I’ve been thinking about teams. I was in a conversation with a friend when the topic of a work team came up and she rolled her eyes. Maybe you can relate to that feeling? I know, yes, yes, in the bigger picture of things, you are a “together we’re stronger”, “together we can do more” believer and as a leader you want to drive a high functioning team. And yet there’s still a “but” after that. This feeling can bubble up because the “people” part is hard or you’re busy focused on getting results.

I promise you, in any organization, no one works alone. We work together in different ways and have different types of teams for different reasons. We have a lot of labels for teams, A LOT!

Working teams, management teams, virtual teams, project teams, special purpose teams, multi-functional teams, cross-functional teams, self-directed or self-managed teams, temporary teams, tiger teams, task forces, committees, departments, management teams, temporary teams, permanent teams.. I’m sure you can come up with more on your own.

Teams play an important role in getting work done. Managing teams is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Typically, when you examine different types of teams and how they work and get work done, there are basically three types:

INDEPENDENT TEAMS. Independent teams consist of members working independently to accomplish shared goals – in sports, this is like a swimming team.
HYBRID TEAMS. Hybrid teams consist of individuals working both collaboratively and independently, each at least 30% of the time. An example of this is a baseball team. When you are at bat it’s just you alone ready to hit. When you play infield, you are working collaboratively to field a ground ball and make a double play.
COLLABORATIVE TEAMS. Collaborative teams consist of individuals working interactively with each other to accomplish shared goals. In sports, this is like a basketball team. It’s highly interactive and dependent on working collaboratively throughout the whole game. Anyone who’s watched basketball will tell you, you can have a “superstar” but they still can’t win it all on their own.

Do you know what type of team you lead? If you are curious to find out, you can take this free brief team survey and I’ll email you your results.

Knowing whether you’re leading a more collaborative or more independent team is important information to have in order to choose the right actionable strategies to boost performance & morale and best manage your team.