve all been in situations where leadership has a vision, but they miss the point of how to get those they lead to buy into the same vision. When I came back to coach varsity basketball at Idaho Falls High School, we knew we had to create a culture of belief. After a disappointing season, the highest performers on the team were set to return for their senior season. We had the overall collective talent, but we needed buy in from each of the twelve team members to allow us to coach them and get them to buy in to the vision. We spent time with each player, discussing individual and team goals. Learning how to tie in individual goals to the team goal was key. Building a championship team required taking twelve different egos, situations and understanding to create an environment where we could reach our highest capabilities. Each player needed to be put in situations that called on their strengths for the team to succeed.

Execute and Adjust

There’s five points of execution I’ve found that have worked during the team building process. Credibility and overall team ability stem from one through five.

1. Teaching Skills — Teach what you want done as the leader. Knowing what you want and being able to teach what you want are different concepts. If the skills and game plans are not taught, you can’t expect exceptional performance from your team.
2. Communication Skills — Clearly communicating to your team what they are doing well and where they need to improve will determine if you can move forward in the team building process. Say what you want and mean what you say.
3. Organizational Skills — Leaders who are seeking to build a team have to be organized. I was recently at a clinic listening to a coach talk about his hiring process. Out of 70+ applicants, one thing that stood out to him in his eventual hire was his organization skills.  Organizations makes your job and the job of those you lead easier.
4. Motivational Skills — Now that you’ve learned about your team and built belief, you must understand how to motivate. What motivates one team member, will not necessarily motivate the next. Too often leaders determine what will motivate their team without having a conversation with the team.
5. Under Pressure Skills — At one point or another, the leader and the team will have to respond under pressure. Whether you’re short of a quota or going into overtime in the championship game, performing under pressure allows a team to go from good to great.

During execution, great leaders understand how to adjust. Making adjustments in real time is the mark of strong leader. We must remain flexible in our approach and behavior for the betterment of the team. People development is one of the most important aspects of overall leadership ability. When a group of individuals becomes a team, success is more likely to occur. Developing a group of people into a team is how you lead.