Teamwork makes the dream work. It’s also essential to a company’s success, providing many advantages to a business, from improving operational efficiency to providing greater learning opportunities for employee growth.
A company can have multiple teams from cross-departments to project-based groups. As an effective leader, it’s your responsibility to be able to lead the team to success. To build and nurture, motivate, inspire and guide them to achieve their goal.
There are many factors that contribute to becoming a winning team, from the people you choose to building an infrastructure to support success. This article will identify tips to create a winning team and digs deeper into the values leaders should consider when they’re assembling a team.
Hiring the right people is the most important part of building a strong team. It’s no easy task, but, if done correctly you’ll see great results. Teams should be knowledgeable, have a varied skill set, and be made up of individuals who are passionate about their position.
When selecting your team, consider the following:
Experts with diverse skill sets:
It’s important to note, that what makes a team successful is not always the hard skills that an individual possesses. A team dynamic is important, and those with strong soft skills such as communication skills or emotional intelligence are important factors to consider when selecting members of your team, as seen here. The aim is to find people that can collaborate together.
Choose passionate people:
When a team is passionate about their work, they’ll typically go the extra mile and support the company even through difficult times.
People who work without ego:
A key skill in teamwork is being able to listen to one another. People who choose to work without ego are more willing to hear what others have to say and possibly sacrifice their idea for the greater good of the team and the company. Working together with the aim of achieving their common team goal.
Those who enjoy self-learning:
Self-learning is an important value as it shows that an individual is interested in personal development in order to achieve a team's objective. Teamwork provides a great opportunity for people to learn from one another, so selecting someone that will see the opportunity will only help the team and business along the path to success.
Choose responsible people:
There may be times when a leader can’t be there. In those times, it’s important that the team is responsible enough to continue working at a high-performance level, meet deadlines, collaborate, and work efficiently.
Discipline:
Discipline plays a big role in work, it affects the delivery of tasks and reflects the team’s ability to work under pressure. This is a strong soft skill that leaders should always look out for when choosing new team members.
Teamwork is about individuals working together to achieve a common goal. As a leader, to get the most from your team, the goal should be clear - Identifying what it is and how you’ll monitor progress along the way. It may sound simple, but it’s often one of the biggest challenges teams, departments and companies face.
While the goal of many businesses is revenue growth, the team’s objectives will likely be more granular; with more granular objectives, comes a number of eventualities, decisions, and priorities. It’s therefore important for a team leader to identify the priorities and how they’ll be measured, ensuring they’re in line with the short and long-term goals of the company.
Every team has a different dynamic and culture - It’s as unique as the group of people in it. A team’s aim is for its members to gel organically, but it’s not always the case. In any business, there are behaviors that are encouraged and discouraged, for a leader this provides an opportunity to set out clear guidelines and expectations on how people will work together. Typically, the cultural values of a company come from the top, whether it’s the founder or a director of the business. But, no matter your level, the team you create will have its own unique culture based on how you lead it.
A leader’s passion and belief in a project translate to their team. Teams react to a leader’s enthusiastic energy, and so a leader’s genuine belief in an idea will foster a positive attitude among the team who are all working towards the common goal. So, as a leader be aware of how you project yourself and your leadership style, as this directly impacts the culture of your team.
Ever heard the saying, that a team is only as strong as its weakest player? There’s nothing worse than working in a group, when it feels that you’re the only one doing all the work, or others say they’ll do something, but never deliver. A team is stronger when everyone is delivering on their individual roles.
So, holding members accountable not only for their work but their role within the team is key to ensuring a positive working culture and efficient high performance. It’s important that work is divided fairly and equitably amongst team members. Leaders should look to distribute tasks based on individual skills and experience, allowing time for training where necessary. Another tip is to hold regular meetings with the team and individuals to supervise progress and support the development of tasks.
Furthermore, leaders should periodically evaluate members based on their performance to ensure the continuous development of the team. Sometimes having the necessary difficult conversations about problems that may arise and offering the support that individuals need to fulfill their roles.
Having a motivated team is the essence of strong teamwork and can be done through individual or team-based incentives. Many businesses do this through monetary rewards, from bonuses to employee of the month schemes. However, one of the most powerful and proven methods to motivate your team is through gratitude.
As a leader, showing appreciation for your team goes a long way in boosting morale. Also, having open communication and being receptive to feedback, even on your own work, shows you value their opinions and encourages a greater level of collaboration in teams.
Teamwork is essential to business success, according to John J. Murphy, author of Pulling Together: 10 Rules for High-Performance Teamwork, “Each individual has unique gifts, talents, and skills. When we bring them to the table and share them for a common purpose, it can give companies a real competitive advantage.”
So, to be an effective leader and achieve business success, you need to provide teams with a clear direction and common goal. This will then foster improved productivity, boost team morale, encourage learning, growing the skills of individual members and across the business.
