How to build strong teamwork
We often hear about the topic of improvement of work efficiency in an organization by means of team building. There are many success factors. A team leader needs to develop a clear procedure for team building and persuades and motivates team members to realize the importance of team building rather than just saying how much a good team can benefit the organization. The team members need to know that how they can benefit from their team. This is a team building technique that Susan M. Heathfield, a Human Resources guru, mentions in About.com Human Resources. She explains what it takes to have a good team.
Having a clear objective: A leader with a clear vision will communicate and express the team’s expectations, tell the team members why they have to build a team, be determined to reach the goal, and support the formation of the team.
Assigning tasks to team members: All team members have to get involved with the team, know the essential mission that they have to carry out, and realize that their performance is valuable. Due to the fact that employees at all levels want to be recognized by their boss so the boss has to show them that their skills are useful to the team. Competent team members will be excited whenever they have to deal with challenging tasks.
Team competency: Apart from realizing the strategy, which is the big picture, what you have to give importance to should include competency, knowledge, skills, including problem-solving skill, of the team members, which should match the tasks assigned. Selection of the right team members is considered more important than selecting competent people to work together because in one team, there must be the leader, the follower, the thinker, and the actor to fit the different roles.
Cooperation: Every team member has to understand the process of how a team works and realize that there must be disagreement when people work together. The most important thing is that the team members must understand the rules and their duties and responsibilities. How about the team leader? The team leader is responsible for taking a close look of problems encountered, solve such problems, assess the task with the team members, and participate in decision-making process to find the most appropriate solution.
Creativity: If your organization needs changes. Such changes must come from creative ideas and innovations. There should be rewards for employees with innovations or creative ideas. Meanwhile, there should be activities to motivate other employees to become thinkers. Such activities could be training or access to new books or movies.
Unity: A team will become one if it comprises a good leader who knows how to lead and team members who understand the work processes as well as customers’ needs. If there is a question from the customer, every team member must be able to answer such question or give proper explanations. If so, the team will overcome outdatedness easily.
Ready to accept changes: Every organization has to change because it must keep up with the changing world. You cannot stay at the same place or in the same team all the time. One day, you will have a new team leader or become a leader of someone. Thus, it is necessary to get ready to deal with changes. A team member must be ready for new team leader or to become a team leader all the time. As for a team leader, the most important thing to prove that you are successful is that your team members love you. Your business may grow and you may be accepted by outsiders, but without acceptance of your team members, there is nothing.