Sometimes, work demands cause people to collaborate who may not know each other.
These kinds of collaborations are perfect opportunities for workers to learn about each other and broaden their experiences, but they can also be difficult, mainly if teamwork doesn’t come naturally. Workers come in with their own work rhythms and degree of expertise, and these differences can make collaboration feel unnatural.
In this situation, trying to impose a sense of teamwork isn’t the best approach. Instead, you should be cultivating relationships built on cooperation and an understanding of mutual interest. Consider the following ways to help develop teamwork naturally.
Lay Out Expectations
If your team is going to work well together, you need to lay out both group and individual expectations. If individuals have specific roles within the group, you need to make sure those roles are clearly defined.
Have a meeting at a time that works for everyone and define expectations as much as possible. Invite and use employee feedback to foster an informed team environment and give employees a sense of ownership over the process.
Encourage Communication within the Team
One of the biggest roadblocks to effective teamwork is a conflict of work styles. Your team members can overcome conflicting styles by communicating their work preferences. Tell your team members to be respectful of other people’s work habits and encourage them not to bend over backward to accommodate any one person.
Ultimately, the key is for employees to talk and work together to find compromises where they are needed.
Allow for Personal Connections
One of the best approaches to cultivating teamworking is to have staff members spend some personal time with one another. This is particularly helpful if there’s a high amount of unfamiliarity. Your employees don’t necessarily need to be best friends. Still, office environments can keep people from opening up with one another, and it’s much easier to work alongside someone if they feel a personal connection to them.
Before getting too far into the team situation, hold a teambuilding event. These events allow staff members to see a side of their co-workers they don’t experience in the workplace and possibly learn something about how to get along in a professional environment.
Ask for Feedback
Inviting feedback is one of the essential keys to building a team environment. It’s impossible to understand how your staff members genuinely feel unless they convey it to you. Objective, transparent feedback is the best approach to finding out what is and isn’t working with your team.
Offer a Team Reward
Nothing motivates people like a reward, so why not offer up a group reward for when your team finishing their project or hits a significant milestone? A group reward will serve two purposes. First, it will keep everybody invested and motivated to complete the tasks at hand. Second, it provides a shared objective that brings everybody together.
We Can Help You Build a Winning Team
At Cornerstone, we work hard to help our clients build effective teams through talent acquisition solutions. Please contact us today to find out how we can help you build an effective team.
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