Team, what is a team, what does a team stand for?

We talk about TEAM(s) everyday, but what do we actually understand when we say TEAM. We all have a different definition and understanding of the word; some people came up with acronyms to make up TEAM; like Together Everyone Achieves More; and many more available if you search for the word team.

For me the light bulb today was: Talent Engagement Accountability Meaning. Acronym which I did not find on internet 🙂 so felt very proud of my AHA creative moment. If you did find this (team) acronym before please let me know, so I don’t fool myself I am original 😊.

Talent: different people have different talents, skills and strengths; we are truly unique, as our experiences are unique and they develop our brain in a way which is unique only to us. Neuroscience proves that we are truly unique individuals, a result of how experiences, knowledge and emotions shaped us, and there is no one else similar to your or me in this universe. Good news for some people around me, who need to deal with me for the best and for the worst😊.

Engagement: it is not enough to be skilled, talented and to have the right knowledge; we need to get engaged and feel engaged;connected with the others and with the wider company to be able to deliver at our best. Engagement is tightly connected to talent retention; I am not original nor the first one to say this, and still every team can do better on engagement.

Accountability: for me this is a big A. I don’t like talking about empowerment, I feel accountability is something we as individual can decide for ourselves; we decide how responsible we want to be for what we need to do; where empowerment is something we expect other to give us, someone else should give us the power or permission  to do something; which in my view implies we don’t have that power until is granted to us; very often this becomes the root cause of a lack of accountability in individuals who do not take responsibility for their role within a team, because no one else told them to do so. It is also true that having an accountability system in place, helps teams and organisations a long way to be more effective. Before holding or making people accountable; we need to ensure their roles and responsibilities are clear and well understood, is a two ways conversation. During my internal audit career accountability or better said lack of accountability, and missing accountability systems were root causes of many reoccurring issues, so you see why accountability is a big fat A for me.

Meaning: we live in a world in which doing meaningful things is a must and part of our survival in this world; so we started asking ourselves more and more why are we doing what we do as a team/ and how do we as individuals contribute to our team’s success. One of the constant challenge I faced (and sometimes maybe failed at) was to give meaningful audit recommendations; ensure Internal Audit played a meaningful role in ensuring the organisations managed its risks and delivered on its goals/strategy. The meaning of a team (its purpose) to me is essential to a team success and it links it all the way back into accountability, engagement and talent to close the circle of the team.

So TEAM for me stands for: talented, engaged and accountable people who aim to deliver meaningful results.