Like all technology businesses, IT Services Companies are expected to demonstrate a capability to understand business problems and provide suitable IT Solutions in all their client engagements. They have to continuously go beyond stated problems and envisage intelligent solutions. This inevitably puts a lot of premium on talent and individualism. However, ideas and solutions are not everything. Effective execution of them is equally important. This involves people with different skill sets, temperament, and proficiency in working together in concert as a team. Individual goals have to be subsumed to team goals here.

There is always this very delicate interplay between individualism and team work, the seemingly disparate elements. They are delicate in the sense, that quality of individuals and cohesion of the team tremendously impact the quality of the outcome. They are disparate in the sense that promoting one oftentimes is at the cost of the other.

Building solid cohesive team of highly talented individuals is however the key to success in IT Services business.

There is more than one ways of building a cohesive team. What has really held us in good stead so far are the following fundamental tenets:

1. Respect the customer and business: Without the business there can be no individual or team glory. Individuals and teams must always look holistically at serving the long term interest of the client and, in turn, the business. Ingenuity and good intentions are meaningful only if they are able to deliver substantial business benefits to clients at the right time, consistently. The individuals must therefore act with due diligence and ingenuity and at the same time engage with other individuals with the best interest of the client in mind. Teams and individuals should be judged and rewarded on the basis of results delivered to client.

2. Respect the individual: The team is as good as the individuals in it. There should be a culture of openness and fairness wherein people are encouraged to be assertive in the interests of the client, business, and the organization. There should be a lot of accent on continuous intellectual growth of the individual to fight against mediocrity and complacence. Organization structure and hierarchy should work towards harnessing and channelizing the collective intelligence of the organization the right way, rather than stultifying individual creativity and motivation in the name of teamwork. While respecting individualism, people should also be sensitized towards civil and courteous behavior. Intelligence should not be confused with arrogance and vice versa.

3. Build leadership: Good leadership acts as a cohesive force that binds the team together and deliver extraordinary results. Conversely, bad leadership is a disaster waiting to happen. There are numerous theories on building leadership. But emotional intelligence is very important in making a leader successful.

He or she should be able to understand the strengths and weaknesses of the team mates. He should treat each member equally and fairly without any trace of bias. He should make it clear to the members that any unnecessary politics within the team is unappreciated. It’s important to recognize leadership and mentor people become good leaders so that they create an inspired and achieving workplace.

The author is Founder President and CEO, Nous Infosystems. He can be reached at ajith@nousinfo.com