You Win in the Locker Room First: The 7 C's to Build a Winning Team in Business, Sports, and Life

Chapter 5Connect

Team beats talent when talent isn't a team.

Communicating and Collaborating Leads to Connection

Jon Gordon

A great benefit of communicating and collaborating is that they develop connections between you and your team members. Communication begins the process of building trust, collaboration fosters this process and enhances relationships, and this leads to stronger connections between team members. This is crucial because when you have stronger connections, you have a more committed and powerful team. A connected team becomes a committed team.

The more I have worked with teams over the years, the more I realize that connection is the key to becoming a great team. And a lack of connection between team members leads to below-average teamwork and sub-par performance and results. Connection is the difference between a team that thrives and one that and crumbles. One of the biggest complaints I receive from coaches is that their teams aren't connected. They have a bunch of young men or women who usually focus on themselves, their personal goals, their social media followings, and their egos. They usually have family and friends telling them they should be playing more, scoring more, or getting more recognition. The message they receive from the world is that it's all about the individual, not the team. It's about me, not we. This creates a disconnect between personal ...