How to build a successful team - 7 key components

How do you build a successful team? They are great leaders born or made? You can buy a winning team?

Take for example the New York Yankees, with one of the highest payrolls in Major League Baseball. They make the playoffs by winning their division or getting the wild card every year, but the final title of a World Series championship is never guaranteed. Why?

Yes, it is true. In sports, there are some not-so-controllable variables such as team chemistry and luck. However, the creation of a successful team begins with a great leader who identifies and implements everything required to build a winning team.

This applies to companies as well as sport. Just substitute the jargon sports with business terminology. Whether you coach a sports team or managing a high tech companies, the necessary components to create the most important teams are the same.

Here are my philosophies on teamwork and leadership that I have applied in business, sports:

1) Finding the right players. Talent helps because you can not make a donkey win the Kentucky Derby. If you need a database administrator, do not hire or promote a help desk has played with Microsoft Access.

2) Give each player a valuable role. Everyone is important, from cleaning staff to the CEO. Everyone needs a valuable role and ownership of the team, to create a sense of esteem for the individual. Without them, you could be a team.

In action, the actor is just as important as the protagonist. In baseball, the pitcher can get all the glory, but someone has to play right field to make a team of nine players. Leave the individual ego aside, do not worry about the glory.

3) Create a unique identity to the team. Give your team a nickname, or better yet, let you decide. Sometimes that mental edge is all the confidence they need. Success is all about trust. Success is a team spirit.

4) A commitment to excellence, not winning. The people on the team must have the drive to succeed. They perform even the simplest and perform their duties with pride.

In sports, winning is the end result of a numerical score. You can win a game numerically, but loses the game, actually, and execution.

So I prefer the term excellence. If you're a janitor, then you start to be the best goalie available.

5) give them a vision. A vision which inspires and motivates players or employees.

What motivates them? What is the goal? Going for an IPO start-ups? Super Bowl? Money? If anyone of the team that is there just for the money, punching in at 9 am and 5 pm a punch, that person is not going to help your team succeed.

6) play or work with passion. Each person on your team must love what you are doing. They must be passionate about their competence. These individuals do not sleep very often. They got up early, ready to start the day.

7) Exit from the road. Sometimes, just give them the ball and let them do their thing. Stay away from the field and let them run!

When you're getting to the right, the end result is usually a team whose sum is greater than the individual parts, achieving more with less....