Our top tips to build your teamwork skills November 1, 2017

One of the things that leaders are often pondering is the performance and relationships of their team. Performance indicators show that effective teams will almost always outperform people working individually, particularly in high-pressure situations or when multiple skillsets are needed.

Good teamwork helps to build morale in the workplace, which makes workers more productive and ultimately improves profits. For organisations that have excellent teamwork, problem-solving is easier – since people with different skills and knowledge will work together to produce a creative solution.

There are two critical factors in building a high performance team.

The first critical factor of teamwork success is that all the team efforts are directed towards the same clear goals, the team goals. This relies heavily on good communication in the team and the harmony in member relationships.
The other important element is the diversity of skills and personalities. When people use their strengths in full, but can compensate for each other's weaknesses. When different personality types balance and complement each other.

Here are some additional team building ideas, techniques, and tips you can try in most situation:

Establish leadership. If your employees trust your judgment, they will work effectively even when you’re not around. Before you can start team building, you need to develop the right kind of leadership skills. This doesn’t mean asserting authority, instead try to foster trust through honesty and transparency. Especially in larger organisations, managers can’t be everywhere at once, but if your employees trust your judgments they will work effectively even when you’re not around.

Make sure there is complete clarity in who is responsible for what. Do your best to avoid overlaps of authority. For example, if there is a risk that two team members will be competing for control in a certain area, try to divide that area into two distinct parts and give each more complete control in one of those parts, according to those individual's strengths and personal inclinations.

Ensure communication is open, honest, and respectful. People feel free to express their thoughts, opinions, and potential solutions to problems. Make sure people feel as if they are heard and listened to by team members who are attempting to understand. Encourage team members to ask questions for clarity and spend their thought time listening deeply rather than forming rebuttals while their coworker is speaking.

One of the best ways to build solidarity in the workplace is to give formal recognition for employee achievements. One of the best things to do is to praise your employees for excellent teamwork. If an individual goes above and beyond their role to help the organisation as a whole, ensure that they feel appreciated for their efforts. Also remember to appreciate employees who go out of their way to help others in need, even if this doesn’t correlate with business goals. Showing gratitude for altruistic behavior is an excellent way to create an awesome, friendly culture. When you have a workplace where people are rewarded for helping one another, teamwork will naturally improve. Recognition can come in the form of kind words from a direct manager, or perhaps a photo in the company’s internal newsletter with a description of the achievement.

Make the team constantly examine itself and continuously improve its processes, practices, and the interaction of team members. Help the team openly discuss team norms and what may be hindering its ability to move forward and progress in areas of effort, talent, and strategy. As a team hold review meetings that assess the team's process and progress in approaching and accomplishing the team mission.

Don’t Micro-manage. If you treat your employees like children who can’t be expected to work like unsupervised adults, don’t expect them to work together like an effective team! In order for teamwork to flourish, respect is required. It’s important to specify goals, set deadlines and give employees all the tools they need to perform to the best of their abilities, but when you micro manage, employees will be less inclined to work effectively and more inclined to do what’s required to please their direct manager. Even if an employee is fully committed to the organisation, they will never perform to the best of their abilities if they have someone breathing down their neck.

Finally, you can begin officially establishing your team through creating team values and goals, as well as evaluating team performance alongside individual performance. Be sure to include your team in this process, so they know what’s required and agree with it. Team building is one of the most important responsibilities a manager has. It isn’t something that can be achieved in a short time and then forgotten. It is an ongoing organic process that you will have to facilitate and guide. As this process unfolds, however, your team members will begin to trust and support one another and share their skill sets and effort in order to more effectively complete your organisation’s goals.

Thinking of improving on your teamwork skills through team building training? Read more about our team building training course and contact us to find out more about the team building courses we offer.