Every organization will accept the fact that teamwork is a GOOD thing. However, you might also come across a tiny percentage of people who say, “Teamwork? Oh, such a waste of time it is!” That’s okay—no need to focus on them.
There is definitely something special about teamwork that makes it a top priority for HR and organizations. When you have teamwork in your workplace, you can
- Foster creativity and learning
- Blend complementary strengths
- Build trust amongst teams
- Teach conflict resolution skills to your teams
- Promote a wider sense of ownership
- Encourage healthy risk-taking
Knowing the value of teamwork, an organization can scale its growth multi-fold at a faster pace. Wondering how to improve teamwork in the workplace? Then, you have landed in the right place.
Here are a few tips to help you foster teamwork at your workplace:
7 tips to improve teamwork in the workplace
1. Set clearly defined goals
Being an organization, you need to have clearly thought out and well-defined long-term goals. Then, it will make it easy for every team member to work harmoniously towards the same goal with a spirit of teamwork.
You can also set variable targets and difficulties so that the team has a structured workflow. When the milestones are achieved, your team’s dedication is surely going to increase.
2. Stop micromanaging
Your teams should feel like independent, standalone units contributing to your company goals. Unless you give your teams some autonomy, they won’t be able to take charge. Instead, they will constantly look at you for direction.
Wherever possible, try to let your teams set their own deadlines, develop their workflows, and tackle obstacles. This will motivate them and also help them work as a collective unit.
3. Recognize and reward
According to a survey, recognized employees are satisfied employees. And satisfied employees will do better at work. So if you are looking for a happier, stronger team, recognition is the secret. Here are some ways to recognize or reward your employees:
- Team-wide emails recognizing individuals
- In-person praises
- Promotions
- Bonuses
- More holidays
- Recognition program for employees
4. Create a culture of collaboration, not competition
The prime objective of teamwork is to foster collaboration, but it turns into unhealthy competition. Employers often compare different teams with each other, which is not a good practice at all.
Each team has a different set of responsibilities and different skill sets. When you compare someone with someone else, you are disregarding their work and putting them down. Instead, you can hold team-building activities to improve efficiency with healthy competition.
Try refraining from any such sort of competition within your teams and try to build trust in a team.
5. Set a protocol for resolving conflicts
Nobody likes to go through the unpleasantness of conflicts at the workplace, but no matter how peaceful your company culture is, conflicts will happen.
That’s why you need to put yourself into action. You should figure out a way to deal with conflict even before it happens. If you have pre-planned everything in advance, you have the power to spin an unpleasant situation into a learning event.
Wondering how to execute it? First, hold a meeting with your trusted team members to establish a protocol. Then, once you finalize the protocol, relay this to everyone in your team.
You can also fine-tune the procedure as conflicts arise within teams.
6. Use project management tools
You can enjoy flexible working practices and better teamwork if you have the right set of tools in your toolkit. There are various project management tools available in the market which you can use to communicate and collaborate with your team members effectively.
Though emails and instant messaging (such as WhatsApp) are a great medium to keep people on the same page, you might also need to host a weekly video conference to share your thoughts through a more intimate channel. Additionally, an online screen recorder can be an invaluable tool for recording meetings or creating video tutorials to further enhance team communication.
You can find the right project management tool for your team with just a bit of research.
7. Understand the importance of good leadership
Last but not least, you need to understand the importance of good leadership skills for effective team management. Each team requires a leader who encourages accountability, models empowerment, and facilitates unbiased decision-making while maintaining momentum.
Team leaders know the most about the project, and that does not always mean they have extensive experience with leading. But, they can indeed work on their leadership skills to ensure they have better teamwork in the workplace.
Wrapping up
Studies have shown that stronger teamwork has the potential to increase employee satisfaction and decrease absenteeism. Improving teamwork in your workplace can help your organization in various ways.
However, you need to keep in mind that strong teams are not through together overnight! You need to work on how to improve teamwork in the workplace! All the best.
Autumn 