Blog by Coach Sterling Broadhead

I have a lot of passion around Team.  Principles of team, team building, and leadership.  A lot of that comes from my military background.  Leadership and cohesive unity are so very important.  I have spent a lot of time in extensive team training.  Whether with logistics or Military Competitions, team aspects are very important in the military. 

What I really like about ActionCOACH is they take a lot of these team building principles and apply them to business.  Team and Leadership are just as important in business for success. 

One of my favorite team building concepts from ActionCOACH is the Point of Power.  You may wonder what’s the Point of Power?  We like to utilize it when we talk Team aspect and team building.  Because it’s really all about taking accountability, responsibility, and ownership if you want the power to correct problems. 

How many of you know people who constantly use blame, excuses, or they’re in denial that there’s even a problem?  These are ways that we describe being below the point of power.  And we use the acronym B.E.D. on purpose because we say these people are in bed letting opportunities pass them by in life.  If you’re constantly using excuses, you’re trying to pull yourself out of that problem, but you are powerless, right?  You aren’t able to make corrections.   

Being part of a team and to be successful, all members, especially the leader, must be above the Point of Power.  We use the acronym O.A.R. (ownership / accountability / responsibility).  You have an ability or power to correct the ship.  If there are problems and everyone on the team is above the Point of Power you are making an effort to make the corrections and be successful.   

Another important concept we utilize happens to be one of ActionCOACH’s Fourteen Points of culture.  It is something that a lot of teams and business owners overlook.  That’s FUN!  At ActionCOACH we believe for businesses to have successful teams, they must instill a culture of FUN.  This contributes to successful team building.  People need to enjoy being part of the team or doing the tasks that they responsible for.  If you can incorporate fun into your team dynamics and into your culture this will help you find success. 

Another concept is the acronym T.E.A.M.  We say that it stands for Together Everyone Achieves More.  What’s important about this is that team dynamics can really have synergy if everyone understands what their responsibility is, what their role is.  And we refer to KPI’s (Key Performance Indicators) for team members.  When everyone works together, the team achieve more.  Think about that.  In your teams as a leader, have you communicated well enough the expectations, priorities, and everyone’s role? 

Brad Sugars, founder of ActionCOACH, recommends an exercise where the business owner and each team member independently writes down their 10 most important priorities to focus on.  He says that you will be amazed at how rare it is that any two lists are the same.  The business owner may think these top 10 things are the most important for the team to work on / focus on and assume everyone knows it.  Communication isn’t always the best.

I challenge all of you to do the same.  If you feel like you do not have priorities all set, do this exercise along with your team.  Compare the lists and see how close you are.  Ensuring that everyone is on the same page, focused on the same goals and priorities, will promote team building and support a successful business.           

If you’re working on team building in your business, download our whitepaper sharing tips on Attracting & Building your Dream Team: 

https://wasatch.actioncoach.com/download-building-your-dream-team