From Me To Us Whats Stopping Teamwork

From Me To Us Whats Stopping Teamwork When the business lingo is filled with one-liners that promote the importance of teams, from ‘there’s no I in the team’ to ‘together we can do so much’, it’s fair to say that companies are not given any chance to forget about their teams. Nevertheless, just because you insist on calling your employees a team doesn’t mean that they feel and behave like a team at all. When the full-length teamwork quote that you’ve put on the office wall doesn’t make it happen, then it’s time to review your team strategy. Indeed, contrary to the common misconception, the most common obstacle not teamwork isn’t the team itself. It’s the way the company fails to make it happen. From your internal processes in place to the way you manage your employees, you could inadvertently be counterproductive. Are you the one stopping teamwork in your company? Here’s how to find out. Is it even part of your process? Ultimately, if you haven’t established collaborative habits in the workplace, it’s unfair to blame your employees for failing to work together as a team. Using open communication tools to improve the dynamics of your teams cross-company can help people from different department to exchange knowledge easily and smoothly. Tools such as Slack or Trello, for instance, create a sharing platform for everyone. It’s a behavior that you need to support by showing the example first; namely, you need to remain approachable and encourage an open atmosphere so that ideas can circulate without any hierarchic barrier. As a manager, your role is to offer transparency and guidance in this instance. Ultimately, if company-related information can’t travel from you to the team, you can’t expect the team to favorize collaborative processes. Do people know and trust each? At the core of a team, there’s the ability for employees to trust each other. Transparency and fair treatment from all managers can help to create an atmosphere where people are not competing against each other but working together. But, you’ll find that for newly established teams, team building activities can make a great deal of difference in bringing everyone together. Through games, such as by creating multiple teams to compete in a playful environment you can help people to develop their individual bonds and trust. Additionally, there’s always a motivation with these games. Namely, there’s the prospect of winning the awards for the best team building effort. Favorites are racing games and treasure hunts. Do you praise the team? Giving praise is important when your employees perform positively. Praising is your way of recognizing efforts, and it’s not the kind of thing you can substitute with paychecks. Nevertheless, when praising teams, it’s essential that you consider the while team efforts instead of one individual. Success is never the result of one single person’s work. Failing to identify this basic truth in your praises can lead to demotivation and lack of team consensus. Additionally, you’re at risk of creating conflicts within the team and pushing people against each other for the sake of recognition. Ultimately, the question is whether you’re a team-aware manager. It’s your role to help the team to come together and perform. So, make sure to become the catalyst for the team and not the element of disruption.