What It Takes To Be A Loyalist Team

According to the authors of the book, The Loyalist Team, members of this type of extraordinary team:

Trust each other unconditionally.
Assume positive intent, and if they can’t get there alone, they ask.
Talk to each other, not about each other.
Care about each other’s success as they do their own.
Put the team’s agenda ahead of their own.
Push each other to do their best work.
Hold each other accountable: poor performance isn’t tolerated.
Supports all team members, even when they make mistakes.
Seek intelligent risk-taking and innovation.
Discuss the toughest issues in the room and leave aligned.
Give each other feedback, even when it’s hard.
Have fun.
Enable team members to be authentic.

Unfortunately, without these behaviors, teams typically fall within the these other less effective and functional team types:

Saboteur
Benign Saboteur
Situational Loyalist

The authors explain that the difference between Saboteur, Benign Saboteur, Situational Loyalist, and Loyalist Teams depends on several factors, but relationships reign supreme. Relationships among team members account for 70 percent of the variance between team types.

Whether you’re a leader or a team member, you can use the book to diagnose your team and plot steps to improve team performance.

Also, the first steps to diagnose your team are to ask yourself this series of questions:

Is the team delivering results?
What’s working best on this team?
What are the challenges this team is facing?
Has anything significantly changed with the business or this team in the last six months?
Is everyone pulling his or her weight?
How do I affect team performance?
How does the team leader impact team performance?
How would you describe the relationships on the team?
How is morale on the team?
What are the barriers to better performance?

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