Effective teamwork has become a prerequisite to success for most organizations today. As the world of business becomes stiffly competitive, companies are taking up all possible measures to ensure that they remain competitive in the industry. As prior mentioned, teamwork is one of the strategies that organizations are implementing today with regards to surviving the harsh market conditions.
Well, while teamwork has become an essential element of success for most organizations, team building, on the other hand, hasn’t proven to be an easy task. Most managers confuse building and creating to mean the same thing. Well, building a team is far much different from creating one. Building a team requires that members are chosen and put together based on merit. In this regard, effective team building skills are a requirement that employers must not overlook when setting up work teams. If you want to build a high-value team that is dedicated and committed, then you have to pay attention to the following elements;
Elements for Team building skills :
1) Communication skills
Good communication is the building block for an effective work team. Without proper communication there is no team. As you seek to build a high-value team, therefore, you must ensure that there is good communication within the team. This is pretty much essential as it helps make it easy to pass information, communicate project requires, give and receive feedback and also helps members develop trust, confidence, and patience in one another.
Also, excellent communication skills which include active listening skills helps during conflict resolution processes as well as contributes to addressing concerns, tackle welfare needs and also to discuss the diverse ideas of team members.
2) Leadership skills
The team leader assumes a significant role in deciding the success of a team. The leader’s behavior, attitude, and performance set the tone for the rest of the team.
Keeping in mind that the end goal is to build a team geared for maximum productivity and positive growth, the team leader must be willing to lead as a real leader should. He/she must not hide their vulnerability as this is needed to establish trust and they must fear taking risks because the rest of the team rely on the leader for the courage to also follow suit. Most importantly, the team leader must be a good communicator because, in the bottom line, all these will reflect in the overall behavior of the team.
Of importance is to note that good leadership skills encompass excellent conflict resolution skills. There has to be a healthy conflict where teamwork is involved, but even so, the team leader has to be exercise tolerance and show respect even when dealing with conflicts within the team.
The team leader must also be focused on attaining the team’s objective and goals. If the rest of the team feels as if their leader is more focused on less important issues then they too will follow suit and abandon their sole purpose.
Therefore as you seek to build a high-value team, ensure that you take into account trust, risk-taking, confidence, tolerance, and good communication because these are the critical team building skills that will help both the team and the organization achieve their bottom lines.
3) Collaborative skills
Collaboration is a prerequisite to effective teamwork. When more than one person handles a task, it comes out better than when done by a single individual; this is because the mutual effort is put into the work, ideas are exchanged, and the best ones are taken and incorporated into the assigned task. The results for will be that the project will be finished within the specified deadlines and that it will be accomplished more efficiently. As the saying goes, ‘two is better than one,’ therefore collaboration with regards to team building is very essential.
4) Innovative skills
A creative team will come up with new and better ideas cum strategies that can help an organization stay strong in the changing economic times. Any efficient and successful team ought, therefore, to be able to come up with fresh ideas, testing them and finding the right leads and resources that will help bring the ideas and strategies to full implementation.
With the pace at which times and things are changing, as an organization, you have to have brilliant and innovative work teams to help you safeguard your future.
5) Conflict resolution skills
Conflicts are bound to arise where more than one person is working on the same thing. Nonetheless, team members must be able to address these conflicts harmoniously so that they don’t create rifts among themselves. Also, so that the conflicts do not escalate into unsolvable problems that might affect the productivity of the team and consequently that of the organization.
Excellent conflict resolution skills are essential for any work team. Therefore as a team leader, ensure that you bring together a team that can work interdependently and helps improve the interpersonal skills of the other. Along the same lines, build a team that can solve problems and differences amicably.
6) Respect and appreciation
Everybody likes to be appreciated, and everybody acknowledges regard. When individual efforts are recognized and appreciated, then success becomes the order of the day. Plus, all members of the team regardless of rank have to be treated with equal regard and respect; this will make each one of them feel valued and will thus put their best efforts towards the organization’s goals and vision.
It is also of great importance when teams celebrate success especially after a project or goal has been achieved successfully. You should always reward even the tiniest accomplishment even if it’s lunch catered for just one day. Positive acknowledgment and inputs help boost a team’s morale and motivation.
So in other words, respect and appreciation have a significant place in our team building skills list. Recognize individuals’ efforts and treat the entire team with equal respect because as earlier indicated, it is these that will help build a cohesive unit that flourishes in cooperation and collaboration.
