Quotes About Teamwork

Having one person tell other people what to do is not a reliable way to make good decisions.

This is what I would call a muscular humility—a mindset of seeking simple ways to serve the group.

Make the Leader Occasionally Disappear: Several leaders of successful groups have the habit of leaving the group alone at key moments.

Avoid Giving Sandwich Feedback:

This place is like a greenhouse," Hsieh says. "In some greenhouses, the leader plays the role of the plant that every other plant aspires to. But that's not me. I'm not the plant that everyone aspires to be. My job is to architect the greenhouse.

On the face of it, these awkward moments at Pixar, the SEALs, and Gramercy Tavern don't make sense. These groups seem to intentionally create awkward, painful interactions that look like the opposite of smooth cooperation. The fascinating thing is, however, these awkward, painful interactions generate the highly cohesive, trusting behavior necessary for smooth cooperation.

One study found that workers who shared a location emailed one another four times as often as workers who did not, and as a result they completed their projects 32 percent faster.)

How does a cranky, demanding coach create the most cohesive team in all of sports? One common answer is that the Spurs are smart about drafting and developing unselfish, hardworking, team-oriented individuals. This is a tempting explanation, because the Spurs clearly make a concerted effort to select high-character individuals. (Their scouting template includes a check box labeled "Not a Spur." A check in this box means the player will not be pursued, no matter how talented he is.)

High-proficiency environments help a group deliver a well-defined, reliable performance, while high-creativity environments help a group create something new.

Make Sure the Leader Is Vulnerable First and Often: As we've seen, group cooperation is created by small, frequently repeated moments of vulnerability. Of these, none carries more power than the moment when a leader signals vulnerability.

But they succeeded because they understood that being vulnerable together is the only way a team can become invulnerable.

Increasing people's sense of power—that is, tweaking a situation to make them feel more invulnerable—dramatically diminished their willingness to cooperate.

The Spurs eat together approximately as often as they play basketball together.

science shows that when it comes to creating cooperation, vulnerability is not a risk but a psychological requirement.

What are groups really for?" Polzer asks. "The idea is that we can combine our strengths and use our skills in a complementary way. Being vulnerable gets the static out of the way and lets us do the job together, without worrying or hesitating. It lets us work as one unit.

Give a good idea to a mediocre team, and they'll find a way to screw it up. Give a mediocre idea to a good team, and they'll find a way to make it better.

Make Sure the Leader Is Vulnerable First and Often: As we've seen, group cooperation is created by small, frequently repeated moments of vulnerability.

When I went on to write my next book, Working With Emotional Intelligence, I wanted to make a business case that the best performers were those people strong in these skills.

Leadership is not domination, but the art of persuading people to work toward a common goal.

Hire good people, and leave them alone.

the more they chat and gossip—the more they get done

Expending energy trying to motivate people is largely a waste of time," Collins wrote in Good to Great. "If you have the right people on the bus, they will be self-motivated. The real question then becomes: How do you manage in such a way as not to de-motivate people?

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln BY DORIS KEARNS GOODWIN

Identifying problems as a way to move others takes two