TEAM BUILDING
Every team member including leader should think, ‘I am because of you, and you are because of team’.
“Coming together is the beginning Keeping together is a progress Working together is a success”
What is a team?
A group of people can be called a team. And the meaning of the team is authenticated and proved when it is formed to perform an assigned task under competent leader. Now-a-days, teams have emerged as the most important groups in organizations. The team work is most natural thing in all most all organizations. There will be no ‘PICK AND USE’, ‘INSTANT’ or ‘READYMADE’ teams to build in one go, or as and when we required, it takes an amount of time and efforts.
What is Team Building?
Team building is an active process by which a group of individuals with a common purpose are focused, aligned and must work well with others to achieve a specific task or set of outcomes, improve productivity with cohesiveness and collaboration for synergetic results.
Team building refers to various activities undertaken to motivate team members and increase the overall performance of a team. Team Building activities consist of wide variety of tasks undertaken to prepare a team member, motivate him and make him perform his best. Team building can lead to :-
- Increased productivity and creativity
- Team members are motivated to achieve goals
- Good ambiance of cooperation and better results
- Job satisfaction and commitment at elevated levels
- Higher levels of trust and support
- Various types of employees working together
- Crystal clear work objectives
Necessity and formation of teams in organization
In order to achieve improved organization performance and better morale, all organizations whether it is a small or big one should have teams, to perform tasks for its survival, growth and sustainability. Usually teams have to work and perform tasks under the guidance of a leader, who has to take responsibility for a team. The formation of teams in organization is cardinal in finishing the tasks within stipulated time with expected results. It is the duty and responsibility of the leader to form a team, as he is the one who takes the responsibility for both success and failure. Organizations have to embrace teams and teamwork as an effective way of doing business.
Different personalities in a team – Role of a leader
Every individual is unique in the universe and no two people are identical. A team consists of human beings only, though they work with machines and material. Hence, it is natural that all team members do not have the same ability, knowledge or skill to contribute to the group. Thus, a leader should ensure that a team should consist of required members, with whom the expected results can be achieved, without any failure. A leader should take time to understand the staff working in his team, to make better decisions regarding project management and task delegation.
Feedback plays major role
Feedback is most important thing in team management. Unless you have the feedback on daily basis, you cannot control the team. Feedback is an important tool through which a leader can manage, control and
supervise the team. The best thing about the feedback is it provides the required information on individual performance as well as the overall team performance. Feedback is an essential tool for leaders to manage teams, Without feedback a leader never achieve expected results.
Conflict Management
There will be a chance of conflict among the people in a group in regards to work, style, opinions and recognition. Common causes of conflict include employee competition, difference in objectives, values or perceptions. Being a leader, never allow the conflicts to go beyond your control and try to manage the conflict in time; lest, leader has to spend his most valuable time in solving the conflicts, otherwise use the time towards goal achievement. Leader has to build and foster the skills in individuals that are congruent with the needs of a team. Opinions, values, styles and a whole host of other differences provide more than enough grounds for disagreement. Allowing the differences to get out of hand causes unnecessary disruption, and leads to breakdowns in working relationships. Leaders must take it upon themselves to understand the basics of conflict management and instill soft skills in team members. An efficient leader should invariably anticipate identify, prevent, manage and resolve problematic issues between teams by using feedback tool for better results.
Team Members Development
It is very important to develop team members through various training programs to increase their skills otherwise organizations lose them gradually, Success of any team is depends on the performance of the individuals in a group. Typically, few members of the group perform well by using their skills and knowledge. Then leader has to help and encourage average team members to perform on par with the remaining group, so that the burden should not fall on few individuals in order to reach set goals. The leader has to help every individual in a team to become more effective contributor to project, and also ensure that every member in a team achieve their career goals while furthering organizational goals. It is the duty and responsibility of a leader to create a career development plan meticulously through company training and educational assistance programs.
Creating a healthy workplace
Taking care of safety and health at work places is very important for making employees to focus on work with dedication. Leaders while focusing on results, need to look into the organizational infrastructure, such as proper ventilation, drinking water, a place for relax when becomes sick suddenly during the work time, workable machinery, and whole lot of things which makes the work place a happy and productive environment for the people who are working. When the organization takes care of these basic things, the employee’s morale will always be high. When employees are happy many miracles will happen at work places. A healthy environment in an organization keeps its business ahead of all competition. Moreover, it is mandatory for any organization as per the rules and regulations prevalent all over the world, to care for well being of employees at work places.
Building an effective team
All members in a team work according to their skills and knowledge. It is the duty of a leader to implant togetherness, positive and result oriented methods in the minds of team members. In order to obtain positive results from the group, the leader should communicate effectively, and deal conflicts efficiently within the team. To lead a team effectively, you must first establish your leadership with each team members, while considering following points:-
- Consider each employee’s ideas as valuable
- Be clear when communicating
- Encourage trust and cooperation among employees in your team
- Encourage team members to share information
- Delegate tasks and let team work together on creative solutions
- Communicate effectively for clarity and successful team work
- Establish team values and goals
- Evaluate team performance
- Establish a method for arriving at a consensus
Team Building Exercises
Nobody can work in cohesion with strangers. A leader needs to include a lot of exercises which help the team members know each other well, This way individuals are no longer strangers to each other and the bonding increases. Team building exercises can be used by any business, large or small, to promote better team work at workplace. There are several team games available in the market. A leader may use any number team games, as deemed fit, at frequent intervals so that the team will remain tightly united and work most effectively with enthusiasm, while maintaining harmonious relations in a team. The common and most popular team building exercises are as follows:-
- Arrange get-together parties for knowing each other
- Take them to picnic along with families
- Wish and give small gifts on their birthdays and anniversaries
Maintaining harmony in a team
There are people who heckle or disturb others. If it is inadvertent and sporadic, we can handle it. what if it is a deliberate and continuous habit from these people, we have no option but to deal these people according to the applicable rules and regulations. Don’t fire these people at onec. Take your own time as employees are not hired to be fired.
Here is a situational case : You are working in an organization and want to give motional and morale boosting lessons to your group. You came and about to start the session. Suddenly, you observe that one of your team members, Gokul, is giving ostensible signals of dissatisfaction. He’s not showing any signs of interest in this useful session and meddling with others. And your attention is now turned towards Gokul, who is doing unwanted things in the group and you kept your cool as your are ready to start your speech. Ignoring all this, you started your session, keeping in view of remaining people in the group. The session is finished and all are about to leave the room to do their duties. Still, Gokul is spreading negative feedback about the session and about the company. Because, it is his attitude and that is not going to change in near future. We normally see this type of people in organizations and are actually impediment to the growth of the organization.
The truth is, Mr. Gokul has negative mental attitude and passive aggressiveness, which not only spoil him as an individual, but also spoils the group and subsequently the organization. Since, this habit is contagious, it usually spread very fast and if you do not take immediate remedial actions, the whole group, which has been doing as per your expectations until now, will tilt towards negative mood. And you know the impact of the group once it is entered into negative area. If one team member experiences a negative emotion, then chances are high that it will hurt the performance of the entire group. Thus, as a leader, you can use your assertiveness and emotional intelligence, which plays a key role in these situations.
I never change, with my pay range
It’s my right to impinge, that’s why I am always estrange I can’t stop the binge, when I am on the fringe
Because I am the hinge, for the whole grunge.
