Teamwork 101

John C. Maxwell

• Publisher: HarperCollins Leadership
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781418580551
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Workplace Culture
• Index: Business

Talent wins games, but teamwork wins championships. Let John C. Maxwell teach you how teamwork is the heart of great achievement in the game of business.

Teamwork is a vital part of success in sports, pop culture, and every other industry--including business. In this essential guidebook, New York Times bestselling author and leadership expert John C. Maxwell explains why teamwork is so critical and shows you how to prioritize teamwork and collaboration to achieve winning results.

In Teamwork 101, you'll learn how to:

• build a team that lasts;
• create positive energy on the team;
• harness a team's creativity;
• identify weak players who negatively impact your team;
• and judge if your team can accomplish the dream.

You'll also discover how a winning team is self-fulfilling fuel: because everyone wants to be part of the winning team, you'll continue to attract only the best talent--and stay on top. A great team is the key to great results--for individual employees, leaders, and the company as a whole.

Teamwork 101 demonstrates how to build and maintain one for yourself so you can leverage the benefits--and fun--of exceptional teamwork.

PART I

THE POWER OF TEAMWORK

1
WHY IS TEAMWORK
SO IMPORTANT?

One is too small a number to achieve greatness.

Who are your personal heroes? Okay, maybe you don’t have heroes exactly. Then let me ask you this: Which people do you admire most? Who do you wish you were more like? Which people fire you up and get your juices flowing? Do you admire . . .

• Business innovators, such as Jeff Bezos, Fred Smith, or Bill Gates?

• Great athletes, such as Michael Jordan, Marion Jones, or Mark McGwire?

• Creative geniuses, such as Pablo Picasso, Buckminster Fuller, or Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart?

• Pop-culture icons, such as Madonna, Andy Warhol, or Elvis Presley?

• Spiritual leaders, such as John Wesley, Billy Graham, or Mother Teresa?

• Political leaders, such as Charlemagne, Alexander the Great, or Winston Churchill?

• Revolutionary thinkers, such as Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, or Albert Einstein?

Or maybe your list includes people in a field I did not mention.

It’s safe to say that we all admire achievers. And we Americans especially love pioneers and bold individualists, people who fight alone, despite the odds or opposition: the settler who carves a place for himself in the wilds of the frontier, the Old West sheriff who resolutely faces an enemy in a gunfight, the pilot who bravely flies solo across the Atlantic Ocean, and the scientist who changes the world through the power of his mind.

THE MYTH OF THE LONE RANGER

Nothing of significance was ever achieved by an individual acting alone. Look below the surface and you will find that all seemingly solo acts are really team efforts. Frontiersman Daniel Boone had companions from the Transylvania Company as he blazed the Wilderness Road. Sheriff Wyatt Earp had his two brothers and Doc Holliday looking out for him. Aviator Charles Lindbergh had the backing of nine business-men from St. Louis and the services of the Ryan Aeronautical Company, which built his plane. Even Albert Einstein, the scientist who revolutionized the world with his theory of relativity, didn’t work in a vacuum. Of the debt he owed to others for his work, Einstein once remarked, “Many times a day I realize how much my own outer and inner life is built upon the labors of my fellow men, both living and dead, and how earnestly I must exert myself in order to give in return as much as I have received.” It’s true that the history of our country is marked by the accomplishments of many strong leaders and innovative individuals who took considerable risks. But those people always were part of teams.

Economist Lester C. Thurow commented:

There is nothing antithetical in American history, culture, or traditions to teamwork. Teams were important in America’s history—wagon trains conquered the West, men working together on the assembly line in American industry conquered the world, a successful national strategy and a lot of teamwork put an American on the moon first (and thus far, last). But American mythology extols only the individual . . . In America, halls of fame exist for almost every conceivable activity, but nowhere do Americans raise monuments in praise of teamwork.

I must say that I don’t agree with all of Thurow’s conclusions. After all, I’ve seen the U.S. Marine Corps war memorial in Washington, D.C., commemorating the raising of the flag on Iwo Jima. But he is right about something. Teamwork is and always has been essential to building this country. And that statement can be made about every country around the world.

THE VALUE OF TEAMWORK

A Chinese proverb states, “Behind an able man there are always other able men.” The truth is that teamwork is at the heart of great achievement. The question isn’t whether teams have value. The question is whether we acknowledge that fact and become better team players. That’s why I assert that one is too small a number to achieve greatness. You cannot do anything of real value alone.

I challenge you to think of one act of genuine significance in the history of humankind that was performed by a lone human being. No matter what you name, you will find that a team of people was involved. That is why President Lyndon Johnson said, “There are no problems we cannot solve together, and very few that we can solve by ourselves.”

C. Gene Wilkes, in his book Jesus on Leadership, observed that the power of teams not only is evident in today’s modern business world, but it also has a deep history that is evident even in biblical times. Wilkes asserts:

• Teams involve more people, thus affording more resources, ideas, and energy than would an individual.

• Teams maximize a leader’s potential and minimize her weaknesses. Strengths and weaknesses are more exposed in individuals.

• Teams provide multiple perspectives on how to meet a need or reach a goal, thus devising several alternatives for each situation. Individual insight is seldom as broad and deep as a group’s when it takes on a problem.

• Teams share the credit for victories and the blame for losses. This fosters genuine humility and authentic community. Individuals take credit and blame alone. This fosters pride and sometimes a sense of failure.

