Importance of Teamwork in the Workplace
The Advantages and Benefits of Building an Effective Teamwork in the Workplace and Team Building Techniques
What is teamwork? According to Andrew Carnegie, teamwork is the ability to work together toward a common vision and organizational objectives. He further stated that it is the fuel that allows common people to attain uncommon results.
An effective team is able to reach a goal faster and easier because of the collective efforts. Everyone within a team has a specific role to perform for a common goal but at the same time each person is jointly responsible for the overall result.
Each person in a team has his strengths, skills, views and experiences and when explored and combined will produce ground breaking ideas. Working as a team promotes good interaction, creativity, trust, comradeship and support. Being in a team helps a person value time management, becomes accountable and helps him understand that healthy competition is good.
An effective team of employees benefits any organization because they will participate in the organizational goals instead of just going after their individual objectives. Employees who have a sense of belonging in an organization help the company by improving productivity and commitment and reducing absenteeism and turnover.
Building Teamwork in the Workplace No. 1 - Understand Organizational Goal
For an individual to perform well in a team, he must know, understand and see the goal of the organization. In addition to knowing what the goal is and why it is important to the organization, an employee must also know the dateline to reach the goal and the action steps he has to take.
Building Teamwork in the Workplace No. 2 - Understand Role and Objective
When the goal is set, everyone in the team will know his role, assignments, his direction and how his performance will be measured. He will be able to link his personal objective to the organizational goal. And when everyone in a team has a role to perform, there is a balance in workload distribution and avoid unnecessary ill feelings.
Building Teamwork in the Workplace No. 3 - Teamwork Activity
Team building activities such as games and sports will improve the team's relationships, rapport, performance and trust. In addition to activities for team building, trainings and workshops that will help the team improves problem solving, communication, negotiation and conflict resolution skills are very useful.
Building Teamwork in the Workplace No. 4 - Importance of Effective Communication
Encourage regular discussions, meetings and brainstorming sessions so that everyone has a chance to talk, offer his views and get the right message across. Communicating among team members also help each learn from the other and remind everyone of the goal. And a leader, manager or boss must allow a two way communication and be a good listener so that he can receive feedback, correct course, avoid miscommunication, improve productivity, gain respect and establish a trust relationship.
Building Teamwork in the Workplace No. 5 - Instill Trust
When there is trust among team members and their leader, it creates a positive environment to work. Employees are more willing to care and share, put personal feelings aside and encourage participation. They become more focused, are able to help each other work on their strengths, overcome the weaknesses and cheer one another.
Building Teamwork in the Workplace No. 6 - Measure Progress
It is important to measure the progress of the team and each individual regularly. It helps the team and the organization become aware of how much they have achieved or are slacking, solve existing obstacles or problems and take action steps to improve or advance.
Building Teamwork in the Workplace No. 7 - Practice Empathy
Everyone in the team and the leader must practice empathy. If an individual in the team isn't performing as expected, find out the reason. Avoid being judgmental. There is always a positive intent in a person's behavior. Assist by listening to his problem to understand his situation and offer suggestions to overcome it.
Empower and Encourage
Every employee needs acknowledgement for his efforts and the motivation to continue to reach the organizational goal. A leader should praise the team's creativity, diligence, commitment and resourcefulness.
Reward and Recognition
Combined individual efforts produce a winning team. Offer rewards to the team when it has accomplished the organizational goal. This will promote and encourage future cooperation among the team members. And to encourage healthy competition, reward any individual for his special contribution.
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