All employers know that team work is important, but that isn’t to say that they know how best to implement it. When employees do not collaborate together as a team, deadlines are missed, productivity and office morale is decreased and the company’s reputation suffers. It is essential that leaders know how to help their team collaborate effectively; below I have listed three ways to ensure that team work among employees is successful.
1) Implement transparency.
It is vital that leaders encourage and embrace a transparent culture in the work place so that team members feel everyone is on the same page. Trust and honesty is essential as employees who feel that they can’t trust their employer tend to be pessimistic, causing their work and morale to decline. Opting for an open-door policy in the office is a great way to encourage transparency. Transparent workplaces tend to find it easier when looking for solutions to problems as such issues can be shared and discussed with the team until a suitable solution is agreed upon. Transparency also makes it easier to collaborate on projects and tasks, thus increasing productivity as everyone understands the bigger picture.
2) Use real-time visuals.
For staff members to function within a team, it is important for leaders to tell employees how their work contributes to the bigger picture. Employees who feel responsible for the tasks that they are set, feel that they have a sense of purpose in the company and therefore are more inclined work harder and be more productive. A great way to make employees feel that they are needed is to track performance data, so that staff members are able to see real-time results in terms of how their work is improving the business. Showing statistics can also motivate and inspire employees to work harder in order to boost their performance data, overall increasing office productivity and turnover.
3) Encourage solution-oriented thinking.
When problems arise it is important that leaders encourage staff members to look for solutions and to stay positive as teams who are negative are more likely to let it impact their work and consequently miss deadlines. Encourage employees to break the problem in question into manageable tasks and then divide the tasks between members of the team. Delegating tasks between team members improves teamwork as employees have to consult one another in order to work together as a whole and solve the problem. Working together will enable the team to be more productive and move past the problem quicker in a positive and forward-thinking manner, consequently having a positive impact on office productivity and morale.
How do you implement teamwork?
Further Reading:
Andre Lavoie (2016). ‘Why Teamwork Matters at Every Level’: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/283175
