5 Essentials of Great Teamwork
In this article Edward Davey explains 5 essential traits of teamwork. A great team differs from a group of people in that it has a clearly defined common purpose and goals with everyone working together to achieve them. Good teamwork can help your self-improvement.
T.E.A.M. - Together Everyone Achieves More
Like most other things Teamwork is a huge subject. There are whole books
published on it and various theories and opinions. In this article I will
attempt to provide some of the basics.
A team differs from a group of people in that it has a clearly defined common
purpose and goals with everyone working together to achieve them. Good teamwork
can help your self-improvement. Here are some of the reasons we form people into
teams:
They achieve better results than people working alone.
They get more done in less time than people working alone.
They work to the strengths of individuals, while compensating for the weaknesses
of others.
They split the work up among members of the team and make the task seem less
daunting.
Teams are made up of people and people have certain needs when working together
in teams. These have been called The Keys To Effective Teamwork. They include:
1. Communication. This is the essence of effective Teamwork. Effective
communication provides understanding, interpretation and action. Ineffective
communication leads to misunderstanding, misinterpretation, and either inaction
or inappropriate action.
2. Active listening. There are two responsibilities here: That of the sender and
that of the receiver. The sender must ensure that the message is clear and
understood and the receiver must ensure that if the message is not clear that
they ask for clarification.
3. Resolving conflict. People are different and inevitably clashes of
personality or other conflicts may arise. The conflict must be resolved and
people should use an effective, consistent approach to resolve it.
4. Team diversity. People come from different backgrounds and this can present
challenges and opportunities. People have to recognise and understand their own
uniqueness and that of others and make allowances.
5. Team motivation. Motivation inspires commitment, innovation and teamwork.
Team leaders and members need to be aware of the factors affecting motivation
and techniques they can use to enhance and maintain motivation levels.
"With teamwork we can build towards excellence". Stew Leonard.
A team is a feeling of togetherness, involvement and commitment. Like an
orchestra everyone has to be playing the same tune even if roles and tasks are
different everyone must be working for the same outcome. The more you can do to
make people feel good about themselves the better they will perform. So if you
work in a team don't just work to your own self-improvement but help others to
work towards their self-improvement as well and soon everyone will be:
Totally Excited And Motivated!
"If you take good care of your people they will take good care of your
customers. If my people are happy my customers will be happy". Stew Leonard.
