Teams are formed when individuals with a common taste, preference, liking, and attitude come and work together for a common goal. Teams play a very important role in organizations as well as our personal lives. Coming to team sports, they are organized groups of players competing against each other. These include sports such as football, cricket, soccer, lacrosse, volleyball, basketball, softball and baseball. The teams strategize & plan depending on their group dynamics, individual strength & weaknesses to win over the opponent. They not only need to assess their own positives & negatives, but also need to comprehend the rival’s. On victory, the reward also gets equally distributed since the individual contribution is significant in such sports. Likewise on failure, everyone embraces the fact that they all are responsible.
Business & teamwork
The scenario is similar in business ventures as well. Although the idea may be coined by a single person, but to accomplish the same, he/she needs an outstanding & talented team. Initially it may start with a team of 3 persons, but fortunately if the venture grows, the team needs to grow equally to cater to more customer base. The one who came up with the million dollar idea may be innovative, but may be lacking financial foresight or knowledge on talent management. These aspects are equally crucial for a business to flourish. Resources with sound sales skills, marketing technique, financial knowledge, operational know-how, compliances & guidelines awareness play significant role in materializing a business plan. As the team grows, there will be departments, the strength & weaknesses of those departments, the internal team dynamics & the intra-team relationship, the potentials of individual team members etc. Once all of these are in place, top line starts growing. Although it seems that the front line sales team plays the pivotal role, but the back end support team is equally significant to work on data & dashboards to represent to the business. Hence it is rightly said, talent wins games but teamwork wins championship. And a business in this volatile, ever evolving market is no less than a championship.
Investment & teamwork
Teamwork is not the only key to success in the investment industry. Client Satisfaction, Excellence, Ethics/Integrity, and Professionalism are the top five values that customers look for. But even if you are investing individually, it calls for a team work. To assess the market, the return, gauze the investment to be done you may not be the right person. It is necessary to opt for advice from a financial advisor. Or you may have to give an amount to an investor who will be multiplying the same with time. But for this trust & transparency are essential. You may deploy someone to evaluate the same i.e. the past record of the investor or the credibility & credentials. Hence more than a person is involved in the entire process: advisor, investor, evaluator etc. And you being the CEO, it’s your responsibility to choose & deploy them to achieve your mission i.e. investment in the right field at right time to get the maximum return.
Not all teams are made up of friends. Nor, for that matter, do they need to be, in order for them to be effective. Teamwork does however, have the potential to foster a fulfilling, meaningful way of working together. It’s not necessarily an easy option or a panacea for all business or investment ills. However, working with a group of people, on a worthwhile activity, with a common goal, can be one of the most rewarding and enjoyable aspects of work.