Leaders must devote significant time to building cohesive teams, argues Sue Bergamo, CIO of BTE Consulting. If they don't, they'll quickly be met with dysfunctional organizations.

A good friend of mine recently made a job change. Extremely knowledgeable in the IT industry and a senior leader, she confided that she was considering making yet another move. When I asked her why she intended to switch positions again, she indicated that she did not feel appreciated at work; and as a new employee, the relationship building wasn’t going as well as she would have liked.

She is full of skills and talent, but she wasn’t being given enough opportunities to show her experience—and the game-playing among existing team members had really turned her off.

Her story made me stop and reflect upon how many times I have heard a similar story and wondered how many companies lose employees due to an inability to build a collaborative team.

Hiring and firing practices are very costly for organizations, and it is easier to find ways to retain employees, especially if the environment is complimentary to the individuals. If you’ve found that your organization has a high turnover rate or limited ability to attract new hires, then maybe it’s time to start changing how the team operates.

As industry leaders, the information below should be second nature to all of us, but I believe it’s worth mentioning again.

Building a collaborative team isn’t something that has a beginning and an end. In fact, the process of building the team starts over again each and every time a new member enters the team. As the leader of an organization, you are the one that sets the tone and leads by example. It’s important to make certain that your staff knows what your expectations are for the team and that they see you put these practices into place every day.

Some managers believe team building has to do with setting clear objectives and measurements for each employee, but this isn’t the only factor. Team building is about developing a culture where people work together to achieve results, and where employees work for the greater good of the organization and not just for themselves.

Think for a moment about the places you worked where results were achieved in a manner that wasn’t considered "heroic" by one person, or by calling in the cavalry at the 11^th hour to take over. My guess would be that during these times, a group of people worked in a collaborative fashion to make something significant happen. You may ask yourself, “Why is a collaborative team so difficult to achieve?”

Well, my friend, the answer is you.

Let’s consider several real-life questions that have a direct impact on a team’s spirit and leads to a dysfunctional environment:

- How many individuals in your department are given opportunities to complete critical initiatives? Or does your team think that you favorites that you go to for all needs?

- Are you the type of leader that provides an opportunity for employees to generate ideas? Or must all ideas come from you?

- Is performance feedback given on a frequent basis and realistic? Or are performance reviews known as a “blame game”?

- Are peers allowed to play political games with each other? And has anyone lost their job due to these games?

- Do peers respect one another? Or is bullying considered a normal behavior?

- Are employees empowered to make decisions? Or must all decisions come through you?

If you have answered yes to any of these questions, then there is work to be done before your department can be considered a collaborative team.

One clarification that I’d like to make: I don’t believe that every team is a bed of roses and fairy tales.  Conflicts do occur, and sometimes a leader must intervene to help the group in finding a solution.  When expectations are set that all employees must be treated respectfully, even in times of conflict, then employees will regulate the team’s behavior.

But it all starts with the leader. Frequent communication to the employees will go a long way in building a reputation of trust and openness. Knowledge is power for an employee, and without it they move to gossip and innuendo. These types of communication can break down a team in no time at all.

For those of us that have experience in building teams and in designing organizational models, we realize that when people trust in one another and can work together as a cohesive unit, we actually can get more things done, and at a much quicker pace. Organizations that do not devote time to building teams will find obstacles that can impact productivity and effectiveness.

As a CIO and a consultant, too often, I’ve been involved in the rebuilding of a team. In each of these experiences, I’ve found that if effective team-building had been in place, the employees and the organization wouldn’t have felt such tremendous upheaval and impact.

There is an old saying that people don't leave bad companies—they leave bad managers. For my friend, let’s hope that her newest position goes better than the last one.

Sue Bergamo is CIO of BTE Consulting and provides executive management services to her clients. She can be reached at suebergamo@yahoo.com.

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