MVP Seven Essentials for Team Success

Vision - What winning looks and feels like

Describe what success for this team looks and feels like. What has to be accomplished, and over what time frame? Discuss the future pride, confidence, and comradery this team will experience once this accomplishment is manifested. Visualize the positive feelings of success in working together. The team may need to revisit and realign with this vision at regular intervals.

Talent - Play to individual strengths

Winning individuals play to their own strengths and support the strengths of each team member. While it’s important and valuable to be honest about weaknesses, winning teams maximize their talents, courage and personal power.

Accountability - Clarify roles and expectations

High performance teams take the time to clarify everyone’s roles, making sure there is an understanding of both individual and team expectations.

Culture - Demonstrate teamwork

Through practice, team members build a winning spirit culture based on trust, feedback, clear expectations, honesty, consideration, and appreciation. Positive culture drives engagement, accelerates execution, and encourages productive risk-taking. Winning teams develop deliberate practices to create a winning spirit.

Communication - The value of communication and the power of connection

Communication is the exchange of information, and connection is the transfer of emotion. Peak performance requires that team members receive both the information needed to execute and the connection with each other to navigate effectively and feel psychologically safe.

Execution - Create playbooks

High performance teams map the working processes they need to execute consistently and flawlessly. These maps (Playbooks) can help make day-to-day work feel fluid and predictable. Successful teams also develop a common language that signals when and how something is going to be delivered.

Measurement - Measure impact

Senior leaders frequently identify measures to track a business team’s results. These measures generally report on what the team has already accomplished in the past. High performance teams also look at measures that can predict the team’s performance in the future. In addition to business metrics, the team will track elements like: alignment, connection, retention of talent, speed of decisions, trust, and communication. These intangibles help a team make the necessary positive shifts long before the outcomes are determined.