Pull what, I like your thinking in posting this here.
Where I work, cabin and cockpit crew do not formally meet before on-board.
We report a fair bit earlier than the pilots. Some of them make the effort to be early and to come over to our pre-briefing area to have a chat with the No1 and No2 while we are preparing the cabin crew briefing.
I always appreciate that. They usually get the flight time and some other stuff from our papers, and it gives us a chance to get a feel for each other in slightly more relaxed circumstance than on the aircraft at boarding minus 5 minutes.
The formal, as per procedure 'briefing' from cockpit to cabin is done on-board. The pilots arrive, dump their bags at the door, trawl around the aircraft to shake everybody´s hands. Then the captain gets back to me, I give him a list of names and positions of the cabin crew, with a copy for each of the other pilots.
Captain then tells me about the expected wx and whatever else he/she feels like sharing.
I already know about the wx, the expected slot, the weirdo pax, the problems with the cargo and at what stage the fueling is from my own papers, from the gate agent, from my walkie talkie chat with the platform boss and the fueling guy.
But that doesn´t matter. For me, the chat/briefing between captain and senior purser is not really about facts-exchanging. It is much more about assessing each other, trying to establish what type the other person is, what kind of leadership the captain will provide, can I be trusted to run the cabin in a competent manner? What are our mutual levels of experience on type and in our current role. How formal and procedure oriented is the other person; stuff like that.
I have learnt that best flights overall are the ones where the captain, like you say, emphasises the team aspect.
We (should) all know the facts, the procedures and the importance of an on time departure. What we need for a really good and safe flight is to trust each other, to feel comfortable sharing information across the door barrier, to know that we will back each other up in whatever way needed should the cr@p hit the fan.
When I get the feeling that the captain is comfortable in his/her own skin, when I feel that he/she has confidence in my and our ability to do a good job, when he/she makes me feel that it´s important we do this together; that´s when I start a fight feeling good, and usually end it that way as well. Whatever happens in between chocks off and chocks on.
I am no judge of a pilot´s airmanship, but I have learnt that good communicators who both demand respect for their own job and accord the cabin crew respect for ours, often make great captains to work for.