by Carmen Polvere

Created on: June 04, 2010

     Building an “amazing team” is as easy as going to HR with staffing requests for only highly educated, highly motivated and highly skilled new hires and firing current team members who are underperforming. Within a matter of weeks you have an amazing team!  Nothing to it. Now that I have your undivided attention, read on.

    All teams are assigned goals to accomplish safely, efficiently and with high quality standards. To be successful, team members require certain skill sets their unique position.  Key to building an amazing team is identifying the skill set of team members, starting with the team leader. Does the team leader have the ability on consistent basis to motivate team members to perform their responsibilities beyond expectations? With the right team leader in place each team member needs to be evaluated. Asking the team members if they want to be a part of an “amazing team” is a good step to set the pace. If there are underperformers who do not want to join an “amazing team”, time for transfer arrangements to be made. There are always going team members who simply are unable to meet the “amazing” criteria. Remember, the goal is to build an “amazing team”. Team Members who, whether by choice or skill set, do not have the ability to become an “amazing team” member will need to be replaced. Believe it or not, that’s the easy part.

  To become an “amazing team” a team needs to challenge themselves to do better on Tuesday what was done on Monday. “Do it right the first time, do it better the next time and do it better than everyone else all the time,” an old school Production Superintendent once told me during my early years as a Team Leader. Been almost thirty years and have never forgotten his advice. “Amazing Teams” take pride in their work; watch out for each other and over time develop a common bond which enables them to exceed performance levels. “Amazing Teams” set the standards for excellence in an organization.

    Highly successful team leader in place, team members with the will to succeed and awards for outstanding performance presented year after year, what’s next? Time to split up to team and plant the seeds of “amazing team” members in other teams. It’s not called “team building” for nothing. Hopefully in your career you will have the opportunity to become an “amazing team” member or even better, lead one.

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