Quote by Eric Barker of Barking up the Wrong Tree:
The secret to a team’s success lies in how the members feel about one another.
Team members have to like each other. You know it makes a difference. But this can’t matter as much as having smart people, right? Wrong. What makes smart individuals is not what makes smart teams. Another study found that what makes sharp groups is not their average IQ but the average of their social skills.
This effect is so powerful you can even quantify it. High-performance teams averaged 5.6 positive interactions for every negative one. And that may even be something of a human universal: what do happy marriages have in common? Yup: John Gottman found it was 5 positive interactions for every negative one.
There’s an old saying that “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link.” And this turns out to be very true. Research shows team trust is not determined by an average of the members; it hovers at the level of the least trusted member.
Now some are going to hear that and immediately think, “Oh, then we should get rid of all the negative people.” To which I say: WHOA, HOLD ON A SEC.
Of course, you don’t want toxic people. But this constant corporate emphasis on everyone and everything being warm and fuzzy all the time needs to stop.
Simply put: You need one team member who is not a team player.
You need a disagreeable person. Not a jerk – but somebody who says the honest thing that’s not going to be popular.
Yes, you need them. Desperately. Without the Non-Team Player, your group is a ticking time bomb of unchallenged ideas. Without Captain Buzzkill over there, you’re two steps away from group-hugging yourselves into oblivion. You need someone who’s willing to rock the boat. Someone willing to say, “This is ridiculous. We’re screwing up.”
“Oh, you’re saying we need someone to play Devil’s Advocate.” No. Wrong. Bad. Studies show playing Devil’s Advocate only works when it’s sincere. Otherwise, it becomes just another box to check, and the feedback is ignored.
You need the cranky person lurking in the corner with a raised eyebrow. They’re here to throw a wrench in the gears of groupthink. While everyone else is patting each other on the back so hard they’re performing the Heimlich maneuver, the Non-Team Player is busy saving you all from driving off the cliff of collective stupidity.
And then we have that final 10% of Hackman’s equation: what makes a great team leader?
Team Leadership
What do you think the best leaders in the US Navy are like? You’re probably imagining Captain Granite-Jaw, a leader so tough he uses a cactus as a stress ball. He’s the kind of guy who thinks that “team morale” is achieved by yelling louder.
But that’s not the case. It’s more like Captain Cheerful – the kind of officer who probably high-fives the dolphins. The Navy annually hands out prizes for efficiency and preparedness and they most frequently go to divisions with commanding officers that are supportive. Which squadrons rarely get the award? Those with leaders that are negative and controlling.
And what’s the difference between a “manager” and a “leader” – other than the latter being a lot more popular in LinkedIn bios? John Kotter of Harvard found management is about consistency and order; leadership is about fulfilling human needs and creating change. Managers keep things running smoothly. Being a leader is much harder. It’s spending your day as an unlicensed therapist, navigating through an obstacle course of egos, insecurities, and the occasional emotional outburst.
Being a leader is an informal role. In other words, you don’t need to wait for a promotion to be a leader, you just need the qualities of a leader. In fact, promotions don’t create leaders nearly as often as leadership creates promotions.
What should you do to become a better leader? Three things: develop your people skills, grow your network, and have a future focus that sets a course for the group.
That “setting a course” part is vital: “One study of more than five hundred professionals and managers in thirty companies found that unclear objectives became the biggest barrier to effective team performance.”
This can sound daunting. It doesn’t need to be. A huge part of team leadership is merely creating the right environment. Do that well and a lot of things fall into place automatically. A good team environment has 3 parts: safety, vulnerability, purpose.
Safety
Alex Pentland at MIT says the thing that’s critical is “belonging cues.” Pentland found they were the number one predictor of team performance — more predictive than intelligence, skill or leadership. So make sure everyone is getting a chance to speak. That people are paying attention to one another and making eye contact. That body language is respectful and everyone feels heard.
Vulnerability
No, it’s not easy to be as open and raw as a daytime talk show guest. But making ourselves vulnerable builds connection and trust. And research by Jeff Polzer at Harvard shows there’s a vital other side to that as well — how team members respond to vulnerability.
Admitting weakness is so powerful that it’s even done by the last group you’d ever expect to show vulnerability: Navy SEALs. After SEALs complete a mission they do what’s called an “After-Action Review.” And the words most encouraged in the meeting are: “I screwed that up.” By admitting weakness group members learn to trust, to be honest, and to ask for help. And by reviewing their mistakes they improve.
Purpose
Good leaders create a story: This is who we are. This is what we do. This is what we stand for. These are our goals.
We have done this here at Infinite Roots! Great job!!
It’s thanks to all of the wonderful people here for sharing their magick and supporting one another that it’s become such a welcoming sanctuary. Go team! 
It’s so inspiring. And there were many moments that got an amused smirk out of me. 
But I’m happy to indulge for a moment whilst sitting in the pit of my own creation. 
(There was no marshmallow emoji so fondue will have to do.)
