7 Team Building Tips for Employees
A team is a group of individuals that work collaboratively to achieve a common purpose or goal. Team building is a process of developing individual contributors into a cohesive team. Good teamwork has proven to significantly improve productivity, reduce intrateam conflict, creativity, innovation and, gives members of the team an opportunity to network, perceive other’s styles, preferences. All these factors result in strengthening team building tips for employees commitment and greater returns on investment for the organization.
Following are a few fundamental team building tips for employees
1) Make team building a part of culture
Teamwork and team building practices must be made a part of the organizational culture by tying it into the practices, norms and policies in the company. This ensures that all teams in the given organization place teamwork at high priority and prevents subcultures of bad teamwork from taking root in the workplace. The success of this strategy adds to the company’s brand equity and can be used during hiring.
2) Set clear goals and clarify context
The manager or leader must guide the team in understanding the roles and set the specific short term and long terms goals at the start of any project. Setting the context and having clarity is also essential to promote collaboration and prevent role ambiguity.
3) Leadership
The team leader or manager bears the responsibility of guiding the team building process which does not only include team building training’s that can be coordinates with the HR or external consultants, but also continuously establishing norms and monitoring the progress of the team in terms of cohesion.
4) Maintain team charter
The team must collaborate to establish short term goals, deadlines and discuss dependencies on other team members. This is possible only when the roles are clearly communicated by the leader while taking into consideration each member’s strengths and preferences.
5) Communication and networking
Effective communication amongst the team members and with the leaders, supervisors is essential to the functioning of any team. It aids the achievement of goals while also helping the members establish a good professional network.
6) Collaboration and interdependence
Effective communication in a team goes hand in hand with collaboration and ensures that tasks that have interdependence between team members will be completed without glitch due to unnecessary conflicts. The three concepts form a triad that form the foundation of good teamwork.
7) Psychological safety
When the vision is shared within a team, goals are set, and the tasks are divided, each member of the team holds team holds a share of responsibility within the project. The team must establish a culture of shared responsibility that promotes learning and innovation where individuals are not opposed to taking calculated risks and are not held solely responsible or reprimanded for the same. This level of teamwork is especially of high priority for high performing teams.
Conclusion
Promoting teamwork and team building in an organization empowers its teams and employees to function at an optimal level. This promotes creativity, collaboration and innovation that allow any organization to progress and keep their competitive edge in the industry while surpassing competitors. Imbibing team building into the organizational culture will result in continuous growth and guarantee a good return on investment.
