Top Nine Tips for Better Teamwork and Team Building

Team building and teamwork skills are critical for your effectiveness as a manager or entrepreneur. Even if you are not in a leadership role yet, better understanding of teamwork can make you a more effective employee and give you an extra edge in your office.

Team building success is when your team can accomplish something bigger and work more effectively than a group of the same individuals working on their own. You have a strong synergy of individual contributions. But there are two critical factors in building a high performance team.

The first critical factor of a 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 your situation.

1. Make sure that the team goals are totally clear and completely understood and accepted by each team member.
2. 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 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.
3. For issues that rely on the team consensus and commitment, involve more the whole team in the decision making process. For example, use group sessions with collective discussions of possible decision options or solution ideas. What you want to achieve here is that each team member feels his or her ownership in the final decision, solution, or idea. The more he or she feels this way, the more likely he or she is to agree with and commit to the decided line of action.
4. Make sure there are no blocked lines of communications and you and your people stay fully informed.
5. Build trust with your team members by spending one-on- one time in an atmosphere of openness and honesty. Be loyal to your employees, if you expect the same.
6. Allow your office team members build trust and openness between each other in team building activities and events. Give them some opportunities of extra social time with each other in an atmosphere that encourages open communication. For example, in a group lunch on Friday.
7. Be careful with interpersonal issues. Recognize them early and deal with them till full resolution.
8. Never miss opportunities to empower your employees. Say thank you or show appreciation of an individual team player’s work.
9. Do not limit yourself to negative feedback. Be fare. Whenever there is an opportunity, give positive feedback as well.

Finally, though teamwork and team building can be challenging, the rewards from high team effectiveness are well worth it.
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We hope that you have learned betters ways to build your team. When you are looking for team building programs, contact us through 09158959515.

You may also contact us through inspire@jefmenguin.com

 

Top 7 Teamwork Skills

Teamwork is one of the most effective things you can teach your employees because it effects things like productivity, work environment, and communication and much more.

Here are the top 7 skills team members should develop so that they can succeed effectively as a team:

1-Listening: There is a time to talk and a time to listen and the time to listen comes twice as often as the time to talk. We can often find ourselves so concerned about what we have to say that we never really hear what the person is saying. Instead of focusing on what they are trying to convey we are thinking about what we are going to say next, in which time we’ve missed their entire point.

2-Sacrifice: Each team member has to evaluate what they are truly willing to sacrifice and then continue to be willing when the time comes that they are asked to sacrifice it. It could be everything from time, to resources, to positions of power.

3-Sharing: What one person knows maybe the key to another person’s problem. We have to be willing to share those keys even when it will make someone else look better.

4-Communication: when there are problems or successes a team has to be willing to communicate effectively what went right and wrong. It is important to analyze issues that you have in a project or as a team but it is also important to analyze your successes.

5-Language: It is so important that you have an established habit of speaking in an uplifting way. If you are at all demeaning or domineering or insulting it will grind the team to a halt. People will still be willing to sacrifice, share and discuss just not with every member of the team. Meaning that the team just became rivals.

6-Hard work: Team members have to be willing to work hard on an individual basis and then turn that hard work over to the team so that as a whole you can make your work meaningful and achieve a greater goal.

7-Persuade: Everyone should be encouraged to exchange, defend and then eventually rethink their ideas. You have to love your idea but

Teamwork takes individual work for a collective good that ultimately increases the good everyone receives. These skills are a basic list but that will help you start now to be a better team with greater success. You won’t master them all in one day but take every opportunity you can to practice them and they will help.

About The Author:

Bart Icles writes for TRU Talent Management – helping aspiring actors for almost a decade. Currently, they do talent management in Salt Lake City, Utah and Las Vegas, Nevada. info: http://www.trutalentmanagement.com..

Team Building Tips

Team building is not something that is accomplished in a single afternoon. Team building is an on going process who’s results will become apparent through time. It will take the effort of all individuals to develop into a efficient and successful team. With the mixing of many different personality, styles, and preferences obstacles are sure to arise so it is important that one is able to learn how to resolve any difficulties and take preventative steps to avoid any complications. The following are some team building tips to assist you in being part of a unified team.

• Take pride in your team’s accomplishments.

• Create a positive working environment by avoiding personal attacks/grudges communicate any problems with the person directly in a civilized manner.

• Believe in yourself and your teammates.

