What part of the ‘cycle’ is your team in?
Teams aren’t always on a high or a low. I read somewhere once that ‘teams are like the seasons there’s a winter, a summer, an autumn and a spring’ and with every season comes new opportunities, new challenges, and new life. Admittedly some seasons might last longer than others.
But the very nature of teams is that they are a living thing and therefore they are in a perpetual state of change, where they are constantly evolving into the next thing.
Teams are made up of people, and people come and go. People have good days and bad days. And people have lives outside the team, that have an effect on what happens inside the team.
People are emotional and sometimes dramatic, but it’s also that emotion and drama that brings life and energy to the team.
Sometimes people leave the team and the morale and energy of the team might appear to leave with them, and for those left, the team morale can be at a low point.
That’s when questions are asked of those remaining. Those questions give a renewed focus, a renewed purpose and a renewed commitment to the vision for the way forward.
If you are left on the team when others leave, now it might be your turn to shine. One of the questions you have to ask of yourself is, “Do I have what it takes to help rebuild the team?”
When people leave the team it can be a good thing for everyone, as often it gives others the opportunity to shine and grow into a new position. To take on new and bigger responsibilities and spread their wings.
If you have a management role, that is one of your jobs, ‘to guide the team and the ‘individuals in it’ through the various stages of growth and change.’
If you’re not in a management role but a member of the team, then your job is to evolve and grow by contributing in a positive way and to embrace change in the ongoing development of the team.
But, building a great Team is not about something ‘you do and it’s done,’ it’s a constant and never-ending journey.
And everyone on the team is part of the solution or part of the problem in the constant evolving or reinvention of the team.
The very nature of teams is that they are about reinvention. No matter how successful the team is, you can’t always stay on top, often your real success is determined by how well you can constantly come back, hopefully, bigger and better.
