There is a lot of focus on the characteristics of high performing teams. Lencioni tells us teams need trust, healthy conflict, commitment, accountability and a focus on results. Google's Project Aristotle prescribes psychological safety, dependability, structure and clarity, meaning, and impact. Consult any business thought leader or publication and they will have their own version of these lists.

Less considered is the leaders' behaviours that help teams to get to these features. What exactly should the leaders do to create a trusting environment, ensure commitment to team tasks and create a truly interdependent team. For teams to perform well they first need to connect and act like a united team. While as the leader you may feel that you have strong relationships with people individually, can the same be said of each person within the team with each other? For a team to be truly a team each person needs to have a strong working relationship with the others.

Here are seven things that leaders can do regularly to create a cohesive team:

Incentivize Team Performance

A common challenge with teams is that leadership talks about the importance of collaboration, whilst rewarding people individually. This encourages competition, not collaboration. Instead link rewards to team performance. You can use formal incentives such as bonuses linked to improved team performance, or spontaneous informal rewards such as days off and team outings.

Catch People Doing Things Right

Ken Blanchard popularised this in book, The One Minute Manager. While we are pretty good at spotting things that are wrong, we tend to not be so good at spotting what is right. Noticing the good work shifts our mindset to one of appreciation and helps others to know what they should keep doing.

Encourage Social Interaction

Team members are likely to be more cohesive and collaborative if they know each other on a personal basis. Facilitate social activities such as dinners, lunches and celebrations. If your team is primarily working virtually, you will need to work harder to bring the team together and connect outside of meetings.

Celebrate Regularly

Keep team members informed about plans, activities, and achievements of their team. Make sure that everyone knows how their work contributes to the success of the mission. Build team cohesion by celebrating birthdays and special events.

Be a Coach

The higher performing your team becomes, the more important it is that you adopt a coaching style as a leader. Use team and one-to-one meetings as opportunities to challenge the team to generate ideas, think critically and solve problems. Encourage the team to share problems with one another first instead of immediately coming to you for the solution.

Talk with the Team about the Team

This involves having open and honest discussions. About interpersonal relationships and group processes and how they could be improved. Your discussions could be about how the team communicates, works together, makes decisions, and resolves disagreements. Depending on the level, depending on the level of trust that exists within the team, you may need a trained facilitator. To guide you through these conversations.

Resolve Conflicts and find Common Ground

As the leader, you should be aware of interpersonal relationships within the group and any areas of tension and causes for concern to group cohesion. If it starts to interfere with the work, you may need to step in and work with the concerned parties to resolve the conflict. You should be working to emphasise mutual interests, identify shared objectives and build shared values to minimize conflict in the team.