To build a successful team, you need several facets all working in harmony.

Self-motivation and desire

Successful teams consist of people who are self-motivated and have an innate desire to succeed.

Communication

It’s a cliché but good communication is essential. The team must be open, transparent and share details of its members’ work. Keeping secrets fosters mistrust.

Proactive

Good teams spend less time responding to external events and more time being proactive about making sure they are in control.

Adaptation and resilience

A good team is adaptive and resilient to change. A good team will be prepared to throw away work if it means a more successful outcome by doing something differently.

Decision making

Everyone should know how and by whom decisions are made.

Mutual support

Mutually supportive team members create something that is larger than the sum of their parts. They will be prepared to help each other at any time.

Reliability and predictability

If you are both reliable and predictable, you will succeed. This means not only delivering on time, but reliable to each other in the team.