Encourage teamwork

Develop strategies supporting a team approach

A team approach is a paradigm in which experts with different backgrounds and talents collaborate to achieve a common goal. Scholars and policymakers are increasingly advocating this strategy to ensure the quality of outputs and the quality of the work environment.

Strategies to support a team approach:

Regularly check-in on your team:

Do not make the mistake of only meeting with a department when it is experiencing a crisis. If you give a team a month or two to complete a project and then examine it at the end, your harsh remarks or lack of care could demoralise them.

While you shouldn't try to micromanage your staff, you should check in with them regularly to see if they have any issues, assess the quality of a project, and provide any assistance or guidance they may require to fulfil a deadline or satisfy a client.

Communicate accountability:

Failure to delegate and convey accountability across a team can result in misunderstanding and conflict. You must convey to a team member the tasks for which they are responsible and tell the rest of the team of a staff member's obligations to ensure that everyone is on the same page. You can empower different employees while still maintaining a strong business culture by offering clarity about their duties.

Using an employee engagement tool to streamline communication between you and your staff can save you time and money. Save time by collecting consolidated feedback on goals, work, and roles to reduce data analysis time. You can centralise your feedback and pertinent surveys with an employee engagement platform. Determine and visualise real-time employee experience. You can take action faster and plan more successfully this way.

Develop your employees’ skills:

It's critical to complement your employees' knowledge and experience by offering them various learning opportunities. If you don't provide training to assist them in growing their abilities, they can lose confidence in their job and never attain their full potential.

You must look for ways to expand your staff's skill set to grow your firm, raise morale, and ensure employee loyalty. Suppose a staff member holds an undergraduate degree in mathematics, computer science, data science, or engineering. In that case, an online analytics degree could help both the person and the company. As a result, they will efficiently examine and appraise data to make business predictions and projections and determine the best solutions.

Inspire your team:

Successful leaders recognise the value of empowering their employees. To help your staff achieve their goals and build your company, you must strive to inspire them every day.

You should, for example:

• Encourage them to take charge of a project.
• Provide a venue for employees to express their thoughts and opinions.
• Give everyone a fair shot for a promotion, a project, a training course, or a mentorship programme.
• You will be rewarded with improved morale, more productivity, and a larger profit margin if you give your employees a voice in the company, provide equitable career possibilities, and encourage accountability.

Build relationships:

Any business leader who wants to foster internal collaborations, boost employee happiness, and boost efficiency should strengthen relationships among employees.

Coach your staff:

If an employee has difficulty with a task or has a performance flaw, you should schedule a one-on-one meeting to resolve the problem. A simple discussion can not only help you discover how they are failing, but with the correct level of coaching, you may be able to turn their problem into a strength.

Sit down with them and ask them how and why they're having trouble with a project or a part of their job so you can figure out what measures they need to take to finish it quickly. It has the potential to turn a bad performance into a valuable company asset.

Here are some pointers to consider when coaching your team:

• When face-to-face coaching is not available, it would be beneficial to provide a digital version of structured coaching and on-the-job training. This is especially useful when work-at-home arrangements become increasingly widespread.
• Set up a coaching session regularly: Employees are more motivated and eager to complete tasks and reach or even surpass your objectives when they anticipate a coaching session.
• Take advantage of the opportunity to get to know your employees: Coaching is also a great time to inquire about your employees' personal lives. Before getting down to business, a little small talk won't hurt. It would also show that you care about your personnel.

Acknowledge accomplishments:

Many business owners and managers mistake just giving feedback when they have something negative to say. Unfortunately, this might detract from staff motivation and enthusiasm for the brand. You must provide positive feedback to your industrious employees in addition to constructive criticism when the occasion arises.

Recognising an employee's accomplishments will make them feel better about their work and increase their confidence in their role. If they do so, they will be more likely to push themselves harder in order to stand out in the department.

Quickly manage conflict:

Unfortunately, disagreement can arise in the workplace from time to time. If you try to overlook a problem, you can be sure that it will influence production, communication and create a poor atmosphere for many employees.

As a result, it is critical to handle a problem as soon as possible to avoid it spiralling out of control. By doing so, you may assist your employees in moving on from a disagreement so that they can devote their whole attention to their work.

Lead by example:

You must lead by example if you urge your employees to work harder and achieve their objectives. They will assume they can do the same if you arrive late to work, lie to clients, or take personal phone calls at your desk. As a result, they will be less likely to please clients, achieve internal objectives, or advance up the corporate ladder.

Clearly outline expectations of team members

At some point in their careers, most employees will find themselves working on a team. Individual expectations are comparable to team expectations, except that team expectations should be something that every team member is responsible for while also holding others accountable.

We already stated that they are not the same as team objectives. Usually, that must be completed, whereas team expectations are the behaviours that must be displayed while the team completes those tasks.

A lack of clear expectations degrades team performance and results and negatively influences engagement, relationships, and teamwork. Uncertain standards can also lead to major employee relations issues, such as grievances, destructive conflict, and unfair dismissal claims, which can be extremely costly. Leaders will need to set, agree on, and be guided by expectations on various occasions. The following are some of the more prevalent scenarios:

• Putting together a group
• Relationships with co-workers are being built or rebuilt.
• Employee performance dialogues/appraisals
• During periods of transition and reorganisation
• When it comes to managing those that are underperforming
• When it comes to deciding how decisions will be made

Types of expectations

Expectations are divided into two categories:

Performance expectations:

This type is concerned with the desired outputs and outcomes.

