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The success of every business begins with teamwork. Teams that are driven and work well together to accomplish goals create a successful environment for a business to grow and flourish. The Five Behaviors of a Cohesive Team provides teams with the basis for a healthy and successful business environment.

The five behaviors are as follows:

1. Trust
2. Conflict
3. Commitment
4. Accountability
5. Results

Each component of the 5 Behaviors build upon one another to create a successful team. As with any relationship, trust is the foundation. When looking at a workplace team environment, trust means teammates are willing to be completely vulnerable with one another and have confidence that each of their peers have good intentions leaving no reason to be protective or careful around one another. Without a solid feeling that each member of the team can be trusted by every other team member, there will be room for discord and potential suspicion amongst members resulting in a decrease in collaboration and productivity. By addressing this fundamental behavior among your team members, a leader can strengthen the team at its base and grow from there to have a more productive team that works well together for the betterment of the business.

The next component is conflict. All relationships experience conflict. However, productive conflict actually helps a relationship grow and thrive. Learning to differentiate between productive conflict and destructive conflict can make a huge difference in the workplace. Productive conflict is focused on concepts and ideals while avoiding mean-spirited and/or personal attacks. Teams that understand and engage in positive conflict rise above other teams because their main focus isn’t on “winning” an argument, instead it’s on finding the best possible solutions in the least amount of time to a problem. This kind of laser-focus and joint effort can lead a team to success while ensuring all avenues are explored and critiqued so that the team can utilize the best possible solution for a project or task at hand. Leaders who can foster an environment that encourages productive conflict will see an increase in employee engagement and accountability. Learning to stop destructive conflict and pivot into productive conflict is a masterful skill for leaders to learn.

In discussing cohesive teams, commitment speaks to the clarity around decisions and the ability to move forward with complete buy-in from all members even those who originally opposed the decision. Without commitment from all team members, leaders are working with people just going through the motions. Autopilot settings deter from successful completion of projects and tasks as maximum efforts aren’t made since members don’t have confidence in the methods for completing the project. Leaders who can achieve commitment will find their team works as a more cohesive unit and projects and tasks are completed on time and with the greatest level of ability.

Accountability can be difficult within business units as it requires all members of a team to be willing to call one another out on performance deficits or behaviors that might be hurting the team or project. This can be an uncomfortable situation for many people as it requires a level of careful and constructive criticism that some people may view as confrontation. Leaders who can identify ways to help teams learn constructive critiquing will find members become more accountable for their part in projects as well as holding one another to the high standards of the team.

Last but not least, results if the pinnacle of the 5 Cohesive Behaviors. Results in this regard focuses on the collective goals of the team and are not limited to financial measures but more related to expectations and outcome-based performances. The bottom line is measuring a team’s success comes from whether or not they met the goals of the project and accomplished it in the timeframe expected. Regardless of each member’s individual contributions, results are focused on the team’s outcome and each member’s willingness to do what is required to meet the collective goals and standards.

To learn more about how your organization can explore, interpret, and implement the 5 Behaviors of a Cohesive team, please contact Robert Winter of Trinity Training & Development at 832-483-5535 or fill out the contact form on our contact page. Trinity Training & Development focuses on the unique needs of your business and builds strategies to strengthen your teams.