Quotes About Teamwork

No action, activity, or process is more central to a healthy organization than the meeting.

Trust is the foundation of real teamwork.

I honestly believe that in this day and age of informational ubiquity and nanosecond change, teamwork remains the one sustainable competitive advantage that has been largely untapped.

Leaders who can identify, hire, and cultivate employees who are humble, hungry, and smart will have a serious advantage over those who cannot.

When team members trust one another, when they know that everyone on the team is capable of admitting when they don't have the right answer, and when they're willing to acknowledge when someone else's idea is better than theirs, the fear of conflict and the discomfort it entails is greatly diminished. When there is trust, conflict becomes nothing but the pursuit of truth, an attempt to find the best possible answer. It is not only okay but desirable.

Keep in mind that a real team should be spending considerable time together in meetings and working sessions. In fact, it is not uncommon that as much as 20 percent of each team member's time is spent working through issues and solving problems with the team as a whole. p. 105

find someone who can demonstrate trust, engage in conflict, commit to group decisions, hold their peers accountable, and focus on the results of the team, not their own ego.

Great organizations, unlike countries, are never run like a democracy.

On a cohesive team, leaders are not there simply to represent the departments that they lead and manage but rather to solve problems that stand in the way of achieving success for the whole organization. That means they'll readily offer up their departments' resources when it serves the greater good of the team, and they'll take an active interest in the thematic goal regardless of how closely related it is to their functional area.

I believe that teamwork is not a virtue, but rather a choice. It's a strategic decision and an intentional one, which means that it's not for everyone.

If team members are never pushing one another outside of their emotional comfort zones during discussions, then it is extremely likely that they're not making the best decisions for the organization.

it is far more natural, and common, for leaders to avoid holding people accountable.

a leader's first priority is to create an environment where others can do these things and that cannot happen if they are not having effective meetings.

few groups of leaders actually work like a team, at least not the kind that is required to lead a healthy organization.

last frontier of competitive advantage will be the transformation of unhealthy organizations into healthy ones

people in a healthy organization, beginning with the leaders, learn from one another, identify critical issues, and recover quickly from mistakes.

The healthier an organization is, the more of its intelligence it is able to tap into and use.

I think we need to start having a Headline News every day, for five minutes. We could call it a Daily Check-in or something. That means we should get together in a conference room, standing up, and just announce what we're all doing.

We have a strong and natural tendency to look out for ourselves before others, even when those others are part of our families and our teams.

Teams have to eliminate ambiguity and interpretation when it comes to success.

When players on a team stop caring about the scoreboard, they inevitably start caring about something else.

There is always that little voice in your head saying, "What about me?" Sometimes that little voice drowns out the cry of the team, and the collective results of the group get left behind.

Employees know that they ultimately pay the price when their manager doesn't get along with or cooperate with managers of other departments, leaving the staff to navigate the treacherous and bloody waters of organizational politics.

The key to all of this, then, is to teach team members to get comfortable being exposed to one another, unafraid to honestly say things like "I was wrong" and "I made a mistake" and "I need help" and "I'm not sure" and "you're better than I am at that" and yes, even "I'm sorry.