One of my top two proclivities in The GC Index® is Playmaker, which is all about orchestrating action by getting the best out of people individually and collectively towards shared goals. So, a Playmaker, by definition, is a team player and has the natural energy to galvanize relationships through building trust and a sense of ‘we’ that commits each individual to the collective good.

This is a critical attribute for any organization, enabling it to enrich people’s cohesion, collaboration, and consensus towards core objectives. To understand how a Playmaking Team impacts an organization, we’ll unpack the context and competencies of a Playmaking Team and how it enhances cohesion with other teams and cross-functional colleagues.

Understanding the Playmaker-friendly context:

Playmaking teams truly value relationships and are driven to get the best out of people individually and together. They are energized by connecting people, being the ‘glue’, facilitating discussions, and ensuring everyone contributes and is heard. As such, Playmaking teams thrive in an environment that values building community, collective impact, and collaboration and embracing the ‘human’ elements as part of that process. They will benefit from a clear vision and shared goals and objectives that they can galvanize people to work towards. Also, from being heard and able to speak up in an open environment. They will value trust, teamwork, and shared endeavor and will not do well in isolation or individualized environments.

Building upon the Playmaking team’s core competencies:

• Valuing Contributions: Playmaking teams seek to understand, appreciate, and recognize how each team member uniquely contributes value to the team. They play to each other’s strengths, complement each other for their efforts, and seek to stretch each other by balancing skills with challenges and recognition with candor.
• Building Trust: Playmaking teams value the power of each relationship and have the EQ to listen, empathize, care, and challenge, in an effective way. Playmakers seek to build trust with each other by being open, inclusive, and equitable; by clarifying each individual’s contributions to the objectives, and holding them accountable to those; and by leaning into and openly articulating each individual’s strengths, as part of the group.
• Belief in bringing the “Me” to “We”: Playmaking teams truly believe in the power of collective, shared endeavor, and purpose. As such, they will facilitate debate, build consensus, ensure people find their voice and are included in the conversation. The best among them will embrace conflict as a tool for learning and personal development, practicing negotiation and holding difficult conversations in a constructive and engaging way that is depersonalized by being grounded in shared objectives. They will also assert their views to move things forward, should building consensus start to undermine the quality of the desired outcome.

Enhancing cohesion with other teams and cross-functional colleagues:

Playmaking teams will be the ones looking to proactively build cohesion with and between other groups and teams. They will, therefore, have more success with other teams open to sharing and collaborating, engaging in debate, and valuing the broader collective. The key to this being an effective use of everyone’s time is that the inter-team/department goals are very clear in addition to how each team is contributing towards them. That will be especially important for teams used to operating independently.

Playmakers will tend to complement the other proclivities by looking to bring out the best in them, for the collective good. That is for:

• Game-Changing Teams – teasing out the possibilities they see;
• Strategist Teams – encouraging them to make sense of what’s in front of them
• Implementers – challenging them to put plans into action and make progress
• Polishers – setting the bar high and encouraging excellence

In conclusion, Playmaking teams are relationship-driven, trust-builders who orchestrate action through the power of aligning individual contributions towards collective effort.

To find out more about your team’s unique proclivities and how to get the best contributions out of them individually and together, contact us  here.