Winning teams

“What makes a winning team?” “What separates the team that succeeds in creative environments vs. those who don’t?”

Those were two questions an event organizer asked me to talk to their team about. Before the pandemic, I was due to be giving a talk on winning teams this coming weekend. I was excited to spend some time with like-minded individuals talking about my beliefs on characteristics that are evident in every winning team, certainly, every winning team operating in a creative environment. Unfortunately, I won’t be able to give the talk this coming weekend, so instead I thought I would jot down a quick summary. Worth recognizing that even in these uncertain times, you can see these winning teams create meaningful work because of these characteristics that are at the core of how they behave.

10 Characteristics of a winning team...

• Know that to be world class, you need world class effort. The only place where success comes before work is in the dictionary.


• Courage. The decisions that truly make a difference require a leap of faith. Winning teams are not scared of the new. They take bold steps…and tightly hold each others hands. You can’t win by playing defense.


• Choose to think “what if this works?” vs “What if it fails?” They understand that failure is part of risk taking. Failure is a key ingredient in any innovation process. This mindset is the equivalent of “playing to win” vs “playing not to lose.”


• Hire for strength rather than lack of weakness. Steve Jobs said “A few solid pros are more powerful than a dozen cons”. We ALL have weaknesses. It’s our towering strengths that make us valuable, not how few weaknesses we have.


• Value the performance of the team over the individual. It doesn’t mean that they don’t have stars amongst the team, but there is no such thing as individual performance. No one has ever achieved anything on their own.


• Implement good ideas quickly, and give full credit to those who had the idea. There is no hero. Everyone serves the team. (See previous point!).


• Diversity. Winning teams know that diversity of thoughts, perspectives, experiences, backgrounds, world views equal a competitive advantage. The collaboration of multiple diverse voices makes you a more creative team.


• Understand that “great” is a collection of small things. It’s never one big idea alone, it’s the way all the smaller ideas come together.


• Expect to win. You can’t do your best work unless you expect to win. Expectation dictates performance. You have to believe you will finish first!


• They have fun. A playful attitude is associated with better performance. Money and promotions are not as important as working somewhere fun. Creativity comes from being relaxed and playing. Winning teams have a great vibe (that outsiders don’t often understand!).

One of my favourite quotes - and I am at a loss as to who said it - sums up the essence of a winning team, “if you want to win forever, always compete!” I wish you and your team nothing but continued success