7 Keys To Building a Winning Team

A leader must build a winning team. Here are seven keys to doing so.

• You Recruit for Potential: A high performing team begins and ends with hiring people with high potential. It’s the potential that matters. The people you hire need to have the right mindset. They have to want something more. You can teach the skills and provide the tools.
• You Train and Develop: Professional sports, the military, and performing arts all provide great examples for building a high performing team that wins. They are all focused on training and development. Each of these human endeavors requires that the people engaged rehearse, often the same thing over and over again until it is rote.
• You Lead: The best performing teams are being intentionally led. Leadership sets a standard and holds everyone accountable to that standard. Leadership also defines the strategy and the tactics that will be used to achieve the team’s goals, their system.
• You Coach: Part mindset, part skill sets, and part inspiration. A good coach helps each individual on their team to grow and to turn in their best performance. Coaching is what helps high potential performers break through their own perceived barriers.
• You Make Big Plays: High-performing teams make big plays. They fight above their weight class. A well-trained, well led team is capable of making plays that no one expects of them.
• You Instill a Belief That the Team Can Win: High-performing teams believe that they can win. They believe that they are the best, that they deserve to win, and they can win. High-performing teams don’t discount their competitors; they respect them. But they still believe they can win.
• Playing for Each Other: There isn’t anything more powerful than a team that is playing for each other. When things get tough, the team supports each other and pushes through. When it looks like all is lost, the team bands together to try again or to try something new.