teamwork

(https://hr.berkeley.edu/hr-network/central-guide-managing-hr/managing-hr/
interaction/team-building/steps)

The first rule of team building is an obvious one: to lead a team effectively,
you must first establish your leadership with each team member. Remember
that the most effective team leaders build their relationships of trust and
loyalty, rather than fear or the power of their positions.

 Consider each employee's ideas as valuable. Remember that

there is no such thing as a stupid idea.
 Be aware of employees' unspoken feelings. Set an example to
team members by being open with employees and sensitive to their
moods and feelings.
 Act as a harmonizing influence. Look for chances to mediate and
resolve minor disputes; point continually toward the team's higher
goals.
 Be clear when communicating. Be careful to clarify directives.
 Encourage trust and cooperation among employees on your
team. Remember that the relationships team members establish
among themselves are every bit as important as those you establish
with them. As the team begins to take shape, pay close attention to the
ways in which team members work together and take steps to improve
communication, cooperation, trust, and respect in those relationships.
 Encourage team members to share information. Emphasize the
importance of each team member's contribution and demonstrate how
all of their jobs operate together to move the entire team closer to its
goal.
 Delegate problem-solving tasks to the team. Let the team work
on creative solutions together.
 Facilitate communication. Remember that communication is the
single most important factor in successful teamwork. Facilitating
communication does not mean holding meetings all the time. Instead it
means setting an example by remaining open to suggestions and
concerns, by asking questions and offering help, and by doing
everything you can to avoid confusion in your own communication.
 Establish team values and goals; evaluate team performance.
Be sure to talk with members about the progress they are making
toward established goals so that employees get a sense both of their
success and of the challenges that lie ahead. Address teamwork in
performance standards. Discuss with your team:
o What do we really care about in performing our job?
o What does the word success mean to this team?
o What actions can we take to live up to our stated values?
 Make sure that you have a clear idea of what you need to
accomplish; that you know what your standards for success are going
 to be; that you have established clear time frames; and that team
members understand their responsibilities.
 Use consensus. Set objectives, solve problems, and plan for action.
While it takes much longer to establish consensus, this method
ultimately provides better decisions and greater productivity because it
secures every employee's commitment to all phases of the work.
 Set ground rules for the team. These are the norms that you and
the team establish to ensure efficiency and success. They can be
simple directives (Team members are to be punctual for meetings) or
general guidelines (Every team member has the right to offer ideas and
suggestions), but you should make sure that the team creates these
ground rules by consensus and commits to them, both as a group and
as individuals.
 Establish a method for arriving at a consensus. You may want to
conduct open debate about the pros and cons of proposals, or establish
research committees to investigate issues and deliver reports.
 Encourage listening and brainstorming. As supervisor, your first
priority in creating consensus is to stimulate debate. Remember that
employees are often afraid to disagree with one another and that this
fear can lead your team to make mediocre decisions. When you
encourage debate you inspire creativity and that's how you'll spur your
team on to better results.
 Establish the parameters of consensus-building sessions. Be
sensitive to the frustration that can mount when the team is not
achieving consensus. At the outset of your meeting, establish time
limits, and work with the team to achieve consensus within those
parameters. Watch out for false consensus; if an agreement is struck
too quickly, be careful to probe individual team members to discover
their real feelings about the proposed solution.

10 Simple and Effective Team-Building Strategies

Uniting employees means a decreased turnover rate, an increase in employee
happiness, and better workplace relationships. By Andrew Moran

https://www.careeraddict.com/improve-teamwork

There is an old adage in human resources: “People don’t leave companies; they
leave managers”.

In today’s ultra-competitive labor market, where young professionals are job-

hopping more than ever before, good management is essential. Without it, your
company’s turnover rate will remain high, and this could ultimately impact your
bottom line — US businesses alone lose about $11 billion a year from employee
turnover.

In the absence of effective leadership, you breed a toxic work environment.

Productivity levels diminish, teamwork is nowhere to be found, and communication
between departments doesn’t happen. These trends in the workplace do not exactly
elicit confidence in young people entering the workforce.

