Team Building Skills Many Leaders Miss

Summary: We all know that one leader who seems to effortlessly turn a group of individuals into a powerhouse team. But here's the thing: most leaders struggle with this, and it's costing organizations big time. In this article, I'm breaking down the team building skills that don't get nearly enough attention. These are the abilities that separate truly cohesive teams from groups of people who just happen to work together. If you're ready to elevate your leadership game and build a team that actually works well together, keep reading.

Why Team Building Skills Matter More Than You Think

If you are a sports fan like myself, you may have heard commentators talk about a certain coach and say something like, "he took a group of individuals, and made them a team." This typically means that coach is pretty good at their job. This is because teamwork really is one of the most important pieces in any successful organization. In his book, The 5 Dysfunctions of a Team, author Patrick Lencioni says:

"Not finance. Not strategy. Not technology. It is teamwork that remains the ultimate competitive advantage, both because it is so powerful and so rare."

Indeed, the degree of teamwork a group of people possess can be the difference between something that is greater than the sum of its parts, or a pack of lone wolves. Perhaps that is why we talk about teamwork so often. It may even be why my line of work exists. The point is that teamwork is rare, but incredibly powerful.

And while many leaders would hear that and nod their head with an emphatic yes, in practice, we don't really treat leaders like team builders. Often, we hire and promote leaders based on individual performance. Thus, we create a system where individual contributors oversee a group of other individual contributors. A blind leading the blind scenario if you will. While this sometimes works out, it usually doesn't. Then organizations need to bring in someone like me to help everyone learn to play nice in the sandbox.

The Hidden Cost of Poor Team Building Skills

Today many people in leadership positions lack the skills needed to create truly cohesive teams, and the cost only becomes apparent once that leader creates a mess. This usually means low performance, costly solutions, and good people leaving the company. Research shows that 86% of employees and executives blame workplace failures on lack of collaboration or ineffective communication, making team building skills essential for organizational success.

Now while I believe it's better to screen candidates for leadership and team building competency when hiring or promoting, I don't have a problem with choosing an individual contributor. If an organization understands that individual performance and leadership are not the same set of skills, and is prepared to train an individual properly in the latter, then this can help setup a leader for success. However that often doesn't happen, or at best, it is treated like a band aid. Something that is accessory to the position, rather than foundational.

Yet every now and then, we see an individual step into a leadership position and knock it out of the park because they have some natural talent in this area. This has fed into the perception that team building and interpersonal skills are simply an inherent talent. Some people have it and others don't. While I can't deny that some individuals certainly do have a natural talent for this, team building is absolutely a skill that can be learned.

What makes it tricky is that people are complicated and sometimes we can't clearly identify what is working for our team and what is not. Thus today I wanted to focus on some skill sets that are important for building cohesive teams, but don't often get talked about. Let's dive in!

4 Critical Team Building Skills Leaders Overlook

1. The Connector: Creating Collisions for Collaboration

This is a leader who can identify and promote opportunities for their team to connect. This goes beyond the typical team socials as someone who engages this skill can often see opportunities that others miss. A great example is Zappos founder Tony Hsieh. In the book The Culture Code by Daniel Coyle, we talks about how much of Tony's leadership philosophy centered around creating what he called "collisions" for his team. Collisions refers to serendipitous personal encounters that drive creativity, community, and cohesion within an organization. Hsieh described his role not as the plant everyone aspires to be, but as the architect of the greenhouse creating the environment where these collisions could naturally occur.

This is a great example of being a connector. Many leaders could learn from this example and grow their team building skills by seeing themselves as the architect of a greenhouse. Don't just plan socials and team building events, but look for ways that you can structure team meetings and even your physical office space to promote more collisions so people can connect.

2. The Storyteller: Communicating Complex Ideas Effectively

I firmly believe that storytelling is one of the most underrated team building skills a leader can possess. This is not just for the inspirational value of stories. Stories can, and often are, much more effective for communicating and teaching complex concepts than information and logical arguments. This is because information only activates a small portion of our brain related to reasoning and logical processing. Meanwhile stories light up many different areas in the brain including those responsible for emotions, sensory information, and logical reasoning. This makes stories much more memorable and easier to understand on an intuitive level.

Thus, leaders who are good storytellers can cast a compelling vision and guide culture much more effectively than those who are not. When communication breaks down in organizations, it directly impacts performance and revenue, which is why mastering storytelling as a team building skill is crucial.

3. The Mediator: Transforming Conflict into Growth

Ideally, teams work best when members are empowered to resolve their own conflicts. However, every once in a while, a leader will still need to step in. That is where a mediator can be so valuable. Some people just have a natural gift for staying calm under pressure and knowing what questions to diffuse conflict. I've heard countless stories from teams about that one person who just seemed to be able to handle any conflict thrown at them and the difference it made in the organization.

Mediation skills are so powerful because they prevent disputes from escalating, and reconnect your team to a common vision. Furthermore, it allows conflict to be something productive, leading to better ideas and building trust. Studies indicate that businesses promoting collaboration are five times more likely to be high-performing, and effective mediation is a key component of that collaboration. Ultimately, a leader who can mediate conflicts for their team will see far greater cohesion in that group. For more strategies on this, check out my article on conflict resolution strategies.

4. The Energizer: Bringing Positive Energy to Every Interaction

Let's face it, there are some people who truly light up a room when they walk in. They just possess a magnetic energy that draws people in and lifts them up. You may wonder how this can be a skill, because we tend to view a trait like that as something that is simply part of one's personality. But it definitely is a skill that can be learned, even for those of us who consider themselves more introverted.

For example, I am a huge introvert. Big crowds tend to drain me pretty quickly. Yet whenever I do workshops, no one in the group pegs me as an introvert. This is because I have trained myself to express greater enthusiasm and social activity than my baseline. Furthermore, I am intentional with displaying these skills during a workshop for the sake of creating a fun and engaging environment for learning. Based on the comments I frequently get, it is clearly working.

Research shows that employees who feel enthusiastic about their roles see productivity rise by 14%, making the energizer role a vital team building skill for any leader looking to boost performance.

Developing Your Team Building Skills

As I mentioned earlier, all of these team building skills can be taught, and I encourage leaders to invest in them regularly. Often we see team building as something we do externally, but there is an incredible opportunity for organic growth to flow from how leaders invest in themselves. How you show up as a leader sets the tone on your team for how they treat each other. That's why leadership coaching can have such a far-reaching impact in an organization.

If you want to improve in the skill sets I mentioned while building a cohesive team, 1:1 coaching is a great place to start. Go ahead and book a free 30-minute Discovery Call with me to get the process started!