Creating A Climate For Effective Teamwork
The economic times are challenging every business. With this in mind, every organization needs to have its’ employees working together. By their very nature, teams are fragile organizations, subject to eroding forces of competition, selfishness, pride and so on. Supervisors must combat these forces and create a climate in which teamwork and cooperation can thrive. Here are a few suggestions to keep your team working together.
Facilitate communication between team members, post results, evaluate team performance, and set the ground rules for the team. Keep the following in mind.
1. Were clear and recognizable goals clearly established.
2. Determine objectively if the goals are achievable.
3. Establish the criteria necessary to determine whether or not the goals were achieved.
4. Make sure team members are working together to help everyone reach their goal. Admittedly, in some environments this may be a little tougher.
5. Ask yourself whether the team members gained a greater sense of spirit by working together. If not, why not?
You also may need to improve the effectiveness of the team. Encourage them to debate the merits and drawbacks of opposing ideas and help to ensure that the team members listen to each other. At the same time make sure that they understand that criticism is a valuable tool and not a personal attack. They should think in a positive manner and not from a negative perspective.
Remember, team members will always look to management for guidance. In that reagrd, every manager must set the example. If you falter, they will see it and become easily discouraged.
As a final note, we have “Self Assessment” questionaires available. You can take it yourself and determine whether or not you need improvement in this area as a team leader. We also have “Team Assessment” questionaires available that can be passed out to your individual team members for them to assess the team from their individual perspective.
Would you like to get a set? Send your request by mail with a self-addressed stamped envelope! Yep, I am making you work a little and postage is going up–again! We a have a team building seminar available. It’s one hour. Let me know if you might be interested when you send your request in.