• Leave individual pride/ego out of it and put the team first.

• Understand that you are not limited to succeeding as a team but that you can fail as a team as well.

• Focus on positive aspects of your teammates, don’t get hung up on negative aspects, you probaly have many negative aspects as well.

  Tips for Team Leaders

• Lead, don’t boss people around.

• Be flexible open yourself up to suggestions and new ideas.

• Give credit to your team, don’t hog all the glory for yourself.

• Award team achievements

• Involve everyone, try not to leave anyone out.

• Give praise in public and correct in private.

Ten Teambuilding Tips

By: Joyce Weiss

Will teamwork bring in more clients and keep the ones you’ve got?  Yes!

People who work together may develop the dreaded “Who cares?” disease.  Highly infectious, it slowly erodes all the good efforts that a few excellent workers produce.

However, it’s reversible if you take immediate action.  Start with these 10 tips:

1.        FIND OR CREATE A TEAM LEADER

Great teams don’t just happen. They are carefully and purposefully built by a team leader.  Get someone to take charge – whether it’s the manager or anyone interested in group leadership.

2.        DEVELOP GOOD COMMUNICATION

Now that the team leader is in place, call the team together.  Focus on how individuals can improve skills and finances and help the company grow – only possible by working together.

3.        FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR COMPANY NEEDS TO BE SUCCESSFUL

Every winning business starts out with a purposeful, short-term and long-range plan.  Decide what the company goals are for the next day, week, month, and future.

4.        ASSESS THE STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES AND NEEDS OF THE TEAM

When you know who is good at what, it’ll be easy to assign tasks to team members in order to reach the goals.  Assign accordingly!

5.        AGREE ON TEAM RULES

Successful teams have written rules which they develop themselves.  Start with these helpful ones: Tell a person when you don’t agree, don’t talk about people behind their backs, and never be late for trivial reasons.  Your team will get the idea after a few examples.

6.        SUPPORT THE TEAM—EVEN WHEN THERE’S CONFLICT

It’s easy when everybody gets along … the real test of a team is when there’s disagreement.  If team members learn to mediate differences of opinion, then you know you have an effective team.

7.        ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY AND RISK-TAKING

No one wants to make a mistake, especially if coworkers are going to be punitive.  However, only those who are willing to fail will be willing to try new things.  Team members need to support creative ideas, learn from the ones that don’t succeed the first, second, or even tenth time, and try again.

8.        GIVE POSITIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACK

I never met a person who started the day by saying, “I think I’ll be terrible at work today.”  Nearly everyone wants to be liked and accepted.  If the team keeps this in mind, it’ll become natural to give positive and helpful feedback.  People will want to contribute to a team that recognizes their strengths and offers to help with weaknesses.

9.        MOTIVATE THE TEAM

People are motivated by what they want.  It could be money for me, but a trip to a resort for somebody else.  So how do you find out what makes a person happy?  Just ask them!  Compile a list of rewards, and let the team know how they can win them.

10.       LEAD BY EXAMPLE

If you don’t follow the team rules, but expect everyone else to, eventually they’ll stop, too.  If you’re critical, expect your team to be that way.  If, on the other hand, you arrive early, take on more than your share, help out, and are supportive and positive, you’ll be modeling the kind of behavior that you want your team to display.

An empowered team can do what others thought was impossible – get started today!

What Are the Stages of Team Development

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Guide

Traditionally, a team goes through five stages of development. Each stage of team development presents its own special challenges to a group of people striving to work together successfully by forming a cohesive team. The team and the organization can take specific actions at each stage of team development to support the team’s success in accomplishing the team mission.

• Forming: a group of people come together to accomplish a shared purpose.
• Storming: Disagreement about mission, vision, and approaches combined with the fact that team members are getting to know each other can cause strained relationships and conflict.
• Norming: The team has consciously or unconsciously formed working relationships that are enabling progress on the team’s objectives.
• Performing: Relationships, team processes, and the team’s effectiveness in working on its objectives are synching to bring about a successfully functioning team.
• Transforming: The team is performing so well that members believe it is the most successful team they have experienced; orEnding: The team has completed its mission or purpose and it is time for team members to pursue other goals or projects.

Not every team moves through these stages in order and various activities such as adding a new team member can send the team back to earlier stages. The length of time necessary for progressing through these stages depends on the experience of the members, the support the team receives and the knowledge and skill of the team members. These are the twelve specific factors that must be present for a team to succeed

Tips for Better Team Work?

