What makes a great team?.

​​When it comes to understanding the core structures of a business today, it is the teams rather than individuals that lie at the heart of a successful business. Indisputably, cohesive teams drive success as they work together to bring more effective results and teams that fail to gel, end up wasting resources, missing deadlines and getting into conflicts.

Therefore, it becomes critical to understand what makes great teams, particularly now, when qualities like emotional intelligence are even more important as we enter the age of AI. Here are the secret ingredients that blend together to make a perfect recipe of a great team.

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Diversity in teams

Every individual brings unique skills, knowledge and experiences with them, helping the team and company with their unique value. This is an element that no team can succeed without because it empowers them with varied strengths, thought process, skills and personal attributes. Creating team based on their capability to do their task rather than personality is desirable and so is bringing in people of different sexes, age groups and cultures.

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Balance is equally important

While diversity breeds team success, you cannot ignore balance. A well-rounded team is the one which has a good balance of abilities, skills and aspirations. Additionally, a balance between both sexes is also needed while building teams. In such teams, each of the members is able to understand their own roles as well as the roles of peers in achieving the overall objectives. Everyone is willing to contribute their fair share of the workload while taking the responsibility for their individual tasks. Furthermore, the likelihood of conflicts in well-balanced teams is limited.

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They focus on results and goals

Since teams are responsible for company-wide processes at the granular level, they need focus primarily on results and goals. Essentially, team outcomes are to be measured in terms of achievement of goals rather than the amount of work they put in. This means that the members should be concerned about their individual contributions as well as the achievement of the team as a cohesive whole.

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A good leadership is must

Another component that is absolutely mandatory for making a strong team is solid leadership. A true leader is the one who has the right skills and experience to guide the team and also earns their trust and respect to act as a mentor. Further, it has to be someone who is capable of holding the team together while bearing the responsibility for the entire team working like a well-oiled machine. Conflict management, accountability and ability to motivate others are some other key attributes of a good leader.

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Communication is their strength

When it comes to making strong and successful teams, you cannot ignore the role of mutual communication. Uninterrupted and open communication leads to free flow of information, ideas, thoughts and opinions within the team. Beyond just enabling efficiency in tasks and keeping track of individual and team progress, seamless communication fosters mutual trust, understanding and support. While the absence of the same can lead to crossed wires, which translates into missed deadlines and conflicts.

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In addition to these pillars that make strong teams, being able to have fun together is one aspect that should not be ignored. In fact, this quality acts as the secret sauce that makes life at work great. All work and no play can lead to burnout and make people less productive. Teams which are able to enjoy together end up contributing more towards business success.