The 5 Behaviors will Transform Your Team
I have a confession to make: growing up, I wasn’t a very good teammate. Of course, I didn’t know it at the time, but I see it so clearly now. On my childhood soccer team I was a ball hog: readily accepting passes and assists from my teammates but refusing to return the favor. I didn’t trust my teammates. Later in college, on a particularly important group project that took nearly the whole semester, I was noncommittal and lazy. I over-promised, under-delivered, and instead of owning my shortcomings at the end of the semester, I shamelessly flattered the one person who put in all the hours of real work on the project, grateful that her work earned the rest of us an A. Those memories make me cringe. They also remind me of a very important truth: life is a team sport.
Patrick Lencioni, author of the landmark 2002 book The Five Dysfunctions of a Team* says the same thing. In our modern culture, it is highly likely that everyone winds up on a team at some point or another, but the skills of being a good teammate and working well on a team are never taught in school. Most people never learn them.
*We love this book so much we put it on our book list!
This is where the 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team model comes in. The 5 Behaviors are skills that any team can learn and practice that address the five dysfunctions of a team.
The 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive Team are:
Trust: the team members are comfortable being vulnerable with one another. They share their fears, shortcomings, and pain points.
Conflict: when teams trust one another, they are willing to engage in unfiltered, constructive debate that focuses on concepts and ideas to produce the best possible solution.
Commitment: when everyone on the team has engaged in healthy conflict, they are more likely to commit to a solution. They buy in, which drives action.
Accountability: when everyone is committed to a clear plan of action, they hold one another accountable for behavior and performance that doesn’t measure up to the agreed-upon standards.
Results: when the four behaviors above are in play, team results are more important than individual results. The team accomplishes its mission.
Learn more about our 5 Behaviors team assessment and workshop >>
