15 Attributes of Great Teams

Warren Bennis, considered the “thought leader” of leadership studies, examines the factors that enable teams (what he calls "Great Groups") to achieve breakthrough results. The final chapter of his book, Organizing Genius: The Secrets of Creative Collaboration, outlines the essential elements of outstanding teams.

1. Greatness starts with superb people.

Great Groups are comprised of people who want to do the next thing, not the last one. They tend to be deep generalists, not narrow specialists. They are not so immersed in one discipline that they can’t see solutions in another. They are problem solvers before anything else. They can no more stop looking for new relationships and new, better ways of doing things than they can stop breathing. And they have the tenacity so important in accomplishing anything of great value.

2. Great Groups and great leaders create each other.

The leader of a Great Group has to invent a leadership style that suits it. The standard model, especially the command-and-control style simply won’t work. The heads of Great Groups have to act decisively, but never arbitrarily.

3. Every Great Group has a strong leader.

Great Groups are made up of people with rare gifts working together as equals. People don’t want to be managed; they want to be led.

Yet, in virtually every one there is one person who acts as maestro, organizing the genius of the others. He or she is a pragmatic dreamer, a person with an original but attainable vision. Ironically, the leader is able to realize the dream only if the others are free to do exceptional work. Typically, the leader is the one who recruits the others, by making the vision so palpable and seductive that they see it too and eagerly sign-up.

The leader is often a good steward, keeping the others focused, eliminating distractions, keeping hope alive in the face of setbacks and stress. One of the simple pleasures of Great Groups is that they are almost never bureaucratic. The ability to recognize excellence in others and their work may be the defining talent of leaders of Great Groups.

Great Groups require a more flexible kind of leadership that has more to do with facilitating than with asserting control. Like cats, the talent can’t be herded. The military model of leadership, with its emphasis on command control, squelches creativity. Great Groups need leaders who encourage and enable. Jack Welch once said of his role at General Electric, “Look, I only have three things to do. I have to choose the right people, allocate the right number of dollars, and transmit ideas from one division to another with the speed of light.”

4. The leaders of Great Groups love talent and know where to find it.

Great Groups are headed by people confident enough to recruit people better than themselves. They revel in the talent of others. The broader and more diverse the network, the greater the potential for a Great Group. The richer the mix of people, the more likely that new connections will be made and new ideals will emerge.

5. Great Groups are full of talented people who can work together.

People, however gifted, must be able to work side by side toward a common goal. Although working together is a prerequisite, being an amiable person, or even a pleasant one, isn’t. Great Groups are probably more tolerant of personal idiosyncrasies than are ordinary ones. People who are engaged in groundbreaking collaboration have high regard for people who challenge and test their ideas.

6. Great Groups think they are on a mission from God.

They are filled with believers, not doubters, and the metaphors that they use to describe their work are commonly those of war and religion.

Great Groups are engaged in holy wars. The psychology of these high minded missions is clear. People know going in that they will be expected to make sacrifices, but they also know they are doing something monumental, something worthy of their best selves. Leaders of Great Groups understand the power of rhetoric. They recruit people for crusades, not jobs.
The zeal with which people in Great Groups work is directly related to how effectively the leader articulates the vision that unites them; leaders understand very basic truths about human beings. They know that we long for meaning. Without meaning, labor is time stolen from us.

7. Every Great Group is an island – but an island with a bridge to the mainland.

Great Groups become their own worlds. They create a culture of their own. People in Great Groups are always rule busters. They are never insiders or corporate types on the fast track: They are always on their own track. People in Great Groups have a great deal of fun.

8. Great Groups see themselves as winning underdogs.

They inevitably view themselves as the feisty David, hurling fresh ideas at a big, backward-looking Goliath.

9. Great Groups always have an enemy.

Sometimes the enemy is real, sometimes made up. But you can’t have a war without one.

10. People in Great Groups have blinders on.

In Great Groups, you don’t find people who are distracted by peripheral concerns, including such perfectly laudable ones as professional advancement and the quality of their private lives. Great Groups are full of indefatigable people who are struggling to turn a vision into a machine. The key word is focus.

11. Great Groups are optimistic, not realistic.

People in Great Groups believe they can do things no one has ever done before. They are not sure the impossible exists. The people most likely to succeed combine reasonable talent with the ability to keep going in the face of defeat. Optimism is especially important when people are attempting to do extraordinary difficult things under pressure. Great things are accomplished by talented people who believe they will accomplish them. People in Great Groups are simultaneously analytical and confident.

12. In Great Groups the right person has the right job.

Finding the right niche for people or letting them find their own perfect niche is critical. Effective leaders allow great people to do the work they were born to do. Leaders often discover that they can only realize their vision through collaborative efforts.
Lack of experience is often an asset, not a liability, because unseasoned recruits do not usually know what’s supposed to be impossible.

13. The leaders of Great Groups give them what they need and free them from the rest.

Brilliant people want a worthy challenge, a task that allows them to explore the whole continent of their talent. They want colleagues who stimulate and challenge them and whom they can admire. What they don’t want are trivial duties and obligations.

Regular times of interaction are important. Great Groups require ideas – the more the better. One idea sparks another. One individual in the group may have the insight or data that causes another’s half idea to click. Great Groups also tend to be places where dissent is encouraged, if only because it serves the spirit of discovery that is at the heart of these enterprises.
One thing Great Groups need is protection. Most organization say they want innovation, but they reflexively shun the untried. Most would rather repeat a past success than gamble on a new idea. Because Great Groups break new ground, they are more susceptible than others to being misunderstood, resented. Successful leaders find ways to insulate their people from bureaucratic meddling.

Civility is the preferred social climate for creative collaboration. Resolving conflict works by encouraging colleagues to understand each other’s positions, even if they disagree.

14. Great Groups ship.

Successful collaborations are dreams with deadlines. They are places of action, not think tanks or retreat centers. The thing, the task, is what brings the group together and keeps it grounded and focused.

15. Great work is its own reward.

Great Groups are engaged in solving hard, meaningful problems. Paradoxically, the process is difficult but exhilarating.