• Teams keep leaders accountable for the goal. Individuals connected to no one can change the goal without accountability.

• Teams can simply do more than an individual.

If you want to reach your potential or strive for the seemingly impossible—such as communicating your message two thousand years after you are gone—you need to become a team player. It may be a cliché, but it is nonetheless true: Individuals play the game, but teams win championships.

WHY DO WE STAND ALONE?

Knowing all that we do about the potential of teams, why do some people still want to do things by themselves? I believe there are a number of reasons.

1. EGO

Few people are fond of admitting that they can’t do everything, yet that is a reality of life. There are no supermen or superwomen. As Kerry Walls, one of the people on my INJOY Group team, says, “Spinning more plates doesn’t increase your talent—it increases your likelihood of dropping a plate.” So the question is not whether you can do everything by yourself; it’s how soon you’re going to realize that you can’t.

Philanthropist Andrew Carnegie declared, “It marks a big step in your development when you come to realize that other people can help you do a better job than you could do alone.” To do something really big, let go of your ego, and get ready to be part of a team.

2. INSECURITY

In my work with leaders, I’ve found that some individuals fail to promote teamwork because they feel threatened by other people. Sixteenth-century Florentine statesman Niccolo Machiavelli probably made similar observations, prompting him to write, “The first method for estimating the intelligence of a ruler is to look at the men he has around him.”

I believe that insecurity, rather than poor judgment or lack of intelligence, most often causes leaders to surround themselves with weak people. As I stated in The 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership, only secure leaders give power to others. That is the Law of Empowerment. On the other hand, insecure leaders usually fail to build teams because of one of two reasons: either they want to maintain control over everything for which they are responsible, or they fear being replaced by someone more capable. In either case, leaders who fail to promote teamwork undermine their own potential and erode the best efforts of the people with whom they work. They would benefit from the advice of President Woodrow Wilson: “We should not only use all the brains we have, but all that we can borrow.”

3. NAÏVETÉ

Consultant John Ghegan keeps a sign on his desk that says, “If I had it to do all over again, I’d get help.” That remark accurately represents the feelings of the third type of people who fail to become team builders. They naively underestimate the difficulty of achieving big things. As a result, they try to go it alone.

Some people who start out in this group turn out okay in the end. They discover that their dreams are bigger than their capabilities, they realize they won’t accomplish their goals solo, and they adjust. They make team building their approach to achievement. But some others learn the truth too late, and as a result, they never accomplish their goals. And that’s a shame.

4. TEMPERAMENT

Some people aren’t very outgoing and simply don’t think in terms of team building and team participation. As they face challenges, it never occurs to them to enlist others to achieve something.

As a people person, I find that hard to relate to. Whenever I face any kind of challenge, the very first thing I do is think about the people I want on the team to help with it. I’ve been that way since I was a kid. I’ve always thought, Why take the journey alone when you can invite others along with you?

I understand that not everyone operates that way. But whether or not you are naturally inclined to be part of a team is really irrelevant. If you do everything alone and never partner with other people, you create huge barriers to your own potential. Dr. Allan Fromme quipped, “People have been known to achieve more as a result of working with others than against them.” What an understatement! It takes a team to do anything of lasting value. Besides, even the most introverted person in the world can learn to enjoy the benefits of being on a team. (That’s true even if someone isn’t trying to accomplish something great.)

My friend Chuck Swindoll wrote a piece in The Finishing Touch that sums up the importance of teamwork:

Nobody is a whole team . . . We need each other. You need someone and someone needs you. Isolated islands we’re not. To make this thing called life work, we gotta lean and support. And relate and respond. And give and take. And confess and forgive. And reach out and embrace and rely . . . Since none of us is a whole, independent, self-sufficient, super-capable, all-powerful hotshot, let’s quit acting like we are. Life’s lonely enough without our playing that silly role. The game is over. Let’s link up.

For the person trying to do everything alone, the game really is over. If you want to do something big, you must link up with others. One is too small a number to achieve greatness.

2
WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF
GOOD TEAMWORK?

There are some things only a team can accomplish.

I recently had the opportunity to tour the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise while it was at sea. The entire experience was fantastic, but the highlight for me was sitting with Rear Admiral Raymond Spicer, commander of the Enterprise’s carrier strike group, and watching F/A-18 Hornet jets taking off and landing at night. What an incredible sight!

There was beauty in the way the jets shot off the deck and others landed, coming to a halt in a mere two seconds. But what struck me even more was the number of people who seemed to be involved in the process and the teamwork that was required. When I asked Admiral Spicer about it, he put me in contact with Lt. Commander Ryan Smith, the V2 Division officer, who explained the process to me. He said:

The pilot is seated at the controls of an F/A-18 Hornet as the jet is accelerated from 0 to nearly 160 mph in the span of less than three seconds. As the aircraft climbs away from the carrier, she raises the landing gear and is suddenly alone in the black of night. There are few examples of solitary combat in today’s era of modern, networked warfare, but an aviator seated in the cockpit of one of today’s Navy fighters still seems like an example in which the accomplishment of a particular objective is entirely dependent on the talent, skill, and effort of one particular, highly trained individual. However, the singular act of catapulting a jet off of the end of one of these carriers is the result of the complex orchestration of scores of individuals, each with a mastery of his or her own specific task. It is the efforts and...