3 Ways To Slowly Kill Any Team

Teams are a funny thing.
Teams come in all different sizes and shapes. There's the husband & wife team, the pastor & his staff team, the sports team, the executive team, the band, and tons of other teams. The funny thing about teams is that they're the greatest thing ever invented and the worst thing all at the same time. King Solomon, the richest & wisest king in Israel's history, says a team can be the greatest invention we ever experience: "Two people can accomplish more than twice as much as one; they get a better return for their labor." (Ecclesiastes 4:9) Do you agree?
If you do, you have a somewhat healthy team. If you currently don't, your team is dying or already dead. As good as Ecclesiastes 4:9 sounds and as true as it is, I find it utterly disturbing that people in any team also experience some of the most difficult days of their lives. After much reading, studying, and personal experience, I've found the 3 diseases that slowly kill any team:

1. Create a lack of focus - as soon as you enter in more than one goal/vision for the team in any given day, things start getting muddy and the unity starts fading. It's as easy as loosing sight of your particular role. And another thing, as soon as you start to confuse the style with the vision, you're going to get frustrated when someone else's style is different than yours.
   
2. Take away the element of trust - if you start to think you can't trust this person or that person, you start to think the teamwork element can't do as good a job as you can on your own. That is deadly because you undervalue the other people/person on your team.
3. Don't have any fun together - this is a sure-fire way to ensure that your team becomes seen as a responsibility rather than an opportunity. You start dreaming of how much fun you could be having with other people or if you were on another team, because let's face it, relationships are meant to be fun so if yours is not you're going to look elsewhere.

Take an inventory of all the teams you're a part of or lead. Are you letting these 3 diseases slowly grow stronger & deeper or are you able to identify them when they hit and kill them on the spot? You're never NOT going to be part of a team (unless you live in a cave) so you'd better get yours right or else your work life, family life, friend life, church life, love life, and personal life are going to be miserable when they don't have to be.