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Guide

Question: Tips for Better Team Work?

Answer:

Have you ever wondered how some work groups exhibit effective team work and others remain dysfunctional for the life of the team? Effective team work is both profoundly simple and difficult at the same time. The factors that affect success in team work occur both within the team itself and in the work environment in which the team must function.

These ten tips describe the environment that must occur within the team for successful team work to take place. Successful team work is the cornerstone for creating functioning, contributing teams.

Keys to Successful Team Work

• The team understands the goals and is committed to attaining them. This clear direction and agreement on mission and purpose is essential for effective team work.
• The team creates an environment in which people are comfortable taking reasonable risks in communicating, advocating positions, and taking action. Team members trust each other. Team members are not punished for disagreeing.
• Communication is open, honest, and respectful. People feel free to express their thoughts, opinions, and potential solutions to problems. People feel as if they are heard out and listened to by team members who are attempting to understand.
• Team members have a strong sense of belonging to the group. They experience a deep commitment to the group’s decisions and actions.
• Team members are viewed as unique people with irreplaceable experiences, points of view, knowledge, and opinions to contribute.
• Creativity, innovation, and different viewpoints are expected and encouraged.
• The team is able to constantly examine itself and continuously improve its processes, practices, and the interaction of team members. The team openly discusses team norms and what may be hindering its ability to move forward and progress in areas of effort, talent, and strategy.
• The team has agreed upon procedures for diagnosing, analyzing, and resolving team work problems and conflicts. The team does not support member personality conflicts and clashes nor do team members pick sides in a disagreement. Rather, members work towards mutual resolution.
• Participative leadership is practiced in leading meetings, assigning tasks, recording decisions and commitments, assessing progress, holding team members accountable, and providing direction for the team.
• Members of the team make high quality decisions together and have the support and commitment of the group to carry out the decisions made.

If a team can get these ten factors right, success and a rewarding sense of team work will follow.

What’s Your Leadership Bailout Plan?

The financial markets are crashing. Big named banks are folding. Bailout and stimulus plans abound. Today, it’s more important than ever for effective leaders to show their ability to lead their teams through tough times.

No question about it, we are facing one of the worst economic situations in history. Today’s financial crisis has been compared to the Great Depression, and the outlook for the near future doesn’t look better. People are losing jobs, and those who haven’t are waiting for the other shoe to drop.

What is your “leadership bailout plan” to help motivate and inspire your team through this serious downturn?

In times like this, leaders need to assist others to reassure them that things will get better and to solidify trust. This is not the time to bury your nose in the work and disregard the hallway chats that may seem like unproductive complaining. Leaders need to be change agents and treat this situation as if your company has just been taken over, rallying the troops and moving forward with confidence. The impact of this global economic situation can not be undermined, leaders must become more like coaches and teachers than continuing on like drill sergeants and business-as-usual.

For most over-achieving leaders that are Type A’s, this can be a difficult task. You need to throw out the old adage of “when the going gets tough, the tough get going” because this assumes that everyone left standing is grounded enough to persevere forward. Usually this is not the case. Often, the ones left standing are shell-shocked and shaken to the core and have the greatest need for reassurance.

Now if you hear yourself saying things like “they’ll get over it,” “come on, suck it up,” “there’s no time to lose,” you will need to find some patience and compassion to get you through these challenging times. The time you spend on building rapport and reassurance will reap long term benefits. As John C. Maxwell says, “leaders walk slowly through the crowd.” They may get to their goal a bit slower, but they will have their whole team with them when they get there. These are times where you can’t afford to get to your goal alone; you need to bring every single person on your team along with you.

During times of economic upheaval, it takes time to rebuild trust within your organization. Trust will improve the speed in which results can be achieved over the long haul.

Leaders can reassure their teams and rebuild trust with transparency and vulnerability.

Transparency Rule #1:
Repeat your strategy for growth (and repeat it often). Show how, even with the changing tides, your strategy is still relevant and will get the results you and your team need. People want to succeed and bailout plans require leaders to instill confidence and trust in the plan.

Transparency Rule #2:
Hear your team’s concerns. What are the barriers and concerns holding them back? Are they right? Are there areas where the strategy and approach is not realistic? Hold back judgments about their concerns. Listen and consider their input before reacting or changing anything.

