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We've all seen plenty of articles spelling out t-e-a-m using various inspiration words. While these articles do say something about teamwork, it is sometimes worthwhile to go back to the fundamentals. What is a team? What are the components of a team? There are many definitions of team, but the one that sums it up best from a business perspective can be found at businessdictionary.com:

Group of people with a full set of complementary skills required to complete a task, job, or project. Team members

(1) operate with a high degree of interdependence, (2) share authority and responsibility for self-management, (3) are accountable for the collective performance, and (4) work toward a common goal and shared rewards(s).

A team becomes more than just a collection of people when a strong sense of mutual commitment creates synergy, thus generating performance greater than the sum of the performance of its individual members.

The same pieces that make up a team in any business situation become even more important in multilevel marketing. In multilevel marketing, the team is often put together in a very short time and often consists of people that have not worked together before, don't have face-to-face contact, and are not accountable to anyone but themselves. So how do you take this group of people and make it work?

The first part of this definition talks about "high degree of interdependence." In multilevel marketing this pretty much translates into money. MLM is a system built on rewards for teamwork. A good MLM is structured so that helping people at any levels results in monetary rewards for anyone along the way. This creates a high degree of interdependence since breaking one link in the chain can have negative consequences above and below that link.

"Share authority and responsibility for self-management." Let's face it, as an upline you can only do so much. You can do the training, you can help with questions, you can set goals, but ultimately the people on your team have to actually do some work. They need to be self-motivated and willing to take responsibility for achieving their own goals.

Not only is everyone accountable for the "collective performance," but everyone benefits when that performance is high. If you fail in training or communicating with your team, the performance will suffer. If the team is not motivated or rewarded for their efforts, the performance will suffer as well. It is only when everyone works together that good things happen.

"A team becomes more than just a collection of people." The most important part of the definition may be this statement. It is also the most difficult task in a multilevel marketing. Developing a team takes effort, drive, motivation, and incentive. Of all the activities in your business, building a strong, solid team may be the most important.

Your performance as a team may be the difference between mediocre successes as an individual versus phenomenal success as a team.

T= Timing

E= Empowerment

A= Autonomy

M= Missions

Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.

Henry Ford

I am a member of a team, and I rely on the team, I defer to it and sacrifice for it, because the team, not the individual, is the ultimate champion.

Mia Hamm