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BUILDING A WINNING TEAM

Whether on the playing field or in business, teams win - individuals don't. People working together make it happen. Building a winning team is critical for success, whether your goal is scoring touchdowns or winning customers. But your employees - your players - don't come to you as members of a team. How, then, do you mold a group of individuals into a winning team?

A "winning team" is more than the sum of its members. It is more than just a collection of individuals. Winning teams have six basic characteristics in common:

1. Players focus on a common purpose. In sports, the purpose is to win the game. In spite of their individual differences, players on a winning team are bound together by this common sense of "who we are" and "what we are here to do." Team members are able to make personal sacrifices for the good of the team because they share this common goal.

2. In addition to the larger purpose, players share smaller, specific goals - making touchdowns, gaining yardage, and so on.  Winning teams recognize, as the great coach Bear Bryant once said, that to win the game they have to get all the "itty bitty, teeny weeny things right."

3.  Winning teams keep score. And they keep track of the little things, not just the big things. A winning team not only knows the final score, it also knows how it scored on yards rushing, yards passing, and time of possession. Winning teams recognize that performance on those "little things" must be monitored and improved if they are to keep winning.

4. Winning teams share the rewards of success. The cheers of the crowd aren't just for a chosen few, they are for every player who made it happen. The surest way to become a losing team is to let a few superstars hog the applause.  On a winning team, even the superstars know that they didn't win alone, and they are generous with their praise for all the others who made the difference between success and failure.

5. Every player knows his or her role and how to play that roll to perfection. Sure, all winning teams recruit "natural talent." But they know that natural talent is rarely enough - it has to be molded and shaped through training, conditioning, practice, planning, and careful preparation. And the training never stops. Winning teams recognize that even the best natural talent can always get better.

6. Every player is expected to be involved in winning all the time. Sure, every player on the team can't be physically involved in every play, but all players are expected to be mentally and emotionally involved in every play. Winning teams don't have players who simply warm the bench.

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