Transparency Rule #3:
Go deeper, if needed. Isolate individual needs and concerns that may be impacting the overall team. Be curious about the troubles impacting people. You don’t know what may be taking up energy in their lives…perhaps a spouse has lost a job, or an elderly parent is putting additional financial pressure on their family. Listening and caring, without solving, is usually all that is needed to get someone back on track more energized than before.

Transparency Rule #4:
Separate facts from fiction or hearsay. When times get tough, there is a lot of speculation. People create and retell stories based on interpretation and perspective. Now is the time to nip this in the bud and get the real facts out before rumors get out of hand.

Transparency Rule #5:
Own up to the bad news. Treating people as adults with frankness and respect is critical during tough times. If there is another shoe to drop, be frank and let people know what is forthcoming. Provide as much information that is possible and keep communication coming on a regular basis. Transparency of communication will help ensure trust and minimize further speculation.

While you are being transparent with the realities of the business, it is a good practice to do it in an authentic way. Authentic leaders are real and are able to build trust in a greater way than those who aren’t perceived as authentic. Be in touch with your vulnerability to ensure that you are speaking authentically. Use these three ideas to help you be more vulnerable with your teams.

Vulnerability Idea #1:
Share your views and concerns. Leaders don’t have to have all the answers. Showing teams your humane side is an important skill for gaining connection and trust with your team.

Vulnerability Idea #2:
Tell a story. Stories help people retain messages. Stories also reveal different parts of us. Tough times require better connections with others.

Vulnerability Idea #3:
Share a time when you felt concern about the future. Having a leader admit to difficult times can be reassuring to others. Highlighting your learning can help others relate to their own challenges.

These tough economic times are frightening for us all, and even the most effective leaders are feeling uncertain about the future. The key to getting through this challenging period is to demonstrate compassion, vulnerability and transparency and by reassuring your team that things will get better.

Laura Lopez is a performance strategist, leadership specialist and branding expert with more than 20 years of corporate leadership experience. Most recently, Laura Lopez was a vice president with The Coca-Cola Company. Laura’s book, The Connected and Committed Leader, is available via her Web site at http://www.laura-lopez.com, at your local bookstore or on Amazon.com. As the owner of her own business, Laura helps companies and business associations achieve more sustainable business results through the power of leveraging diverse talent with effective leadership and branding. She is available for speeches, workshops and customized programs. Laura can be contacted via her Web site at: http://www.laura-lopez.com

For Better Teamwork – Answer Six Key Questions

Using teams to solve problems and manage processes has become common. Although some teams deliver amazing results, many bog down in a quagmire of unresolved issues.

To prevent teams from becoming yet another forgotten management fad, time and energy needs to be focused on building effective teams. To begin the improvement journey, ask your existing teams the following six questions.

1.  What is the team’s purpose? It should be easy to see and important to the organization. Measurable performance objectives help determine whether the team’s purpose justifies the resources it will consume.

2.  What is the team’s plan for accomplishing its work? A successful team has a plan for reaching its objectives. It also has the discipline required for sticking to the plan and the wisdom to know when it needs to flex with a changing situation.

3.  What resources does the team need to complete its work? Teams without the resources to do the job, die slow and painful deaths. Great teams know what resources they need and make sure they have access to them when they are needed.

4.  What is expected from each team member? The organization has expectations for the team. Team members have expectations of one another. Effective teams talk about these expectations to make sure everyone clearly understands what is expected and agrees to accept responsibility for delivering on those expectations.

5.  How does the team make decisions? Teams are faced with hundreds of decisions. A successful team has figured out how to best make decisions and is consistent in making them. Throughout the decision-making process, the team skillfully manages the conflicts that inevitably arise.

6.  How do team members feel about being a part of this team? It is exciting to be part of a successful team. If the team lacks this energy and excitement, it is wise to go back and reexamine the answers to the first five questions.

Although there are more questions that could help predict a team’s probability for success, these six will start the team off in the right direction. If team members seriously consider the answers to these questions, they will find many improvement opportunities that have the potential of helping the team reach performance levels beyond anyone’s wildest dreams.

Tom LaForce is a speaker, meeting facilitator, and team development expert. He writes extensively about ways to strengthen teamwork and improve organizational effectiveness at his website, http://tomlaforce.com

How to Increase Team Member Commitment for Successful Teams

By Susan M. Heathfield, About.com Guide

The depth of the commitment of team members to work together effectively to accomplish the goals of the team is a critical factor in team success. The relationships team members develop out of this commitment are key in team building and team success.

