1. Create the right chemistry. Talent alone won't guarantee success. Start creating that winning chemistry by seeking balance in the people you put on your team. You need leaders, but you also need followers.

Helpful: A superstar can help you win, but only if he/she meshes with the rest of the team.

2. Have a mission, and communicate it. If everyone on the team knows exactly what you want and expect from each of them, they will be better able to focus on what's important and more likely to excel. Too many managers aren't sure what they want to accomplish. In nearly every case, such confusion lays the foundation for underperformance.

Helpful: Put your mission into words -- the simpler it reads, the better. Then, let every member of your team know it so everyone can work toward achieving it. Whatever your mission, you must believe in it... and your belief must show when you communicate it to your team. When you communicate from your heart, other people know it. They will be touched by your honesty and your integrity. They will make your mission their mission.

3. Be visible, and be available. There's a leadership style called managing by walking around, and I believe in it wholeheartedly.

Helpful: Let the people on your team see that you are involved, accessible and close to the action. Talk to them. Visit the work site. Ask questions. Build relationships. When you make yourself that visible and available, you put yourself in an incredible position of leadership.

4. Be flexible and adaptable. The one constant in life is that everything is always changing. If you can't adapt as a leader -- and adapt as a team -- you can't succeed.

Helpful: Don't get locked into rigid thinking. Welcome change. Keep yourself flexible enough to deal with change as it comes along. "Two words to avoid are always... and never."

5. Be a great delegator. The hardest thing for successful men and women to do is delegate responsibility. It gives them great satisfaction to do it all, and they think it limits the likelihood of error and poor judgment. But unless you learn to delegate the thinking process to your team, you won't have a team.

Helpful: Your business will never grow, and your career will never flourish, if you do it all yourself. Your team will never reach its full potential until you let go of the reins and give your people the right to think and take initiatives.

6. Take conflict, controversy and criticism in stride. In business, conflict and criticism can come our way every day. You have to make your skin tough enough so that conflict and criticism don't interfere with your mission of winning. Don't let anger, hostility in others or criticism of you cause you to lose sight of your mission.

   Helpful: Many corporate leaders end up in endless battles among team members. That's a mistake. The role of a leader is to remove the conflict, not pump it up by taking sides. I find that it is best to deal with conflict immediately. Don't let things fester -- small issues can erupt into turmoil later on.

7. Make a commitment to self-mastery. If you can't remain focused, you can't expect it of others. Ultimately, building your team and making it great comes down to controlling yourself. "The only kind of discipline that lasts is self-discipline," says former National Football League coach Bum Phillips.

Helpful: What is self-discipline all about? Self-discipline comes down to what Indiana University basketball coach Bobby Knight teaches...

• Doing what needs to be done.
• Doing it when it needs to be done.
• Doing it the best it can be done.
• Doing it that way every time you do it

When you apply these principles to any facet of your life and share them with your team, great things will really start to happen. It truly is magic! To help get you and your team going strong, we are offering the following assessment with options for a tailored team program with debrief and strategy setting coaching sessions.