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21 Principles of Teamwork

1. "Understand that, to be effective, organizations need teamwork.
2. Do not dominate the team.  Do not use the team for an 'ego trip.'
3. Do not sabotage the team.
4. Do not hide behind team decisions.
5. Make your own independent and creative contribution to the team.
6. You must feel that you are personally responsible for the success of the entire team.
7. Understand that teamwork does not succeed unless you clearly make a personal and independent decision to want teamwork.
8. Know that your job as a team member is to empower your colleagues, to make them successful, to make them powerful - for ethics is service.
9. You must understand the systemic rules that govern group behavior.
10. As a team leader you must know how to guide a team, a knowledge acquired partially through learned skills, partially through experience, and partially through the quality human being you are.
11. Remember that teams are important but not absolute.
12. Remember that teamwork can be very satisfying emotionally for it responds to an ancient desire to participate in something bigger than each of us individually
13. Understand that most of the time when people think they are a team, they are not.
14. As team members you must think as one team.
15. Understand that teamwork means that the group works on one single concept, one shared vision.
16. As a team member, everyone must understand that the perfection of the team is not the same as the perfection of each individual.
17. It is the responsibility of each authentic team member-teacher-leader to use the value embedded in something like the Leadership Diamond model to establish successful teamwork.
18. Assess the productivity of your teamwork.  One way is through the number and quality of decisions made during your work or meetings.
19. Ensure that meetings end with energy, hope, and good feelings, not with bitterness, depression and exhaustion.
20. Remember that effective group work depends on honest, deep communication among the participants.
21. Never allow teamwork to lead to mediocrity (Koestenbaum, 2002, p.130 -133)."

How is your team doing?

Reference:  Koestenbaum, P. (2002).  Leadership: the inner side of greatness: a philosophy for leaders.  San Francisco:  Jossey-Bass.

Authentic Leadership is available on loan from the Ohio State University Leadership Center.  To borrow this resource or any other resource, please go to the resource search page http://164.107.48.88/winnebago/index.asp?lib=???

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Created: 2008-04-03, Updated: 2009-01-09