There is an ‘I’ in team – a whole bunch of them – so what makes them perform as a bunch?

We just love this quote from Steve Bull, sports psychologist to the England Ashes winning cricket team. “High performing teams are not unlike Italian sports cars; temperamental, difficult to keep and expensive to run; but when finely tuned they go like the wind!”

Of course assembling the right individuals who can not only perform their own jobs exceptionally well, but when put together with a bunch of other people, actually play a ‘team’ role too, is a fascinating topic.

Understanding what the team’s objective is will start to shape the specialist skills the team needs. Weaving those skills in with an appreciation of the team member’s personality types will certainly enable us then to understand how that team is likely to perform as a unit.

So what personality types might work best together and which are likely conflict? What momentum can be created by the team itself to ensure that the boundaries are pushed? Who is good in a crisis? How do the team react when the chips are down? How adaptable are the team and its individuals if they encounter things that disrupt them or they have to take on new and unfamiliar challenges? How do they deal with discord? How supportive are they of one another when one or more of them is having a tough time?

So many questions…..so much to learn!