Teamwork 101

August 10, 2010
Written by: Julie Bosche, Filed in: Workplace Productivity Programs

Trite but true, there’s no “I” in “team.”

As important as it is to treat individuals as individuals instead of grouping them into a single entity known as “staff,” it’s equally important for your employees to be able to come together for the good of the company.

You know your workers can do their jobs and do them well.

What about when you’re faced with a project that requires a group effort? Can your employees join forces as a cohesive unit to get the job done?

In any given office environment, there are many different personality types. Some of them mesh well; others, not so much.

Put two vocally opinionated people together on an assignment and you might expect some clashes of temperament to hamper the job.

On the other hand, pairing one of those employees with someone with a quieter but equally adept approach to the work at hand might result in some good ideas and input being drowned out by the stronger-willed of the two.

Not all of your employees are cut out to be friends, of course, but it’s reasonable to expect them to be able to participate in teamwork with successful results and a minimum of conflict.

It’s up to you to teach your staff members how to work well together. Doing so will enhance your business by improving productivity, boosting efficiency, and making the general office vibe more positive.

Teamwork Tips:

Make sure the goals for the project are clear and that each member of the team understands his or her role and responsibilities.

Keep communication lines open throughout the duration of the teamwork project. Listen with an open mind to what each member of the group has to offer.

Remember that the most important thing is the successful outcome of the task, not trying to make yourself look better or more productive than your coworkers.

Encourage or organize opportunities for teams to interact outside the office. Pay for the group to go out to lunch together, for instance, giving them a chance to communicate away from work.

Tags: communication, employees, job sharing, leadership, management, productivity, teamwork

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Commentary

One Response to “Teamwork 101”

Kare Anderson says:

August 11, 2010 at 8:41 am

In an increasingly connected, complex, bottom-up world, team will be jump-started by an instigator who wants to seize an opportunity or solve a problem – and that person may be inside an organization or not.

Most teamwork tips , such as these excellent ones, are slanted towards those that are created within a business and launched by a boss. To optimize an organization’s performance and keep their most talented employees, the leadership must encourage self-organized teams, give them guidelines and reward such “risk-taking.” As well, next to one’s top talent, the most vital trait to strengthen is one;s capacity to collaborate (including on teams), especially with extremely different individuals.

That means know the top methods to collaborate and the steps and pitfalls of each. As a former NBC and Wall Street Journal reporter who tracks that topic, I write about it on the blog Moving From Me to We

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