What Makes a Team, Anyway?
We often call any group of people working together a "team"—whether it’s a department, a bunch of peers, or people reporting to the same manager. But just because they’re grouped together doesn’t mean they’re actually a team.
To truly be a team, there are three critical ingredients:
- Shared Care: The group is committed to taking care of something together. There’s a mutual sense of ownership and responsibility.
- Commitment to Each Other: The team is dedicated to achieving a collective outcome, not just individual successes.
- Clear Metrics or Timeframes: The team is measuring the outcome, whether it’s through deadlines or specific results.
Without these, you don’t really have a team—you have a working group. And trust me, there’s a big difference.
Shared Care: The Secret Sauce
Ever been part of a “team” where everyone’s doing their own thing?
Sometimes we’re on a “Design Team” or “Marketing Team,” but that’s often just an organizational label. It doesn’t automatically make us a functioning team.
These people might work on different projects but share common standards or values. And they’re still connected by shared principles like a commitment to quality or a culture of respect. This is important to understand as a leader.
What really binds a team together is shared care—everyone coming together to work on something they genuinely care about and are committed to seeing through to the end.
Shared care is the glue. Whether you’re designing new software or trying to organize a corporate karaoke night, if the team doesn’t care about producing something together, it’s just a collection of people.
Action Steps for Team Leaders
So how can you build shared care and foster that all-important glue? Here are some practical steps:
- Determine if you have a team: Organizationally, you may have a group reporting to you that is NOT all driving towards one goal. That’s okay, but be honest and clarify what you do care about producing together.
- Clearly define what ALL of you care about producing: What is it that you are all committed to taking care of together?
- Create a way to work through issues: As a team, how will you take care of your goals when things inevitably go off the rails? Conversations? Feedback loops? When do you have the hard conversations?
- Don’t Force It: If your group is more of a “discipline” where individuals are working towards different goals, focus on fostering a culture, a work standard, tools or process that everyone finds useful. Encourage collaboration, but don’t try to force a “team” dynamic where it doesn’t naturally fit.
A team is a group of people who care about committing to producing measurable results together.
As a leader, your role is to identify that shared care and nurture it. If the people you’re leading isn’t really a team but a working group or discipline—and that’s okay! The key is knowing how to cultivate the right environment for shared care, whether it’s on a team level or within a broader discipline.
Next newsletter, we’ll dive into another critical team component: Commitment.
Until then, think about how you can bring more shared care into your workplace—it just might be the glue your team needs.
