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Effective teamwork is truly an art and polishing your skills to achieve successful and enjoyable group work will never be a waste of time. Read our tips to improve your teamwork skills.
How to work effectively in a team
Sometimes teams are dysfunctional, sometimes they’re productive. Sometimes you’re there by force and sometimes you’re there by choice. Regardless of how you got there and how it has worked (or not) up to now, effective teamwork is truly an art and polishing your skills to achieve successful and enjoyable group work will never be a waste of time. Teamwork comes naturally to a lot of people, but it can also be challenging to so many more. If you’d like to work more effectively in a group, here are our top tips for teamwork:
1. Build trust and get to know each other better
When you first get together as a team, it’s invaluable to take the time to get to know each team member. Understand how they like to work, ask about their strengths and any areas they find challenging. Trust can be gained through each team member demonstrating their accountability for the work that’s assigned to them. With trust, members can feel comfortable taking risks to communicate, speak up for their position, and take action. Team members who trust each other can also share their ideas and feelings while being respectful of others.
2. Celebrate differences and diversity
Ideally, teams will celebrate and accept differences amongst their members, especially the value each one brings to the team. It’s also important to view team members as unique individuals and to concentrate on the positive attributes of each member. Everyone is different, people have different levels of experience, different backgrounds which educate their viewpoints, and knowledge from different schools of thought, and sharing these with the team can make for better teamwork.
3. Clarify roles and share the load
This idea refers back to the old saying, “there’s no I in team”. It is important that when a group first gets together, there is a team brainstorming and decision-making session to clarify roles and responsibilities.
It is important to use everyone’s different skills and to divide up tasks or responsibilities according to who would be the best person for the job. This is your time to shine as a team player because there’s probably a task you really want to do but perhaps someone else puts up their hand as well. This is an opportunity to work together equally on the task, and it will more than likely turn out better … two minds are better than one!
4. Create a safe space
Team members need to be able to communicate their thoughts, opinions, ideas and feelings clearly and openly in a positive and respectful manner. Everyone should also listen to each other and ask questions respectfully. This will lead to a healthy group climate and an effective work process.
5. Make decisions together
Decision making should be based on open dialogue with all members offering their ideas and solutions to problems. Members should have the team’s support and commitment not only when making decisions, but also when carrying them out.
6. Examine and improve teamwork processes
The team should be able to discuss team norms and what is stopping them from moving forward and progressing as a business. The team’s progress should be reviewed regularly, possibly on a weekly basis, and issues and conflicts dealt with in a productive manner. If a resolution can’t be made, then ask your supervisor for advice and help. Constructive feedback should be given, and should be focused on ideas and behaviours, being positive, and providing suggestions for improving work processes. Everyone should also help each other in developing and using strategies to achieve their goals.
7. Make time to have fun!
Fun might not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about working within a team, but being a team player should involve enjoying yourself. When people are working together and smiling whilst doing so, it often inspires trust and confidence. Team activities can often be great building blocks to improving self-confidence, and the more groups you work within the easier it all becomes.