The first step is to establish your role as the leader of the ship. The next step is to
improve teamwork in your company at all levels, from management to entry level.
Only then can you ensure that your employees are happy with the manager, content
with their colleagues and pleased with their jobs.

Here are 10 simple and incredibly effective team-building strategies to help you
improve teamwork — and boost morale in the process.

1. Adopt an open-door policy

Over the years, multiple studies have found that employees feel as though their
company’s HR department doesn’t listen to them, that management doesn’t
acknowledge their hard work, and that the boss doesn’t respect them. This can be
incredibly frustrating, especially if workers are doing their best day in and day out.

A simple but effective strategy is to adopt a companywide open-door policy. You

want every employee to feel heard and part of something meaningful, and you can
achieve this by:

 communicating with your team on a regular basis

 listening to various ideas and concerns
 updating personnel on corporate changes
 taking action should a staff member report harassment.
It is crucial that you embrace clarity and refrain from being ambiguous and vague.

2. Set boundaries and give direction

Many businesses are experimenting with a diverse panoply of office dynamics to see
what works and what doesn’t. A common trend that some new entrepreneurs and
enterprises are trying is a business without management and bosses. It may
generate headlines at first, but these companies inevitably flounder because every
office needs a leader.

Let’s be honest: most employees need to be given boundaries and direction. Without
these two pertinent elements, the team will not produce or achieve corporate goals.
At the same time, you can still extend guidance with respect and consideration.

“If you want everyone to accomplish their best job, they must understand the overall
picture and the direction you want to take the organization,” says Jeremy Clifford, the
founder and CEO of RouterCTRL. “Organize your team around a shared objective,
mission, or vision. Set milestones along the way so that team members can see how
they're doing.”

By outlining objectives, being more transparent, providing consistent feedback, and

leading by example, you can help your team stay motivated and focused.
Jess Munday, the cofounder and People & Culture Manager at Custom Neon, also
notes that employees need to be aware of the big picture and what the organisation
is working towards. By setting out common goals and objectives, they can feel
valued and also be assured that “company values align with their own”.

3. Be transparent
Transparency is an essential ingredient when you’re working towards creating an
effective team. Unfortunately, this is rarely the norm in most organizations, which
tend to withhold information from their staff while the senior managers call the shots.

“Managers sometimes strive to defend information with zeal because they intuitively
believe knowledge equals power,” says Clifford. “Information is actually designed to
be shared when it comes to a team. The team will not progress without the correct
knowledge and a precise, common aim.”

If you want your team to share common goals and objectives, then you’ll need to let
people in on the company’s aims too. Your team’s feedback should always be a
considerable element in every decision-making process.

4. Manage sensibly

A 2014 survey of employees discovered that 59% of workers have been employed
by an overbearing, domineering, micromanaging boss at some point in their
professional lives. There is nothing more stressful and frustrating than working with a
micromanager who doesn’t trust their staff to get the job done. It, therefore, comes
as no surprise that one-fifth of employees are displeased with their manager — after
all, no employee enjoys having their boss look over their shoulder the entire
workday.

This needs to change immediately, and it starts by motivating, encouraging, trusting

and empowering your workers. This is done by laying out ideas, lending a hand from
time to time, taking a step back, and allowing your employees to work in their own
style and at their own pace. If you make a conscious effort, then you will be
rewarded with a dedicated and confident workforce.

5. Gamify work
It may surprise business owners, but employees are more motivated by recognition
and appreciation than by monetary rewards. In other words, if you acknowledge the
individual’s hard work, determination and punctilious nature, the employee will be
incentivized to take that extra step. This is sort of a gamification inside the
workplace.

One important feature of gamification is to provide instant feedback, which is

something that experts say that today’s generation of workers require. When you’re
considering gamification, you need to further install the social experience because it
spurs healthy competition, keeps workers engaged, and allows staff members to
continually learn and hone their craft.
Perhaps it is time to incorporate gamification in your management techniques. It is
indeed a creative way to enhance teamwork.

