Set ground rules for the team. These are the norms that you and the team establish to ensure efficiency and success. They can be simple directives Team members are to be punctual for meetings or general guidelines Every team member has the right to offer ideas and suggestions , but you should make sure that the team creates these ground rules by consensus and commits to them, both as a group and as individuals. Establish a method for arriving at a consensus.
You may want to conduct open debate about the pros and cons of proposals, or establish research committees to investigate issues and deliver reports. Encourage listening and brainstorming. As supervisor, your first priority in creating consensus is to stimulate debate.
Remember that employees are often afraid to disagree with one another and that this fear can lead your team to make mediocre decisions. When you encourage debate you inspire creativity and that's how you'll spur your team on to better results. Establish the parameters of consensus-building sessions.
Be sensitive to the frustration that can mount when the team is not achieving consensus. These roles are classified into action-oriented roles, people-oriented roles, and thinking-oriented roles.
Managers need to understand the strengths each team member brings to the table and select members for the team with those strengths in mind. The diversity of a team also plays a deciding factor in how productive and successful the team is.
Of course, there needs to be a diversity of skills, but if a team also features members of diverse age, gender, education, functional background, and experience, this bodes well for them.
Keep in mind, however, that having a team with individuals from various cultures on a single team often does not spell instant success, as team members have a longer learning curve understanding how to work with one another. Studies show that a team should be made up of no more than ten people, and optimally, no more than exactly the number of team members that are necessary to do the work. When teams have more members than they need, cohesiveness and mutual accountability suffer, and social loafing can creep in.
We talked a lot about work design in Module 6: Motivation in the Workplace and how the right job design can motivate an employee to perform. Similarly, the right work design for a group is a huge motivator. The manager should strive to give the team members work that offers autonomy, skill variety, task identity and task significance. Just like with individuals, these features motivate the team and increase its effectiveness.
Finally, to build an effective team we must consider process. That is, continue to research and gather information to confirm or challenge what you know about your project. I think that the pace of change is so great in the world today that new information is always presenting itself and must be considered in the overall context of the project. Spend lots of time together.
People are so busy that they forget that an important part of the team process is to spend time together, think together, and bond. Time in person, time on the phone, time in meetings—all of it counts and helps to build camaraderie and trust. Exploit the power of positive feedback, recognition, and reward. Positive reinforcement is a motivator that will help the members of the team feel more comfortable contributing.
Although there are many extrinsic rewards that can serve as motivators, a successful team begins to feel that its own success and performance is the most rewarding. Collaboration is another key concept and method by which teams can work together very successfully. Bringing together a team of experts from across the business would seem to be a best practice in any situation. However, Gratton and Erickson, in their article Eight Ways to Build Collaborative Teams, found that collaboration seems to decrease sharply when a team is working on complex project initiatives.
The negative side is that the day-to-day contact with leaders that team members really desire, and which can be very motivating, has almost gone. Leaders can try to address this with frequent online communication, but it is often the small, incidental meetings face to face that people miss most.
Read more about Best remote work tips — How to make remote working work for you. Mobile app that reminds your employees to clock in and out Learn more Cancel anytime - no credit card required. Upgrade to a paid subscription only if you find All Hours useful. Respect breeds a healthy work environment; it promotes teamwork and increases productivity.
The best teams run on respect. It charges teams that stick together, and innovate. Sometimes, this is easier said than done.
Here are some immediate takeaways, crafted to illustrate what showing respect to your colleagues looks like in everyday praxis:. There are some myths connected to teams , too. One of the most common is that building the best teams means combining the best, smartest, and most-hardworking individuals. For example, you cannot miss with a brilliant MBA student, genius PhD holder, diligent economist, and capable communication expert, right?
Well, this theory has proved to be wrong many times. They gathered several of their best and brightest to help the organization codify the secrets to team effectiveness. After studying Google teams, they outlined the following five characteristics of enhanced teams :. The most effective team also track time on their projects and use productivity tools like My Hours. Basically, super-teams do super-simple things. They trust each other, talk to each other, and support each other.
They are passionate, they are connected — they move as a single group. There is no blaming, no finger pointing. If someone forgets to complete a task, they are covered. The more inclusive the plan is, the more committed the team members are. Never lose the big picture, either. Vision is empowering. However, cut the way to achieve it into smaller tasks that are manageable and trackable.
And finally, super-teams have fun, too! In fact, crafting a working environment where people come to work with smiles on their faces is one of the biggest management challenges. Productive teams take time to be together, to celebrate birthdays, or in these times to order virtual pizzas. It matters! After all, it is not only the professional part of life that takes place in the workplace. Especially today, when collaboration is becoming more multi-dimensional, the ability to build and lead high performing teams is becoming the hottest leadership competency.
A successful team does not need a boss, but a leader. Here are some traits of such a leader:. Our personal and work lives are more intimately connected than we think. If you run a smaller team, you have to know everyone by name for start! This is a must because it shows that you care. Leaders are inclined to seek fast solutions, sometimes even before they have a good sense of the situation.
This approach will help you lead without being perceived as pushy or authoritative. Boosting team spirit is good, but it is equally true that too much teamwork exhausts employees and saps productivity. So, avoid teamwork overload.
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