4 Most Important Elements of Teamwork
Elements of Teamwork It’s no secret that teamwork is vitally important to your business’s success. A great team can accomplish any project and meet any goal. As a leader within your company, you’ll need to not only build a great team for your company, but you’ll need to mediate, motivate and monitor that team as well to ensure that everyone is working as a unit and contributing to a common goal.
So, what makes a strong team? We’ve got the four most important elements of teamwork to help you build a team that will lead your company to success.
Respect
This one should be a no-brainer. Your team needs to be built on respect. But this doesn’t just include mutual respect amongst team members. While that is obviously an important element of any great team, the respect shared between you and each member of your team is just as important.
The first step to gaining respect is demonstrating respect. Treat each member of your team as a valued, respected, and integral part of your company’s success. You will earn their respect in return and develop a working relationship that will benefit the team as a unit. You will also set a valuable example to your employees about how they should treat each other. This atmosphere of mutual respect will help you cultivate a company culture that produces loyal and productive employees who will feel cared for and will in turn care for the wellbeing of the company.
Communication
While respect is probably the most important element of teamwork, communication is the tool that will generate that respect. Great communication as a team leader involves consistent updates and progress reports, encouragement and validation, as well an understanding that you can never assume your team members can read your mind. In order to operate as a team, each member needs to be on the same page and have the same standards. Those standards and expectations should be communicated clearly. Similarly, the praise your team deserves for a job well done should also be clearly communicated.
Effective communication does not just refer to how you speak to your team members. It’s also about how you listen to them. It is just as important to encourage open communication by truly listening and providing thoughtful responses, as it is to communicate expectations clearly. Your team will respect your openness to their ideas, and will feel valued and respect in return.
Delegation
Teams that work well together understand and identify the strengths of each member and capitalize on those strengths. Delegation is a necessary tool to accomplish any team goal, as it allows each person to focus on a task that utilizes his or her unique capabilities, rather than having the entire team try to tackle a task simultaneously and, most likely, unsuccessfully.
It’s your job as the leader of your team to take charge of delegating work to each member, and so it is important to get to know them individually and assess their skills. Not delegating tasks to your team members can lead to confusion, inefficiency and possibly missed deadlines. Ensure the success of your team by recognizing their strengths and weaknesses and delegating the work accordingly.
Support
Every workplace has its unique challenges that present difficulties for any team. This is why it is so important to create a network of support for your team. Encourage them to support each other and demonstrate your support for their efforts as well. The bond that is formed by a supportive team can be incredibly valuable when the team encounters a difficult situation or a roadblock in the progress of their work. As such, it is a vitally important tool in continued professional development.
Support comes in many forms – encouraging words in a difficult situation, praise after a job well done, or simply understanding when someone needs to vent. Encourage your team to provide that support for each other, and make sure that you’re available to do so as well.
Great teamwork is built on a foundation of respect, which is the result of great communication, effective delegation and a solid network of support. As a team leader, it’s your job to monitor the progress of your team, and ensure that those four elements are always present and in practice.