Behind every success is a well-coordinated and competently organized team activity. Almost all the existing benefits of modern civilization are the result of collective work. In any activity a person has to interact with other people. Therefore, everyone needs to learn the skills of teamwork as early as possible. Let’s try to understand what this concept includes, and what skills you need to possess to become a good “team player”.
Create and lead projects in the LeaderTask management system, add your colleagues to them for collaboration and more efficient execution. Delegate tasks, track progress, and chat in each task’s chat room.
First of all, let’s formulate a definition. Teamwork is a coordinated, organized joint activity of people. They pursue common goals and share responsibility for the achieved result. But not every group of people working together can be called a team. Employees of one company sitting in the same office, even working on a joint project, are not always a team.
The term was originally used in sports to refer to a group of athletes united by a common goal, each acting in a common interest. Example: a basketball or volleyball team whose members have a common goal, act together within a developed strategy, but each has a different area of responsibility.
Nowadays this concept is actively used in the business environment. A team is commonly referred to as a small group of people (from three to twelve participants) bound by common interests, goals and commitments.
Let’s try to give a description of teamwork through the main attributes:
Team members depend on each other. Therefore, the results of each of them influence the overall success. The interests of an individual in such a team are secondary. Common tasks and achievements come first. Each member of the group knows how to competently use his knowledge, skills and experience, shares them with his comrades, cares about the welfare of others. Together they act as a whole. Such joint activity gives an effect that is many times greater than the resources and efforts spent on achieving the goal. Teamwork is always based on synergy and equality.
Each team has its own characteristic traits:
Every executive or manager knows that it is impossible to assemble a good team overnight. It has to go through certain steps along the way:
Organized teamwork and teamwork helps you find common ground with others, interact effectively with others, use your strengths wisely, and respect your colleagues. Top key benefits of teamwork:
Teamwork skills are among the top ten most in-demand characteristics in 2023 according to LinkedIn. All top global companies strive to build strong, organized teams. Here are a few more reasons why teamwork is important for success:
The results of team activities are always higher than when performing similar tasks alone. Joint work in a team helps to realize large-scale and complex projects.
Consider the disadvantages of teamwork:
There are activities for which teamwork is inappropriate. For example, monotonous routine labor or individual sports.
A friendly, well-functioning and cohesive team is the dream of every manager. But it takes time and effort to get a well-functioning, efficient team at your disposal. Moreover, for successful interaction with each other, team members must possess certain characteristics and skills. They are formulated on the basis of the Big Five five-factor personality model, which describes five traits of human character: openness, conscientiousness, benevolence, extraversion and neuroticism. Skills needed in teamwork:
All team members are equal in rights, but it is important to realize that their roles are different. They hide the functionality of each performer. For example, motivators (working with organizational and material resources), implementers (executors) and pedants (controllers) are responsible for actions. Interaction within the team is organized by coordinators (leaders), resource researchers (diplomats) and team players (the soul of the team). Generators (theorists), strategic analysts (gray cardinals) and experts are in charge of generating ideas. They are the consulting arm of the team. When assigning roles, it is worth taking into account not only professional skills, but also the personality types of employees.
Team building by organizing training and various corporate events – is used to improve teamwork efficiency. Team building shows excellent results – it helps to strengthen team cohesion. Joint games and sports activities help to strengthen team spirit, and group trainings allow to develop soft skills and improve relationships within the team. Management should take the most responsible approach to the preparation of such events and take into account all the wishes of employees and the specifics of the team in order to unite the participants and build a truly successful team.
In addition to team building, there are many specialized practices that improve teamwork. For example:
Each of these methods allows the team to do the work faster and better, reduce costs and improve product quality. It is very easy to master them, you just need to know the basic principles.
Organizing work in a team is a painstaking, time-consuming process. For this purpose, effective automated management systems are used, such as the corporate task manager LeaderTask, which allows you to increase the efficiency of your team. With its help, you can unite and organize the members of any team, even if they are geographically located in different cities or corners of the planet.
You create a company group in the service, add employees to it, assign roles and assign specific tasks to each performer or an entire team. Then you control the deadlines and progress of their fulfillment. Each task card has a built-in chat, where you can discuss any questions and project details. The manager can add priority tags (“Important”, “Urgent”), checklists, and any files to it.
You can follow the progress in the “Calendar” or “Schedule” tabs, where all tasks and tasks of an employee for the current day or week are displayed. Analyze the performance of past actions in the “Task History”. Using the special “God Mode”, the manager can see and control the tasks of all his subordinates.
The app works on all digital platforms, including without an internet connection.
So, what is the most important thing in teamwork? To follow the rules of the team, to treat its members with respect and attention, to strive for development, to be enthusiastic and optimistic about your work and to energize others with this energy. A manager who wants to create a good team should set realistic, achievable, clearly defined goals for his subordinates. Each performer should have his own role with specific responsibilities and tasks. The team needs a clear plan to ensure transparency of actions. It is also important to monitor the size of the team (up to 10 people is optimal) and the psychological environment in the team.