In my former role as a Director of a wealth management services group for Merrill Lynch, I had the opportunity to help build and work along side financial advisor teams. This position gave me the unique opportunity to see what made the best teams gel and what made the wannabes come up short. What I saw in the best advisor teams is what Mark Miller, Vice President of Training and Development at Chick-fil-A, outlines in “The Secret of Teams”.
Miller started researching top performing teams over twenty years ago and he shares the lessons he learned in this book. He chronicles how the best teams find their full potential. He says they focus on results, more than other teams do. They focus on who should sit around the table, that is, who should be on the team. They also spend time cultivating the skills those team members will need, and they create a unique environment where genuine concern for each other rules the day.
Here are the secrets. Superior teams have three core elements in common:
- Talented individuals with
- Proven skills (separates wannabes from real teams)
- Who share a strong sense of community – Team members must treat each other as family to maintain their motivation
He writes his book as a parable about Debbie who’s asked by Jeff Brown, her CEO, to figure out how to build effective teams. They study three organizations: a NASCAR pit crew, the US Army’s Special Forces and a restaurant chain.
- Selection of personnel – must have…
- Right aptitude, and the
- Right attitude
- Training – teach people how to….
- Handle their individual job
- Assume certain tactical roles
- Make good decisions and solve problems
- Give them skills to act in hazardous situations…
- Quickly
- Correctly
- Expertly
- They train constantly to reduce the unpredictability of life and death outcomes
- “Esprit de corps,” or group spirit
- The “secret sauce”…
- They are willing to sacrifice their lives for their team members – you can’t train them to have an intense team bond, it develops in the heart of members
- It is essential when the team has a difficult challenge – key to operating at peak level
- The “secret sauce”…
They study a pit crew – the individuals who change the tires and pump gas on the fly during races. Quality teamwork depends on:
- The Fit…
- Members must align with the team’s needs
- They must be coachable, and
- Have the right attitude
- They all start at the bottom – the development of their respective skills determines whether a person moves up to be a pit crew member
- Practice…
- There are only 36 races per year but they practice for hours each week
- They have only 13 seconds to change the tires and fuel up the car
- Every member’s task is measured – always trying to do it faster
- Doing life together…
- They think of each other as family that shares life’s highs and lows – they…
- Travel together
- Play together
- Drink together
- Win and lose together
- They think of each other as family that shares life’s highs and lows – they…
- Regular team meetings
- A routine review of “action items,”
- Group problem solving sessions, and
- Quarterly staff appraisals
- Talent
- Skills (what each member brings to the table and the constant refining of their skills), and
- Community – “that you are not alone on the journey”
- Take your time – don’t force community on people
- Help others on your team
- Make the team’s goals more important than your own personal goals
- Form a bond with your teammates
- “Never stop looking for ways to do life together”
- Ideally, team members will cultivate the following:
- Get to know one another’s professional and personal stories
- Sincerely care about each other
- All team members celebrate when a teammate achieves something special
- Each team member serves and supports the others at all times, inside and outside of work
- “Evaluate your current reality”
- How good is your team?
- Does true teamwork rule the day?
- “Assess your team’s talent”
- Do you have the right people on your team?
- “Assess your team’s skills”
- How capable are your troops?
- How can you help them better their skills?
- “Build genuine community”
- Pay attention and focus on unifying your team members
- “Lead at the next level”
- Members of high-performance teams lead themselves, therefore, you should spend less time monitoring performance and more time teaching, inspiring and casting vision for your team
Favorite quotes:
- “Without talent, the team is clearly limited. Without skills, talent will be wasted. And without community, the team never reaches that elite level of performance.”
- “The more decisions a leader makes, the further he or she is from leading a high-performing team.”
Focus on talent, skills and community and you’re on your way to having a high performing team!
EXTRA: View this three minute video where author Mark Miller provides an overview of his book “The Secret of Teams”
Bill Edmonds is an “Outside-Insider” (an Executive Coach and Consultant), who works with leaders to help them reach their full potential in the areas of organizational and personal development. He spent 24 years with Merrill Lynch until his retirement in 2014, where he led a $100+ million per year revenue wealth management business unit as a Director with the firm.
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