10 Ways To Generate Teamwork
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For any organisation, teamwork can be critical to ensuring that the company’s aims and objectives are carried out, this is especially true of the supply chain function which without teamwork can ground to halt. When people work as a member of a team, they regard themselves as being part of something that is ‘bigger’ than them, which really helps to control egos and also ensures that the aims and objectives of the company are carried out. So how can you generate teamwork?
1. First of all you have to set clear goals for the team and you need to make sure that all the team members understand the aims of the team and the goals that you are aiming for.
2. Don’t give team members the opportunity to compete for control. Instead you need to clearly state who is responsible for what.
3. Be loyal to your team. In turn they should also be loyal to you and should respect you. This can take time to achieve and a balance has to be struck between being fair and open with people and being strict with team members. Sometimes there can be just one person on the team who is always trying to get away with not pulling their weight or who is always moaning, so you need to be fair and loyal, but if people do not respond to this then they need to be encouraged to think of the impact of their behaviour on the rest of the team.
4. Take time to get to know the team just through spending time with them, not necessarily a long time, but you need to know them and what makes them tick.
5. If there are tensions in the team, then sort them out. If tensions are left then they fester and this can lead to resentment, anger, then onto more difficult issues such as harassment or even bullying. Within any team there is always the potential for people to not get on, or even for there to be sexual tensions within the team, so don’t just let tensions get out of control. It can be difficult to sort them out, but the sooner that you do, the sooner the team as a whole will be operating more efficiently. Any tensions do have a knock on effect and will affect other members of the team.
6. If you have to make a decision that will impact on the team as a whole then make sure that you discuss this with the team, rather than making unilateral decisions which will impact greatly on their work. This encourages team members to ‘own’ the final decision, because they were involved in making it.
7. Wherever possible empower team members to act on their own initiative and if they do well, then praise them, but if they don’t do so well, then it is better to look at why things didn’t turn out so good and see what lessons you can learn from this, rather than simply shouting the odds at team members.
8. Communicate with your team. Consider all means available from meetings to visual management. If they are kept in the dark they will feel like mushrooms, so keep them informed about what is going on.
9. Give positive feedback to the team as a whole and individual members wherever possible. This will help people feel more motivated to work as part of the team.
10. If you are considering embarking on ‘team building’ exercises in order to generate teamwork, then embark on these with caution. Some individuals find these threatening, patronising or simply cringe making, akin to David Brent in the comedy series ‘The Office’. Before you decide for certain, it may be better to consult the team and see how they react. If they recoil then you can respect their decision and perhaps they will work better as a team simply to avoid the teambuilding exercises….
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