Building Teams At Work

Team building is an integral part of any successful organization. Creating, nurturing, and motivating teams that work together to achieve common goals is crucial for success in our ever-connected world.

Building trust, understanding each other’s roles, being honest with one another, and sharing responsibilities are all fundamental team-building exercises. When done properly, it creates solidarity among teammates who depend on each other for success.

It also promotes creativity and innovation by letting people bring their High-Performances to the table and supporting everyone’s contributions. Finally, it cultivates lasting relationships built on respect and confidence.

All too often, however, we see examples where team spirit seems to have evaporated. There are frequent reports of colleagues hurting or sabotaging others, lack of cooperation, and general unrest.

If you feel like your job has become more about taking care of yourself than helping out your peers, then it may be time to look for new opportunities. Threatening situations can sometimes prompt teamwork, but only if people come together willingly and understand what they’re working toward.

Fortunately, there are several strategies you can use to help foster unity and collaboration in your department or organization. In this article, we will discuss some easy ways to do just that.

Establish a team structure

High-Performance

The second key to building strong teams is establishing a team structure. This includes deciding who reports to whom, what departments people will be included in, how many levels of managers there should be, and whether or not you have an executive committee.

Having an executive committee can become confusing when there are so many different positions in your organization. For example, if you only have one position — president of the company — then it’s easy to just make that person an executive member of the board of directors.

But what about when there are two presidents? Or three? What about all those other positions like CEO, CFO, etc.? You would need additional members of the board for each one!

That doesn’t sound very efficient to me. So, most organizations don’t include having an executive committee as part of their business model.

Develop team processes

As mentioned before, one of the biggest reasons why teams break down is because of poor processes. A process is simply how work gets done in your department or organization. For example, when someone does their part of the job well, it can help ensure that the rest of the team doesn’t fail to do theirs!

If you are ever feeling like there is no hope for teamwork anywhere, look into the process of your team. Are there any steps that people don’t seem to agree on doing? You could be breaking down the barrier by just taking away one step.

By thinking about what steps need to happen next, they may feel more inclined to take action since there is always a place for them in the process. Creating a sense of trust will also emerge as people feel like they have a say in upcoming events instead of being left out.

Teamwork isn’t something that happens overnight, but building strong processes takes time. Don’t expect instant results unless you go into this with your eyes open.

Provide leadership

As a leader, you will spend a lot of time setting goals for your team. You will want to make sure that these goals are realistic and achievable. Just because it seems like a good idea does not mean that your team can do it!

As a manager, you need to know when to be supportive and encouraging and push through challenges. You may have to tell someone that their effort did not pay off or that they could not fulfil a job requirement.

At times, you will have to call out people’s poor performance or lack of motivation. When this happens, there is a tendency to feel hurt and angry, but don’t.

This will only hold up productive work relationships and progress towards meeting objectives.

Be a good manager

As a leader, you will spend a lot of time working with people. You will do it as a team leader, coach, supervisor, or direct report depending on what level you are in the organization.

So, how can you be a great leader if you aren’t like me, always talking? I think my colleagues would agree that I talk too much!

I have also been known to ramble a little bit so don’t expect anyone to listen for very long. When I am talking, I try to use stories, examples, and questions to connect with others.

I hope you make a difference by being an honest leader and someone your teams look up to. Don’t worry about making sure everyone is doing their job well, instead focus on helping them grow.

Your success as a leader depends on how well you manage relationships, trust, and consistency. It takes more than just telling people what they want to hear but knowing when to speak up and how to motivate themselves and others.

Provide guidance

High-Performance As a leader, you will spend a lot of time giving people instructions and pushing them to do their jobs. But there an important second part of leading is providing clear guidelines or direction for how they can accomplish those tasks.

This is much more effective than telling someone what they must do every minute of every day. It creates a sense of independence and responsibility in your employees which can create a loyal team.

The guidance gives individuals the power to make decisions and move forward with their responsibilities. If someone does not know what to do, they can ask for help or find information elsewhere.

The hardest thing as a manager is finding that balance between control and autonomy. Too much control may be needed at times, but only if you can give people space to succeed.

Too many freedoms can cause confusion or negligence because no one tells people what to do. This cuts into productivity and morale.

Work with your team

As mentioned earlier, one of the biggest reasons why teams break down is because of poor communication. If you are constantly putting in extra effort to try and fix this problem, then it will keep happening until something more drastic is done.

The best way to avoid this is to simply understand what kind of communication your team needs and how to provide it.

For example, if someone on your team becomes very busy and distracted, they may not be able to maintain eye contact which can sometimes make people feel left out or even ignored.

They may also need some time off so they cannot stay in touch as easily. If these things happen, offer to help them out by keeping them informed via phone or video chat, offering to do their job for them, or even asking whether there’s anyone else they could ask to fulfil that role while they’re away.

This doesn’t mean don’t challenge them when they’re doing something wrong but high-Performance staying calm and rational will usually get better results than lashing out.

Communicate well

As mentioned earlier, team members will be depending on you to keep them informed and aware of what’s happening. You should actively look for opportunities to talk with each other about things that matter to you both.

This can include personal issues such as relationships or family, career goals, health concerns, and so forth. It can also mean business-related topics like the latest project updates, strategies, potential pitfalls, etc.

If something important is happening in one person’s life, try to make time to speak with them about it. If there’s someone who seems to have lost touch with their colleagues, maybe an informal chat would help get the conversation back onto the more professional ground.

Above all, remember that people will probably feel reluctant to tell you anything if they think you don’t care about getting the job done. So, being able to articulate how much this matters to you will go a long way in encouraging honest conversations.

Be careful not to overdo it though – too many conversations could put stress on others and burn out those you are supposed to work closely with.

Be consistent

Consistency is one of the most important things to be when building teams at work. Make sure that you are consistently showing up, actively participating in meetings, keeping your commitments, and supporting team members.

If you have something urgent that you need to get done, make every effort to find a way to shift resources or time to help you complete it.

Avoid cancelling appointments unless you have a really good reason and only use “good” reasons like if an accident happens or someone gets sick.

Don’t let personal conflicts prevent you from helping others meet their obligations- even if it means putting aside differences for the moment.

At the same time, don’t burn out yourself by carrying too many responsibilities without respite. Give yourself adequate rest and support systems so that you do not overwork yourself.

On top of all this, develop strong interpersonal skills. This will ensure that other people can depend on you and trust you to look after them.