Tag: listening skills

Is your business focused on enhancing team working skills and behaviors of its employees? Which behaviors are on the top of its list?

I hear, I forget. I see, I remember. I do, I understand.

– Confucius

Effective teamwork is what makes organizations succeed. Whether it’s a band, a baseball team, or a Fortune 500 company, chemistry is at the heart of what makes teams great.

Much of modern business thinking is centered on understanding the chemistry of what makes effective teamwork tick. And the best way to learn is by doing, as Confucius says.

Here is a short video on the leadership lessons from first follower.

Before we continue, let me ask you a question. 

What works best for teamwork in your business? We would love to hear what it was. Would you do us a favor and post it in the comments section below? It would be greatly appreciated by us and our readers.

The ultimate goal of all the points I list below is this: eliminate the fluff from your marketing strategy and focus only on the things that work.

An important leadership competency for any size organization, the ability to build and lead high performing teams is especially critical in small-to-midsize businesses.

Here, people must work closely together, wear many hats and work effectively across the organization to get tasks accomplished quickly enough to remain competitive.

Related: How Good Is your Learning from Failure?

In order to understand the competencies needed to build and lead high-performance teams, it is helpful to first define a team.

Here is a simple but effective description from The Wisdom of Teams (Harvard Business School Press, 1993.)

“A team is a small number of people with complementary skills who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals, and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable.”

More often than not, effective teamwork is built on the following ten teamwork behaviors. We will share with you what actions we recommend for enhancing teamwork most often with our clients:

Listening skills are a top priority.

Improve listening skills

Seek to understand the perspectives of the team. Listen, really listen, to what all employees are saying to you.

You will be amazed at what you can learn. And use what you learn to enhance the teamwork of your group.

Team working skills … create trust

Empower the team to act on your behalf. This is the most crucial way to enhance teamwork behaviors in staff … trusting them.

They will never trust you without you first trusting them. It is the foundation of your employee team.

Be willing to openly share and be influenced

Seek out employee ideas and initiative. There should almost nothing you shouldn’t share with the employee team.

The more they know, the better decisions they can make. And don’t be afraid to be influenced by their ideas.

Be able to disagree and then reconcile the conflict

Are you accessible to the team? Can they seek you out for help and advice? Do you support debate among team members and then reconcile conflict?

Answering these questions in the positive is critical for awesome teamwork.

Teamwork skills examples … respond to important discoveries

Create a development environment for all the team. Encourage the team to explore and try new things.

A continuous learning environment is the goal and very supportive of team behaviors.

Facilitate a discovery and learning environment

Openly share business information. Encourage questions and participation in discussion and discovery of business decisions.

Support an environment of change

Teach the team it is ok to fail and still take prudent risks. Encourage the exchange of new ideas among team members. Don’t fear occasional experimentation with these ideas.

Team working skills … encourage collaborative relationships

Collaboration is the key to an effective team. Teach collaboration on all tasks with a mini team approach whenever you can.

Enhancing teamwork … share responsibilities

Show you are part of the team. Share your thinking and team responsibilities among everyone. Create backups for all tasks, including your own.

Create an environment where team members can ask for help

This will be a great basis for them to learn, grow, and assume more responsibilities. Your continual coaching is very supportive of showing the team you are open to helping whenever you can.

Takeaways

Across industries, building an effective team is a process, not a destination.

A great team is like an organic being, continually growing and changing to adapt as situations and challenges arise. Remember, teamwork divides the task and multiplies the success.

What do you do to get your teams in the right frame of reference for top performance?

Please share an experience or two with this community.

Need some help in capturing more improvements for your staff’s leadership, teamwork and collaboration? Creative ideas in running or facilitating a team or leadership workshop?

All you get is what you bring to the fight. And that fight gets better every day you learn and apply new ideas.

When things are not what you want them to be, what’s most important is your next step.

Test. Learn. Improve. Repeat.

Are you devoting enough energy continually improving your continuous learning?

Do you have a lesson about making your learning better you can share with this community? Have any questions or comments to add in the section below?

Digital Spark Marketing will stretch your thinking and your ability to adapt to change.  We also provide some fun and inspiration along the way. 

 More reading from Digital Spark Marketing’s Library:

Build an Effective Team by Being a Talent Hound

Secrets to Becoming a Remarkably Mindful Leader

Mike Schoultz is a digital marketing and customer service expert. With 48 years of business experience, he consults on and writes about topics to help improve the performance of small business. Find him on  Facebook, Twitter, Digital Spark Marketing, and LinkedIn.