Often a group, department, or team within an organization develops overtime.  That is, ongoing turnover changes the shape of the team.  People leave, new people join.

Rarely does a leader get the opportunity to build a team from the ground up, selecting every member.  I have had this rare opportunity once in my career.

It was a very illuminating experience.  Each team member I selected had a chemistry with me.  Unconcious bias plays a factor in this, it is only natural and hard not to select candidates with whom you emote.

This is true even when you are carefully filtering on merit (i.e., skills and abilities).  While the team might not be widely diverse the commonality created by the selection being based on a single hiring  leader does have some benefits.

Interpersonal Chemistry

In the broadest sense interpersonal chemistry is the way two individuals relate to each other.  The term implies a positive interraction.

This is typically related to common values and personal perspectives.  These attributes are not necessarily openly communicated,  rather felt more on an emotional level.

In my experience, the team of about twenty people for which I was the single hiring manager interacted seemlessly.  The bond was largely based on the common filtering I had done resulting in a team full of interpersonal chemistry.

Putting your stamp on a team

I have often observed new  leaders forcebly turn over their direct reports, the ones they inherited, and replacie them with new subordinates  they have better chemistry with.

This practice stems from a desire to work/play with others that have “go to” behaviours that are similar.  As I have noted there is some merit to this approach, on the down side it often limits creativity and innovation to some degree.