A powerful shared vision is essential for effective teamwork. It’s critically important to recognize that your teams do not hit the starting line being of one mind or sharing a common sense of purpose. Anything you try to do in business (or in life) that involves working together with others will sooner or later require you to deal with five issues. Start your team off right by working them out up front before tackling anything else.

1. DESIRED RESULTS—What is it we’re trying to do? What outcomes do we want—both quantitative and qualitative—and by when?

2. GUIDELINES—What are the parameters within which we’re trying to do it? What are the essential values, policies, legalities, ethics, limits, and levels of initiative to be aware of in going after the desired results?

3. RESOURCES—What do we have to work with? What budgetary, system and human help is available and how do we get access to it? What constraints are we facing and what obstacles will we need to overcome?

4. ACCOUNTABILITY—What does success look like? How do we measure what we’re doing so we’ll know when we’ve achieved it? What standard criteria will we use to show progress in obtaining the desired results? Will they be measurable, observable, or discernible, or some combination of the three? To whom are we accountable? When will the accountability process take place?

5. CONSEQUENCES—Why are we trying to do it? What are the natural and logical consequences of accomplishing or not accomplishing the desired results?

The two most important reasons for addressing these five issues from the start are:

1. Team members cannot interact efficiently with one another if they are not clear about where each person stands on these issues.

2. Team effectiveness is severely limited when you have to spend most of your time trying to repair, redefine, or resolve problems related to expectations and support of one another (a typical result of not dealing openly with the point mentioned above).

Achievement is measured only in terms of what we actually do; not what we talk about doing. At the start of the day it’s about possibilities, but at the end of the day it’s only about results! Most people spend more time talking than doing; successful people “talk” less, and “do” more.

Whether you’re working solo or as part of a team, a lifetime of personal and professional success can be had using this simple approach:

THINK. LEARN. DO. EVALUATE. SHARE.

We all want things from our lives and work. To be successful in achieving them, it isn’t necessary that we want the same things. It is only necessary that we:

1. know what we each need,

2. share that information freely and honestly,

3. habitually discipline ourselves toward accomplishment, and

4. commit to helping one another learn, accept, and achieve whatever each person needs to take away from the experience in exchange for the effort contributed.

“Shared vision” is your master key to team success. You’ll often see management attempt to implement this within the organization by developing a vision statement, publishing and communicating it to employees, then seeking to help employees collectively “see” the path to be followed. Eventually, they will start to wonder why nothing has changed. And, they will have completely missed the point about what it means to “share” a vision. Don't let that happen to you.

Download more free career tips and advice at http://www.smartstartcoach.com Career advancement expert and mentor Linda M. Lopeke is a leading authority in how to succeed on the 21st century workplace and the creator of SMARTSTART Mentoring Programs Success-to-go for people working @ the speed of life!