You need to answer a series of questions to assess the commitment level of team members to work on a team.

• Team Choice: Do team members want to participate on the team? Do they perceive that they had a choice about working on a particular team?Tapping into an employee’s commitment is much easier if they are participating by choice. When possible, I recommend voluntary team participation. On all social teams and work teams that are ancillary to an employee’s core job, employees should choose to participate.

  Even participation on a mandatory team garners more commitment when the employees on the team are empowered to set direction, establish goals, and make choices.

• Work Is Mission Critical: Do team members believe the team mission is important? Are members committed to accomplishing the team mission and expected outcomes?Team members want to feel as if they are part of something bigger than themselves. They need to understand where their team mission falls in the bigger organizational scheme, the overall leadership vision. Team commitment comes from team members knowing the expected outcomes and where the outcomes fit in the whole organization’s strategic plan.
• Team Members Feel Valued: Do team members perceive their service as valuable to the organization and to their own careers? A double win is accomplished if team members find themselves valued by the organization and also receiving ancillary benefits. These can include growing and developing their skills and career by participating on the team. Making new contacts and perhaps, finding new mentors who are committed to their growth is a plus, too.
• Challenge, Excitement and Opportunity: Are team members excited and challenged by the team opportunity? If so, the chances of their commitment to the process and the outcomes is magnified.
• Recognition: Does your organization have a track record of providing recognition for successful teams and their projects. Almost everyone likes some form of recognition. Make sure recognition is available at successful milestones, too.

Pay attention to these areas and to the additional recommendations in all of the components suggested for successful team building. The more you can foster the appropriate environment for team success, the better your teams will perform, and they will wallow less in dysfunctional behavior.

7 Ways to be a Better Team Leaders

Leading a team on the face of it looks really easy. In reality it can be extremely challenging. As well as having the eyes of your boss and peers looking at how you are performing, you have to deal with all the different personalities and characters in the team you lead.

Given these pressures, it would be easy to crack and really struggle as a team leader. Yet in truth there are things that you can do to become a better team leader. So what are 7 things that you can do to become a better team leader?

Increase your self awareness

If you are going to lead a team effectively, you need to have a high level of self awareness. Being self aware is not about identifying all of your faults but about understanding your motivators, your impact, what you do well and where you struggle. When you are armed with these insights you start to build your team from really strong foundations.

Be clear about what is to be delivered

Every team exists for a reason and ultimately it is to deliver some result or contribution to business results. As the team leader, you need to understand totally what is expected from the team and be able to effectively communicate it to other team members.

Involve others

Imagine there are two teams. In the first team all of the ideas, ways of working and plans are developed by the team leader and imposed. In the second team, the team leader fully involves team members in coming up with ideas, creating plans and deciding how to achieve them. Which team do you think will deliver most? As the team leader, focus on involving others more.

Have an effective decision making process

Every team member might not agree 100% with every decision that is taken but on the other hand they will find procrastination even more frustrating. Make sure that for significant team decisions there is a clear process and criteria for reaching decisions so that things keep moving forward.

Don’t ignore the deficiencies

It is incredibly difficult to deliver results through a team if you have deficiencies in terms of resources, skills and expertise. At the same time, it can be incredibly tempting to make do, especially if you know that the organisation is facing challenging times.

Don’t fall into the trap of ignoring deficiencies in the hope that they will go away. Tackle them so that you keep progressing.

Encourage and support others

It is so easy to forget just how difficult it was when you were doing something for the first time or operating in a new set of circumstances. Some just deal with this without any problems while others will have crisis of confidence. As the leader, make a point of encouraging and supporting others through the good and not so good times.

Remember to recognise team effort

It never ceases to amaze me just how few leaders take the time to recognise the efforts and contributions of the team to deliver. If you are someone who falls into this category, do something to create a habit of looking out for good things that the team has tried or done and acknowledge them for their efforts.

Bottom Line – Becoming a better team leader is a career long learning process. So what steps can you take to become an even better team leader?

I invite you to sign up for my free audio e-course at http://www.goalsandachievements.co.uk/ Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements (G&A) works with professionals, teams and organisations to develop their management and leadership capability. With 25 years business experience in a range of sectors, he understands first hand the real challenges of managing and leading in the demanding business world.