Acorn White Paper : Team Members
In this fourth paper on Acorn’s guide to Team Coaching we look at the critical factors affecting how and why Team Members best contribute to and/or derail effective teamwork. In doing so we highlight opportunities to build beneficial, and discourage unhelpful, behaviours.
Our purpose here is the ongoing engagement and development of team behaviours that contribute to the purpose. People are enabled to get the job done by creating the right conditions for team working.
Our previous papers have highlighted the right context of a clear, meaningful primary purpose; inspiring, team oriented leadership and enabling structures.
However, we all know that people only really become team members when they choose to and have understood and accepted the differences between working individually and working as a team. Katzenbach and Smith (1993) call this conviction.
It’s important to select and develop people who like to work collectively as a team toward the team’s goal. This is not about personality types and compatibility, this is about motivation, a preference for working in a team vs. individually and the supporting knowledge and skills for working in teams.
Core team skills such as active respectful listening, speaking openly and cooperation; to skills such as collaboration, concern for team development and interpersonal awareness are essential and must be developed if the team is to become a high performing entity.