Being part of a great team is vital to business success – not only this, it builds a healthy workplace culture and increases employee satisfaction. Also, a cohesive team often produce far greater results than individual efforts alone. However, even the most skilled teams can experience difficulties, whether that’s infighting, poor communication or low engagement, all of which can erode the chances of a thriving team. If effective teamwork fails to happen naturally, it can leave managers and employers stuck on how to work through this issue.
Here are 7 straightforward strategies that can be implemented immediately to encourage and generate teamwork within your business:
- Lead by example
By treating your own role, responsibilities and relationships with co-workers the same as you’d want others to, they will be inclined to do the same. Leading by example can help you to achieve effective communication, strong results and keep the business moving forward.
By role modelling the desired behaviours yourself, it can also help you to appear more trustworthy to your team and build mutual respect. It is integral that team members not only trust each other to perform their roles effectively but also their manager, who they entrust to guide them in the right direction.
- Encourage open communication
By encouraging open communication in your business, your employees will feel comfortable to share their ideas, speak openly, and voice their opinions.
It is important to remember that communication is two-way, employees should feel as if their opinion matters and that their thoughts are being heard by colleagues and management.
Alongside this, it is vital to set aside time for your team members to get to know each other on a personal level, which will also help to create trust and respect, as well as mutual understanding. Get people talking, whether this is by organising an after-work team get-together or making an effort to eat lunch together at least once a month.
- Define roles and responsibilities
Each member of your team should have a clear understanding of the role and the responsibilities they have within it, as well as being aware of other people’s roles within the team to help reduce any confusion and minimise potential conflicts.
There should also be set processes in place for working on team projects, including mitigating any setbacks, providing feedback and keeping up with communication.
- Minimise conflict
It is common for there to be conflict within a team at some point, which could arise for a number of different reasons, such as communication breakdown, personality clashes, etc.
How conflict is managed within the team should be made clear, explaining what team members should do if they have an issue, how they should handle it and who they should report this to. By making this clear from the beginning, it can help to resolve negative situations quickly to help the team move on and maintain a healthy working environment.
It is also important to get regular feedback from the team to identify any current issues. The team may not have mentioned any issues as they are hoping that the issues will resolve themselves over time; however, it’s optimal to address issues as soon as you become aware of them as problems could become bigger over time, creating divisions in the team.
- Maintain the balance
Although different members of your team will be working on different tasks, do your best to ensure that everyone has similar workloads and that there isn’t one single person who is bearing the brunt of the work on a regular basis. One of the main advantages of being in a team is being able to work together to share the workload during busy times – this includes the manager too. Don’t be afraid to get stuck in and practise what you preach.
- Avoid micromanaging
Although it’s important for your team to meet regularly together and with their manager, it’s imperative that you avoid micromanaging. Ensure that you give your team the time and space they need to work without feeling like they’re being watched – micromanaging stifles all creativity.
- Give feedback
Employees should regularly receive frequent, honest feedback from their managers and from each other. Recognising when team members have done something well will boost confidence and morale and will encourage your team to continue their good work when they can see their effort is appreciated.
For more information on how to improve teamwork in your business, get in touch with us today by calling 01437 721879 or emailing Indira.Das@developmentco.com.