Behavioural expectations:

These refer to the ideals, behaviours, and attitudes that are anticipated in the role.

Every team member should be held accountable for the following:

• Be receptive to helpful criticism rather than defensive or negative.
• Be willing to assist one another.
• Be self-driven and dependable.
• Share your suggestions for improvement.
• Encourage your teammates by being upbeat, positive, and upbeat.
• Respect one another
• Be kind and considerate of others' needs and concerns.
• Accept responsibility for your work.
• Be adaptable.
• When you require assistance, request it.
• Collaborate in a secure environment.

Expectations of team members:

Clarity:

It is critical to have a clear understanding of your goals and objectives to achieve success. It allows the team to concentrate on what matters most, making them more successful and creating progress. Teams do not expect the leader to know the exact path, but they expect to articulate the destination clearly.

Opportunity:

Leaders are accountable for the development of those they manage, and the greatest way to do so is to provide them with difficult opportunities to improve.

Involvement:

Teams don't just want to follow orders; they want to say how the plans are made. Listening to their ideas can help them become more engaged and committed.

Keep your promises:

Trust is an important aspect of leadership, and nothing fosters trust faster than following through on your promises. Leaders who fail to follow through on their promises swiftly lose the trust and support of their followers.

Consistency:

People demand consistency in two ways: on the one hand, they expect everyone to be treated equally (i.e., no favouritism), and on the other hand, they anticipate consistent behaviour, meaning that what they did well yesterday will be viewed as excellent today. Leaders who are inconsistent in handling and reacting to their teams instil anxiety and stress in their employees, which never helps them perform better.

Respect:

Many leaders complain about how little respect they get, yet they don't respect their teams.

Listening to your team, asking them what they think, or asking for their ideas is the simplest approach to express your appreciation.

Honesty:

You can't tell your teams certain things, but it doesn't mean you have to lie to them. When you lie, you lose their trust and respect, and they will begin to distrust you in the future. Teams recognise that there are instances when you can't say anything.

Praise:

• One of our most basic human wants is praise, and praise is one of a leader's most potent tools.
• People want their supervisors to reward them when they perform a good job. It doesn't have to be extravagant; a simple "thank you" or "excellent job, well done" can suffice.

Constructive feedback promptly:

Anyone can make mistakes, but criticism rarely helps to correct them. Teams look for timely and helpful input. If the outcome is not what you expected, inform them, but do so in a way that allows them to learn and develop to avoid making the same mistake in the future.

Speak up for the group:

When things go wrong, too many leaders throw their teams under the bus. When things go wrong, though, you can't easily detach yourself from failure since you're the leader. That doesn't mean you should throw your hands up in surrender and instead seek to defend and protect your team from criticism.

Leaders that do so will find that their teams will support them while things are going well but will abandon them when things are not going well.

Develop and apply strategies that recognise individuals’ contributions to the team

An individual contributor is a professional with no management responsibilities which contribute to an organisation to help support its goals and mission. Individual contributors are in charge of a process or project that they can complete as part of a team or independently, but they are not managing a team of people. The contributions of each team member largely determine the team's success.

Need of recognising individual contributions:

• Employee satisfaction is the most precious asset to any company, and finding ways to reward and recognise their accomplishments is motivating and has strong organisational behaviour ties.
• Employees want to be treated fairly, accomplish important work, grow in their careers, and have their supervisors and co-workers value and appreciate them.
• When an employee goes above and above to improve the entire team's performance, that effort deserves to be recognised.
• Showing your gratitude will motivate them to continue going above and beyond, as well as creating a high-morale and high-performance workplace.

Strategies that recognise individuals’ contributions to the team:

Thank-you card with your name on it:	Taking the time to write down your views on an employee's contribution can be a great approach to show them how much you value them.
Introduce a recognition board:	around the office, so that management can highlight an employee's accomplishments. Encourage other employees at all levels to add to the board by sharing what they admire most about the highlighted person. Keep it anonymous so that no one feels obligated to join.
Take it to the breakroom for an informal celebration:	Energise your team with coffee, cookies, ice cream, or other goodies your employees enjoy while complimenting and emphasising the specific effort team members have made to assist the team in performing better.
Certificates of appreciation:	Find out which restaurant the employee you want to think enjoys going to, or offer them a gift card to a new neighbourhood restaurant or coffee shop. This will almost certainly be an unexpected act of generosity, regardless of where it occurs.
Bonuses in cash:	While benefits are a fantastic reward, people prioritise monetary bonuses over benefits. Employees should be rewarded for their accomplishments by offering them what they truly desire.
Paid time off:	is a great method to give overworked employees the time they need to reset, renew, and re-enter the workforce stronger.
Make use of social rewards:	Establishing a recognition program that connects excellent employee behaviours to your organisation's objective can assist reinforce the concept that you appreciate your company, its employees, and their dedication. Whether the gesture is modest or huge, monetary or social, the fact that you recognise an employee who goes above and beyond is a positive sign that you value their contributions.