6. Organize a corporate retreat

Did you know that leaders have fun, too? It isn’t all just business. By maintaining a
stuffy environment, you potentially risk minimizing bonding between your
subordinates. And this isn’t something you want to achieve, because an indifferent
team affects the dynamics of your office.

The best way to facilitate interoffice relationships is to go on a corporate retreat. For

years, offices have utilized offsite team-building activities to enable trust,
understanding and likeability among colleagues. Everything from participating in
sporting activities to partaking in a philanthropic initiative, there are many events that
you can take advantage of in your city, or at least in your region, that can help you
cultivate teamwork.

You don’t even need to travel into the woods to have a corporate retreat. An
inexpensive event is to have some downtime at the office. Meetings, deadlines,
appointments — these can produce stress and anxiety, but giving everyone some
free time can organically allow your staff to converge and talk about the latest Netflix
show, play a game of Gin Rummy or even learn about each other.

7. Give employees autonomy

Why do we fall? To learn to pick ourselves up. Legendary economist Milton
Friedman may have said it best: an economy works best when we have the freedom
to try, the freedom to succeed, and the freedom to fail. This also applies to the office.
Trial and error is a strategy that should not be avoided, but embraced. After all, if you
don’t experiment and try something new, then you can’t flourish.

A great managing method is to give your staff some level of autonomy on any
project. By extending this independence, you’re highlighting your trust in each and
every one of your employees. Sure, some workers will experience hiccups, but
others may take the ball and run with it, helping the company develop a new scheme
or gain some market share over competitors.

Munday emphasizes that employees “need autonomy to grow and innovate, without
being fearful of repercussions if things don't go to plan, and they need to feel heard,
inspired and motivated”.

If your workers are walking on eggshells and they’re afraid to stray away from the
book, then the status quo will reign supreme. You don’t want that, especially in
today’s ultra-competitive global economy. Take a chance on your staff, and they will
take a chance on you.

8. Solve team problems

Will all coworkers work in harmony? That’s wishful thinking. Unfortunately, no matter
how many team-building exercises you implement, there will be at least two
employees who can’t work together, either because of professional differences or
clashing personalities. It’s hard to manage, but it’s possible.
Clifford cautions not to “expect issues to go away on their own. When a slight
problem arises, individuals often overlook it, hoping that it will disappear. However,
most minor concerns grow into large issues over time. When you notice a problem
forming within your team, move quickly to address it before it becomes a bigger
issue.’’

The rudimentary solution to solving team problems is mediating the situation. It is up

to you as an owner or head of HR to sit down, air out grievances and resolve
personal issues. By getting these petty differences out of the way, the group can
concentrate on what matters most: getting work done.

In the end, it comes down to communication on your part, making compromises with
the group, and knowing how to respect each idea, recommendation or personality.
Mediating is all about actively listening, not ignoring concerns and complaints.

9. Invest in training
Development and training opportunities are not just a great way to help your team
sharpen their skills and expertise. They are also fundamental for building rapport
among team members.

Attending trainings — whether they’re directly related to the industry and role, or
broader and more centered around general team-building — will help your staff
develop more trust, which will in turn allow them to work more effectively together.

However, before signing up your team for any trainings and team-building activities,
make sure that everyone is on board and that they will be able to get something out
of this by ensuring that the aims of the training align with your team’s own objectives.

10. Utilize available resources

In order to set up your team for success, you must use the right tools and resources.

Whether that is a collaboration platform that helps remote teams communicate

better, or project management software that allow people to keep track of each
other’s progress, it’s important to invest in the right resources.

A good way to determine what is currently needed is through a needs analysis and a
feedbacking session with members of staff. By allowing your team to contribute their
ideas and share their insights with you, you’ll be able to ensure that everyone is
equipped to undertake their duties and work as part of a team.

Final thoughts

As you can see, employing effective team-building strategies can be done with the
right leadership. The modern crop of entrepreneurs and managers do a great job of
ensuring projects are completed on time, the right marketing campaign is released,
and the books are balanced. However, many corporate heads fail to build up the
team, whether it’s 10 employees or 100 employees. If you become a real leader,
then you will have your workforce behind you through thick and thin.