Team Development and the FIVE Traits All Great Teams Share
As a leader interested in team development, you will be pleased to hear that
all GREAT teams have the same traits in common – and you can develop them!
You have likely heard that team development occurs in four stages: forming, storming, norming, and then performing.
These stages were first identified by Bruce Tuckman of the Naval Medical Research Institute in a 1965 research paper, and have since simply been referred to as “Tuckman’s Four Stages.”
– Forming is when the group comes together to identify their mission and resources.
– Storming is when conflicts over roles or personalities may emerge.
– Norming is when the group becomes comfortable sharing feelings and information.
– Performing is when teams achieve interdependence and strong productivity.
Not all teams will reach the final stage that Tuckman describes, though – and the most crucial of the four stages as he describes them would be the storming stage.
It is during the storming stage that teammates must be given the time and opportunity to learn the personality types, talents and tendencies of those they will be working with.
Teachers who do this during pre-planning, athletes who do this during pre-season workouts, and project teams in any business field who do this early in their time together gain a tremendous advantage over their competition in building a more cohesive and and focused culture.
When you see great teams working together, it is inspiring to know that – while talent is important – the same things that make them a more cohesive team can be achieved by your group if you use a proven blueprint for construction.
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“I was so impressed by the relevancy and effectiveness of the activities you chose for the professional development. They really helped to build and strengthen our cohesiveness and teamwork.
The year got off to a great start that continued throughout the year!”
Wearing the same uniform does NOT make you a TEAM.
Working in the same office doesn’t make your group a team, either…
There is a huge difference between working NEAR someone and working WITH someone.
Team development is about investing in your people and ensuring that they become more than just a collection of individuals. While Tuckman’s four stages have been used to describe the common stages of team development, I have found that ALL great teams share the same five traits – and I believe that these five traits are more important for team leaders to recognize.
To ensure that your people truly become a high performing team, with effective leaders, you will want to focus on each of the ingredients listed below.
Whether in business, schools, or athletics, the traits of great teams remain the same, and are the things that will be emphasized throughout our time together…
Read below for the 5 traits your team needs
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All GREAT Teams Share These Five Traits:
G – Goals and Gear
Every Cohesive TEAM has focused on a destination, set a date to reach it, and should begin by taking inventory of the resources that are required and available.
[THE GROUP IS PUT ON A BOAT WITH A MAP AND OARS AND CHOOSES WHERE TO GO]R – Rapport and Relationships
Every TEAM invests time to learn and appreciate the background, desires, and talents of its members, bonding together through shared experiences and activities.
[THE INDIVDUALS SPEND TIME WITH EACH OTHER AND LEARN ABOUT OTHER’S TALENTS]E – Expectations and Encouragement
Every TEAM recognizes that all true motivation is internal, and they push themselves and their teammates to accept appropriate roles and share encouragements.
[THE GROUP ASSIGNS AND ACCEPTS ROLES AND PERFORMANCE STANDARDS]A – Accountability and Adjustments
Every TEAM member takes responsibility for contributing to reaching the goal, is willing to hold himself and teammates accountable for a standard of performance, and is also willing to modify their behavior to meet necessary challenges along the way.
[EACH INDIVIDUAL CLAIMS RESPONSIBILITY FOR SUCCESS AND ADAPTS TO FILL NEEDS]T – Toasts and Transfer
Every TEAM is made stronger by the choice to celebrate small victories along the way instead of holding out until the end of the journey. They also learn to carry the lessons about teamwork and overcoming adversity to the next task.
[THEY CELEBRATE WHILE ROWING – APPLYING INSIGHTS TO THEIR NEXT JOURNEY]
*Now you can alloy these ideas to strengthen your organization
and improve your results – with the team leadership masterclass!
Why Knowing These Traits Is Not Enough
Most leaders can name what a great team looks like. Very few know how to build one intentionally.
That gap is where most organizations lose.
You can read every book on team development, post the five traits on a breakroom wall, and still have a group that struggles to communicate, avoids accountability, and never quite reaches the performing stage Tuckman describes. The reason is simple. Awareness without experience rarely changes behavior.
Think about it this way.
A team does not develop trust because someone presented a slide about it. They develop trust because they have been through something together, processed it with a skilled facilitator, and came out the other side with a shared language and a new level of respect for each other.
That is the difference between information and transformation.
Each of the five G.R.E.A.T. traits can be taught in a classroom. But they are best developed through intentional, facilitated experiences where people are actually doing the work of connecting, communicating, and seeing each other differently in real time.
Goals become real when a team has to align around a shared challenge under pressure.
Relationships deepen when people learn about each other’s personality styles and realize why that coworker communicates so differently. Expectations get clarified when a group has to assign roles and trust each other to execute. Accountability becomes possible when trust already exists. And the habit of Thanks grows when a team has genuinely earned something together and taken the time to acknowledge it.
That is what a well-designed program accomplishes. Whether it is a small or large group team building event…
Not just a fun afternoon.
A structured opportunity to practice the exact behaviors that define a great team, while a skilled facilitator helps the group see and name what just happened.
You do not build great teams by talking about teamwork. You build them by engineering the right experiences and then leading your people through a conversation that makes those experiences meaningful.
How to Diagnose Which Trait Your Team Is Missing
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Every team that is underperforming is missing at least one of these five things. Most are missing two.
The challenge is that the symptoms rarely point directly to the cause. A team that looks like it has an accountability problem often actually has an expectations problem. People cannot hold each other to a standard nobody clearly defined. A team that looks disengaged often has a goals problem. People disengage when they do not understand why what they are doing matters.
Here is a simple way to diagnose where your team actually stands.
If your people seem unclear on priorities or are pulling in different directions, the gap is most likely in Goals. Clarity on where you are going and why it matters has to come before anything else can function.
If your team has cliques, avoids certain coworkers, or shuts down during conflict, the gap is in Relationships. People do not collaborate well with people they do not understand or trust. Personality awareness and shared experiences are the fix, not a memo about teamwork.
If your team struggles with role confusion, dropped balls, or differing standards, the gap is in Expectations. Someone thinks their job ends where another person thinks it begins. That ambiguity breeds resentment faster than almost anything else.
If people avoid hard conversations, tolerate low performance, or wait for the leader to fix everything, the gap is in Accountability. And here is the truth most leaders miss: you cannot install accountability from the outside. It has to grow from inside the team, out of genuine care for each other and the shared goal.
If your best people seem tired, underappreciated, or quietly disengaged, the gap is in Thanks. Recognition is not about plaques and announcements. It is about specific, sincere acknowledgment that tells someone their effort was seen and it mattered.
Knowing which trait is weakest tells you exactly where to focus your next conversation, your next team building investment, and your next leadership energy.
That is the value of a framework over a gut feeling. And it is the kind of honest conversation I have with every leader before designing a team building event program for their organization.
Read about these 5 essential steps
to transform any group into a GREAT team
in Sean’s book: Rapid Teamwork!
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What Will a Team Development
Event Teach Me and My Team?
– Do you lead or follow – and when?
– Do you follow rules or bend them?
– Do you speak up or listen first?
– Do you see the big picture or focus on details?
– Do you communicate effectively with others?
– Do you choose to have fun, even in adversity?
– Do you handle frustration well?
– Do you appreciate others’ talents or go it alone?
– Do you take responsibility or find others to blame?
– Do you respect and value teammates’ opinions?
– Do you find ways for everyone to win?
– Do you have a positive or destructive inner voice?
– Do you focus on problems or solutions?