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“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”   John C. Maxwell

Before you build a team, in any area of your life, you must first start with yourself.  You need to venture out on a “personal journey” that will help you identify your vision and goals.  Once you have experienced that on your own, you will be ready to help build and lead your own team. 

Our lives are made of up several “teams”; work, family, community, church, professional associations, the list goes on.  Each team needs to start with the basic fundamental ingredient for success: trust. The heart of every team is trust; do you know your team well enough to trust them? Without trust, teamwork is impossible.  Create “getting to know you” activities with your team to allow them to get to know each other. People are attracted to teams that value them as a person and believe in them.

Once trust is established you have a foundation for conflict. All great relationships require an element of conflict to grow.  Each team member needs to have an opportunity to voice their opinion and disagree with a potential course of action. 

From this conflict comes commitment.   When every team member has had their opportunity to express their thoughts they can clearly see the common ground.  This eventually creates a “buy-in” environment where every team member is a part of the stated goals.

Once this occurs, you have the setting for accountability. Because everyone has had a say in desired results, each team member can hold each other accountable for their part in achieving it. There has to be a willingness to call out teammates on performance or behavior that hurts the team. 

Now the results of the team will unfold. Stay focused on the team’s specific objectives and desired outcomes.  Evaluate as a team the quality and quantity of the results and what can be done better.