With this in mind, here are five team-development strategies that you can implement to improve effectiveness, teamwork, and collaboration within your business. Here are four strategies you can focus on that will help your teams achieve greater results. You should focus on developing your teams, to use their successes and strengths to reach your goals and objectives as a whole. By outlining objectives, being more transparent, providing constant feedback, and leading by example, you can help keep your team motivated and focused. [Sources: 1, 13, 16]
Similar to setting clear, defined goals, transparent communication also helps both the leader and the team members to more successfully focus on the job at hand. Transparency and open communication are essential for building effective teams. While every individual has slightly different communication needs and styles, communicating is necessary to build an effective team. [Sources: 4, 8]
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The key to creating an effective team is much more about the way members communicate, rather than the technologies used. Building an amazing team requires knowing what each member brings to the table. [Sources: 9, 14]
Building a high-performing team involves more than simply throwing together a bunch of talented individuals at random. Building a powerful team requires leadership that provides the team with the environment for growth together. To foster teamwork, leaders should give everyone on a team clear objectives and goals. [Sources: 3, 7, 10]
By delineating responsibility beyond concrete tasks, and thinking of the roles in a team holistically, the team can maximize individual members’ talents, all the while becoming one unit that can accomplish great things. Several ways to achieve team cohesiveness and cohesion as a group can occur, and these strategies for building teamwork involve brainstorming sessions between the members and manager, experience-based training, and visioning and defining a team’s core team members. [Sources: 5, 12]
Team building is all about providing the skills, training, and resources that your people need to be able to work together harmoniously. Team-building strategies can help you build a vibrant, collaborative team that accomplishes tasks fast, efficiently, and with as little friction as possible. When leading a team, having strategies to build an enjoyable workplace is helpful. [Sources: 7, 9, 16]
Whether it is at your place of business, in professional sports, or your local community, team-building requires an acute awareness of individuals, their strengths, and what makes them excited to work with others. Understanding people’s differing needs, and helping them get to know one another, can create a happier, more trusted team. It is OK if your team does not eventually become best friends outside of work, but getting to know everyone is still beneficial. As your team begins to form, take careful note of how your team members are working together, and take steps to enhance communication, collaboration, trust, and respect in these relationships. [Sources: 6, 9, 11, 14]
In a professional environment, team members need to know that others will keep promises, maintain shared goals, step up when challenges arise and keep communications open. Trust is critical for building healthy communications between team members, and for feeling comfortable taking the right risks and showing vulnerabilities. For teams to thrive, leadership must maintain transparency and trust, so your teams stay invested in the missions of your organization and keep contributing wholeheartedly with their time, energy, and talents. Remember, the most effective team leaders cultivate relationships based on trust and loyalty, not fear or power from their positions. [Sources: 2, 5, 7, 11]
Team leaders can lead by setting a good example, constantly asking their employees for feedback, and practicing self-awareness, showing they care about their teams’ well-being. Leaders can foster better communication by including team members in key organizational issues and including employees’ opinions in driving strategies. Leaders have a major role in developing teams, whether that is setting standards of accountability, facilitating communication, or mediating conflicts. If the leader observes a team member who exhibits qualities like–focusing on the team’s goals, building engagement in the group, helping others improve their skills, managing conflicts, eliminating obstacles, and providing opportunities to others without seeking personal credit–they should give the individual a leadership role in the group. [Sources: 2, 4, 5]
Leaders must be adept at using one another’s strengths and weaknesses to assign each team member the defined role they are best suited to. Leaders can ask team members to practice their roles (champion, creator, implementation, and facilitator) through activity-based interventions to help them further stretch their skills and see how their roles relate together. [Sources: 2]
By making sure that team members engage in shared activities and experience one another’s strengths and weaknesses, organizations are working toward a cohesive group, with every team member encouraged to work with others and toward a shared team and organizational purpose. Team-building strategies help create an environment in which employees feel empowered to perform at their best. Smart strategies and thoughtful implementation offer proven methods to co-operate with groups and build healthy relationships, and they can provide a useful road map for leaders looking to enhance team spirit and organizational effectiveness. [Sources: 7, 12]
From setting clear agendas to finding personalities who are going to fit, there is an opportunity to strategically invest in harmony and performance when choosing who to bring on your team. One of the most powerful strategies to do everything from building a shared mindset to managing conflicts is to unite your team around a shared goal. The goal of building a team is to strategically bring together individuals who have the varied set of skills needed to complete a particular project. [Sources: 0, 16]
Meetings do not have to hinder productivity or waste time, but teams still should get together regularly to touch base, check progress and goals, bounce ideas off one another, and create awareness about what each member is working on. Along with setting up clear roles, set up a set process of how the team works through the project, handles failures, talks with one another, and provides feedback. Just as you must be responsible for your actions to ensure that you are maximizing productivity and results, you must take time to know your team and foster camaraderie. [Sources: 6, 15]
Achieving self-awareness of your strengths, limitations, motivations, and tendencies will help you contribute more effectively to your team, taking up tasks you are most qualified to do, and eliminating behaviors that inhibit your ability to accomplish shared goals. Team development strategies are essential to ensuring that dynamic teams thrive. [Sources: 5, 13]
Sources:
[0]: https://blog.discinsights.com/5-strategies-for-team-building
[1]: https://www.careeraddict.com/improve-teamwork
[2]: https://cmoe.com/glossary/team-building-interventions/
[3]: https://blog.vantagecircle.com/effective-team/
[4]: https://healthcaremba.gwu.edu/blog/5-teambuilding-practices-that-lead-to-organizational-success/
[5]: https://calipercorp.com/blog/10-effective-team-building-strategies/
[6]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/glennllopis/2012/10/01/6-ways-successful-teams-are-built-to-last/
[7]: https://teambuilding.com/blog/team-building-strategy
[8]: https://www.acb.org/content/strategies-team-building-jessie-rayl
[9]: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMM_52.htm
[12]: https://www.managementstudyguide.com/effective-team-building-strategies.htm
[13]: https://www.jobsoid.com/team-development-strategies/
[14]: https://www.gavelintl.com/9-strategies-effective-teambuilding/
[15]: https://smash.vc/teamwork/
[16]: https://www.paychex.com/articles/human-resources/4-team-building-strategies-effective-orgs
