The majority of companies I work with tell me during our initial meeting that they have a great team. Their definition of “great” usually means something like being trustworthy, competent, working hard, and following the boss’s directions.

And while those are all wonderful traits to have, sometimes I smile inwardly; sometimes I am truly skeptical. Sound harsh? Well, it’s not meant to.

You’ve read it many times before: Successful companies are built by great teams who create strong cultures of excellence. But if teamwork is so important, then why are there so many average and dysfunctional teams?

Great teams don’t just happen. They're built on strengthening relationships between team members – one day, one interaction at a time.

The bad news is there are hundreds of negative forces that sabotage team health – like egos, politics, power struggles, lack of vision, or poor leadership. The good news is that it’s entirely possible to overcome these forces.

How often have you thought, “If I only had the right team I would achieve all my goals”? I know I have. Many times. There is a tremendous focus on the lack of available talent in the United States and elsewhere. We can’t find the right people for the job, and we create complex hiring practices to find the best talent for our team.

The right people are important. Yet, they aren't an indicator of future performance.

I think we could all agree that being open and honest is important in our personal lives. Our friends and our family members value it, and it helps us build relationships and establish trust with the people we care about.

And much like our personal lives, being open and honest can have a strong impact on the people in our professional lives, such as our employees, our customers, and our community.

I have already discussed how being open and honest builds the foundation of your business. Openness and honesty are used to communicate your business’s Core Values, and provide a list of expectations your employees live by.

But in addition to building a foundation, being open and honest plays a fundamental role in helping us resolve issues.

Ever have meetings where your team is stuck on a topic? Worse yet, you can feel when it’s about to happen because it’s happened so many times before.

Every entrepreneurial team experiences this during the course of growing their business. But to move forward as a business, you need to stop beating the dead horse!

At the beginning of a journey with a new client of mine, the leadership team was stuck on an issue about how to grow their service business over the coming year. Multiple members of the leadership team were passionate about different approaches, causing a seemingly endless repetitive discussion. Every time the topic came up, they started beating the dead horse again.