Building Successful Teams: 5 Ways to Improve Teamwork

One of the most important steps you can take as a leader is to facilitate collaboration within your team. Here are 5 steps you can take to improve team communication, reduce conflict, build trust, improve relationships, and create a more positive work environment.

1. Provide teamwork opportunities. Poor communication and interaction is one of the most common problems in any team. This is problematic because no team can function effectively without strong communication and positive interaction. One way to address this problem is through team building activities that build trust and improve team performance. Teambuilding has six purposes:

* Helps teams clarify their purpose and goals.

* Allows teams to develop strategies and operating principles.

* Improves communication and team interaction.

* Improve team processes such as problem solving, decision making and conflict resolution.

* Improve team leadership and leader skills.

* Improves overall team productivity and effectiveness.

2. Communicate with all team members openly and honestly. One of the most important qualities of any leader is authenticity, which refers to being open, honest and direct. It also refers to being comfortable with who you are as a human being. Being genuine as a leader means that you are always honest with your team members and actively work to create an open environment where the free exchange of ideas can take place. By doing this, your team will build trust and respond to you more positively in both good and bad situations.

3. Involve team members in problem solving and decision making. Involving team members provides three benefits. First, it helps them take charge of problem solving. By participating in the problem solving process, members are actively involved in generating solutions and making decisions about how to implement those solutions. This increases the probability that the team will accept the final decision. Second, it brings more complete information and creativity to the problem-solving process. Instead of one or two people making decisions, team problem solving brings a wide variety of ideas and data to the table, increasing the likelihood that a successful solution can be identified. Finally, team members will have a greater opportunity to learn and develop if they are active participants in the problem-solving and decision-making process.

4. Create a safe environment where team members can discuss issues and concerns. Staff will generally function most effectively in environments where they feel they can express themselves, offer opinions without reproach, and engage in constructive dialogue about work issues. It is up to the team leader to see that this type of collaborative environment is created and maintained. You can do this by participating in the following activities:

* Provide structured and ongoing opportunities for members to discuss their issues and concerns. For example, you might have a monthly meeting where participants identify problems and discuss possible solutions.

* Encourage members to offer suggestions and ideas on an ongoing basis, and then use those ideas. You can systematize this process with a suggestion system that allows members to offer ideas and rewards them for the suggestions they implement.

5. Challenge any uncooperative behavior. Another step you can take to create supportive environments is to confront any uncooperative behavior. Every team will have people who “misbehave” at one point or another. Sometimes this is relatively minor, while other times it can be a serious problem. In either case, you will need to discuss the behavior with the offending party to ensure it does not continue. Uncooperative behaviors may include:

* Continually interrupting members during a meeting.

* Shout at teammates.

* Talking badly about others (eg, talking behind someone’s back).

* Do not engage in supportive behavior of other members.

* Being insubordinate towards the team leader.

* Failing to complete work assignments in a timely and professional manner.

* Complain about the decisions that have been made.

* Criticize, criticize and slander.

* Using inappropriate humor or making off-color comments.