Team building rarely happens by itself. In fact, if you as a coach or team leader have not been actively working towards it, your team is likely dealing with a host of difficulties in an unhealthy way. Here is a list of common difficulties that teams face in the workplace.
8 Workplace Players that Post a Barrier to Effectiveness
- Lack of trust between team members
- Competition that goes too far
- Personality clashes that polarize
- Lack of focus, discipline, and drive
- Unequal contribution to team goals
- Disjointed individuals with different goals
- Unresolved conflicts that bring tension
- Absence of motivation and unity
Lead your Team to Strength. You need to generate ideas for team building that focus on bringing different personalities together to complement and balance each other out and work as a team. Your ideas for team building must include a good team leader who works to remove such conflicts and develops trust. The team leader provides a focus and direction to the team members and motivates them to work as team players towards the attainment of team objectives.
10 Workplace Tips to Build your Team
As you consider specific ways to resolve conflict on your team and raise a team that complements and balances each other out, implement these 10 essentials, and you are sure to see an improvement:
- Ensure Everyone Understands and Buys in to Team Goals. Ensure every team member has a clear and complete understanding- and the acceptance- of the goals of the team.
- Define Responsibilities. Make certain every member of the team has a clear understanding of who is responsible for what function. In case there is an overlapping of responsibilities and authority, depending on those individuals’ strengths and personal inclinations, divide the responsibilities into two parts, leaving each of them in complete control of each part.
- Have Honest One-to-ones. Have a one-to-one honest and open meeting with your team members to build trust. To build a good team, you need to be loyal to them if you expect the same from them.
- Provide Water-cooler Time. In a similar manner, allow your team members to build trust among themselves by providing them time to socialize. This brings in openness and improves interpersonal communication.
- Let Everyone be a Decision-maker. Let the whole team take part in the decision making process, especially in matters that affect team consensus and commitment. What you need to achieve here is that each member of the team should feel he or she has contributed towards the final decision, solution, or idea.
- Draw from Team Wisdom. The more the team member feels his or her contribution has led to the final solution; the more he or she will be committed to the line of action. This leads to better team building.
- Keep Everyone in the Loop- Always. To build a solid team, you should ensure that all team members are kept fully informed, and that there are no lines of communication that are blocked.
- Deal with Conflicts in Real Time. Do not allow interpersonal issues between team members to blow out of control. Deal with them as soon as they rear up.
- Provide Everyone Opportunities to Excel. Learn to be quick to spot team members’ strengths and capitalize on them- for both the team’s benefit and the individual’s benefit. Don’t skimp on growth and development opportunities with any team member.
- Encourage, Encourage and Encourage again. Do not always give a negative feedback. Whenever an opportunity arises, give the positive feedback and appreciate an individual team member’s special efforts. This will empower him or her to do better.
These ideas for team building, if implemented effectively, can produce amazing results and change the way your team thinks and behaves. Want more ideas on how to keep your team strong and healthy? Find out more from the Team Mantra Blog.
One Additional Tip That is Great for Team Building
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