How to improve teamwork in your business in 2023?

How to improve teamwork in your business? Do you know how to make your team work better? You have a great team full of talented, motivated individuals with clearly defined goals. You have all the necessary tools supporting planning and task realization. Why then, there is this gut feeling that the path to success is going to be bumpy? Read the article to find out how to improve teamwork in the era of the growing popularity of remote work.

How to improve teamwork – table of contents:

1. Roles in the team
2. High transparency
3. Good communication
4. Productivity tools
5. Summary

Roles in the team

All the team members should understand that they need to work hand in hand and that every person on the field has an impact on the final result. No progress is possible if the team members don’t know their roles in the team. Roles cannot be seen as tasks (such as production, advertisement, administration, or legal issues), but as a specificity of the functioning of the particular individuals in the team.

Every person, due to their traits, character, way of behaving, and individual abilities (not professional competencies) plays different roles. Why do such elements have such a big impact in the workplace? Because they play a crucial role in the creation of the subtle set of relationships within the work environment.

To define the roles of the particular individuals in the team it is advisable to carry out the modeling, using the tools created by Meredith Belbin. This theoretician of management has determined 9 distinctive rules that can be ascribed to the particular members of the team: resource investigator, team worker, co-ordinator, plant, monitor evaluator, and specialist. Conduct the Belbin test making sure that every person in your team assesses themselves correctly and truthfully.

With a full view of the traits of your team members, you will be able to adjust their duties to their characteristics. The awareness of the fact that we behave in a certain way in particular situations brings a wider understanding of the dynamics in the team. It is easier to avoid communicative barriers, there are fewer conflicts and unnecessary, unproductive disputes.

High transparency

Provide a thorough explanation of the team goals before you start monitoring the progress (both of the regular employee and the managing team) – transparency of the activities is seen as positive by all employees that are involved.

Detailed and accurate presentation of the expectations of the company (strategic objectives and operational goals), information about the preferences of style and main principles of cooperation brings confidence, understanding, and improvement of morale of the team.

Remember about the empowerment of all the team members – give them a chance to influence the final result of their activities. Experts suggest that in current times employees expect certain possibilities in their workplaces, and the companies that provide opportunities to grow and empower their employees are much more appreciated in the job market, especially by the younger employees. The freedom to make own decisions is the best method to keep the employees involved and engaged and is the best way to improve teamwork.

Good communication

Communication is the easiest and at the same time the most difficult element of everyday teamwork. The easiest because it doesn’t require any additional tools or facilities to be executed, and the most difficult because we tend to forget how important it is. Regular meetings, and called: plannings (once, twice a week, or once a month) can help provide good communication between individuals and improve teamwork.

Some meetings can be held daily – to sum up, the day and the results achieved). During regular meetings, you should concentrate on the positive and negative results of activities performed as well as allow space for employees’ statements. The very basis of good communication is transparency, an atmosphere of trust, and sincerity, and all this should start with the leading team and management.

Productivity tools

Have you ever heard about Kanban boards? This digital tool is designed for project management, but it can be used with ease to improve the everyday performance of tasks. Using this type of tool the employee can divide his duties into categories that indicate their status (to do, in progress, done). The board allows the coordination of tasks between the team members. All of the tasks are presented in visual form, hence all the concerns related to tasks and deadlines can be dealt with quickly and effectively.

Summary

Effective teamwork requires much effort and involvement. It is not easy to persuade all the individuals that mutual support allows for faster realization of the previously set goals. The manager or leader of the team has to observe the situation in the team, search for sources of difficulties and constantly increase the quality of teamwork.

Read also: How to communicate at work in order to be more effective?

If you like our content, join our busy bees community on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest.