3Ps that set the Winning Team apart …

There is no team that does not want to win and the one who wins consistently is termed as the ‘Winning Team’. When one looks at the characteristics of a winning team, one finds that it rests on 3 pillars-  Purpose, People and Priorities.

The bottom line is that a team is a bunch of people with individual emotions coupled with their own strengths and weaknesses. As a leader, one should understand this aspect and manage the team accordingly. If the leader can set a purpose that each team member accepts as the peak he or she needs to achieve as a personal achievement, then the leader is assured of the highest productivity from the team. Purpose is the glue that brings and binds the team together and the winning team’s adrenaline is pumped up with a common purpose. 

A good leader knows that he can go the distance that the team takes him and spends considerable time in understanding each team member. Knowing the people in the team is as important as setting the goal for the team. It helps in assessing the ones who bring in energy, who drains it and who pulls it sideways; who is a natural leader, who is self motivated, who needs that extra hand and who may drop the ball when moment comes. These insights help the leader in refining his treatment to the people, in allocating roles, in defining empowerment, identifying need for mentoring, vesting responsibility and marginalizing. 

Every day is a new day and the winning team sets the priorities to focus and sets the measures to review the results. This is to validate whether they are indicators of winning as the ultimate aim is to win every day so that team is assured of the direction of reaching their goalpost. Without priorities, teams go adrift. While the goalpost is constant, priorities are not. Priorities are dynamic and the winning team knows how to adjust and reprioritize on a quarterly, monthly, weekly and daily basis. 

The DNA of a winning team rests on these three pillars and they are part of the execution style of any good leader who leads a winning team.