Five Things You Are Messing Up in Team Building

By Jodi Mccoy

There are a number of reasons why nearly every organization encourages teamwork. Research has proven that team building activities offer a good platform for companies to enhance high-impact learning, improve communication, boost employee morale and enhance overall productivity. Workers who embrace teamwork usually benefit by enjoying a sense of satisfaction in functioning a single unit to complete potentially challenging organizational tasks. What’s more, team building gives employees an opportunity to go back to the office with the new skill set and feeling reinvigorated as well.

It is also critical to mention that researchers have proven that having a strong team can potentially result in major gains for both small and established businesses. These long-term gains may include an organization’s ability to maximize profitability by enabling individual employees to better combine their skills to achieve improved results, being able to respond reasonably quickly to rapid structural changes, meeting cross-functional challenges. Team building provides an ideal chance for teams to participate together in a world where each one begins with an equal amount of knowledge about a given task. Equally, team building allows workers to become mission-oriented, a phenomenon that makes them achieve ideal results with minimum resources.

Most organizations will confirm to you that team building is always a daunting task to accomplish. It not only requires an experienced managerial team but dedication, sacrifices, time and energy. Even some of the best companies out there periodically make mistakes when dealing with people. In fact, it is quite common to find companies treating employees like kids and then ask why such workers so frequently fail to fulfil their potentials. What’s more, a significant number of organizations usually invest untold energy and massive resources in actions which ensure workers are unhappy! It is important for organizations to find effective ways of exhausting all the available strengths and abilities of people they employ.

Today in this post, we want to discuss in excruciating details, the five things organizations usually mess up in team building. Read on and enhance your knowledge.

5. Is your organization lacking leadership?

Quite often, discussions about team building revolve around effective communication, sharing a common goal and solving complex business problems. Even though these three factors are absolutely essential, one key factor which is often ignored is leadership! To come up with a strong and successful team, your employees must trust your judgment because this is when they will work efficiently even when you are not available. Of course, this doesn’t imply that you’ll have to be authoritative, instead, focus on fostering trust through humility, transparency, accountability, and honesty. If you didn’t know, it is too easy to dodge responsibility in team settings because you can easily hide in your sea of colleagues. This is where a leader comes in. In organizational settings, true leaders usually take full responsibility for a group’s final results. This means that the leader will be highly motivated to keep members accountable for their every action.

4. Neglecting your workers’ input.

This is a huge mistake a number of organizations do. Apparently, firms must connect team building with critical business drivers. Equally, you must set clear and achievable goals. However, organizations must understand that teams consist of human beings who have personal and different development needs which when fulfilled can potentially enhance the overall efficiency. Research has shown that focusing on the individual needs of a team strengthens your organization as a unit. On the other hand, putting much emphasis on the objectives of your business will only lead to short-lived benefits but does not foster sustainable development due to ineffective teamwork.

3. Unrealistic organizational objectives.

To create a strong and focused team, you must first set clear goals and share with them your objectives. Explain to your team members what you expect of them. Many businesses usually fail to set realistic goals thus leaving employees figuring out the likely outcomes. Set your goals according to your potential. Carry out an analysis of your available resources, assess the ability of your staff and set clear and achievable goals. To create a functional and reliable team, you must set clear goals and inform your employees about those goals. When every worker knows what is expected of her/him, teamwork becomes a success!

2. Failing to seek the opinions of your employees.

The key to team building is to understand and embrace this term: None of us is as smart as all of us’. Teams enable individuals to achieve things far much beyond every member’s individual potential. Bring every team member on board by asking for their ideas, opinions and suggestions. Equally, you should be able to implement those continuous improvement suggestions and empower them as well. Finally, you must provide relevant feedbacks regarding whether those ideas were implemented or rejected. Always make decisions after asking your team members for their input.

1. Failing to celebrate successes while acknowledging failures.

Recognizing and celebrating your business successes and milestones not only brings your team together but allows your employees to realize that people can achieve great things by working as a team. Learn to congratulate a team member who does something extraordinary. This helps members to feel visible and loved and acknowledge that their contribution is appreciated. On the other hand, if your team fails, come together and direct your thoughts and efforts at solving the problem. Remain positive and never turn your team discussion into a blame game. If you want your team building journey to become successful, you must avoid these five things at all cost.