Many managers always wonder to create powerful team building activities. According to recent statistics, it has been proven that an effective team will most likely out-perform individual workers. As we said in this article about work inspiration, According to Gallup, approximately 85% of employees say they are not engaged or are actively disengaged at work. Not good at all.
The effective team has more advantage over individual workers especially in high pressure or multiple tasking situations. It is every leader’s dream to increase productivity of their team but no matter how hard you try, you only get it together for a few days. Team building requires more than just dedication to teamwork, or building different people with similar interest. You might have stayed up all night coming up with this perfect speech for your team but then, going out to address your team members’ turns out less effective than planned.
>> Recommended reading: Leadership skills in three keywords
Why you should learn about team building
Getting individuals to work together smoothly is a very difficult task that proves itself to be impossible in some cases but it is not. An efficient team with increased productivity can be achieved with the right understanding and tactics.
Steve Jobs changed the pattern of living with an innovative and creative mind. However, without his team of hard-working professionals and their abilities, his innovations would not have reached the hands of so many people around the world. Maybe you want to follow his example, hum?
Outlined below are some reasons why you should learn about team building:
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Teamwork offers multiple perspectives and returns
Effective teamwork increases productivity through diverse thoughts and reasoning of team members. Better results are developed when teammates work together. Whether you are a jack of all trades or you specialize in a particular thing, working with a team would improve efficiency and develop higher productivity.
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Great Learning Opportunities and Promotion of Unity
The best and most effective way to learn is with a team. Working with various teams helps you to gather experience both personally and from others. Teamwork motivates unity in the workplace. The environment of teamwork inspires friendship and love with the right sense of responsibility. Leaders develop a sense of responsibility for every incident both good and bad in the environment for a team member.
>> Recommended reading: 6 Tips For Team Management
6 Team Building Steps You Should Follow
Have you ever wondered how you could improve your team efficiency and productivity? Do you feel the cohesive force between teammates is not as strong as it should be? Well, we have come up with a solution to your team’s low-performance problem. Leading any team is not an easy task – every manager or leader can testify to that. Grouping different kinds of people together lead to clashes in opinion and lots of miscommunication. Before you jump into conclusion about your team, here are some steps to follow to improve efficiency.
1. Train your team members
Productivity depends mainly on the skills of the employees. Employees can join conferences, read new books related to the subject or even involve them in an online training program. The appropriate training program can turn the worst team into the best provided it is done right with the right mindset which is discussed Outside In Management.
2. Know your team members strengths and weaknesses
Every human being has some talents and hidden gifts that can be put into good use. It is your duty as a manager to understand each and every member of your team and understand how they react with society and their behavior in the workplace, enabling you to fix them in their possible best position.
3. Establish leadership
If your employees trust your judgement, they will work effectively even when you’re not around. Before you can start team building, you need to develop leadership skills (in you and in your team). Build trust through honesty and transparency. Especially in larger organizations, managers can’t be everywhere at once, but if your employees trust your judgements, they will work effectively even in your absence.
4. Give your team members ownership
When you make a team member accountable for his work, this induces a sense of responsibility in him regarding his work. He starts to see his work differently in a way that his decisions can impact the performance of the entire team. Great leaders in business today understand the importance of ownership as stated in Entrepreneur article. The sense of responsibility it creates, makes team members see it from a different direction as they have to account for work.
5. Set an Example
Commitment to duty as a team leader means more to your workers than imagined. Setting an example for your workers to follow might be all you need to build your dream team. Workers work to earn the money they are paid, and indirectly they want to see their manager work too for his money.
Offering extra cash or benefit (like a spa day or a day off) could change the productivity level of your team. Many workers keep and maintain good behaviors and records just for promotions they are not sure they would get. Talk more of extra cash they are sure to receive after a job well done. They would do their possible best to beat your expectations and with such mindset at heart, they could achieve the unachievable.
6. Proper Communication
Being a manager is not all about flagging your rights and authority. Sometimes having a cold beer with team members could be enough bonding time with you. Strict managers are usually not the best, only those who carry the interest of their members at heart and speak with them as friends. Right and humble communication skills are to be learnt if you desire to be the manager of a productive team. Unity among your members and you tends to make them treat every task given to them as though it was their own. Also, you can encourage your team through the use of motivational speeches.
Final Verdict
Team building is one of the most important responsibilities a manager has. It isn’t something that can be achieved in a short time and then forgotten. Team conduct and unity is the first thing to consider above all things. Speak to them as a friend, correct them like a parent would and stand for them like a best friend.
Using your communication skills is the best way you can lead your team to the best performance. You can utilize several tools for that, automating boring tasks (like manual timesheets) and increasing their productivity as well. As a good leader, you will look after inovative platforms, which integrate communication, workflow, timesheet and managerial reports and dashboards. So you should know Runrun.it, a work management software which has all these features and will help you lead your team to the sucess. Try it for free: www.runrun.it.
