Working in a team can be great fun, you feel part of something bigger, accomplish more, learn new skills from others and even learn a lot about yourself. Yet teamwork can also be challenging, as it can mean working with people with very different personalities and perspectives. It doesn’t matter if you’re a team leader or team member; you’re equally responsible to ensure the team is successful. What do you think are some of the tools needed to create a successful team?
Value enhanced by 2. Value what you’re doing. How? By keeping in mind what it is you are trying to accomplish. Increase the value, by recognising the value of each member of the team and their contribution. All roles are needed from the leader to doer to the thinker. The more positive and enthusiastic our thoughts are towards the task and our team members the smoother and more successful the task will be.
Next, good feelings increase within the team when everyone feels welcome and free to express their ideas. Even better, when no-one rejects anyone’s’ idea out of hand, just because they think it’s a silly idea. Instead we can say something like: ‘Well it might work.’ or if you’re the team leader ‘Thank-you, I will look into it’. When we flippantly reject others’ ideas they may feel disheartened and this doesn’t help the team spirit at all.
Along with this, it is crucial to foster the ability to listen. Do you register what others are saying? Not just the words, but also how they are feeling? It is all part of what they are saying. When we register all of how someone is, it may change how we understand what they are saying. Our ability to listen is particularly enhanced when we stop commenting on and judging what others are saying, as they are speaking. Have you noticed the conversation going on in your mind when another is speaking? How easy is it to listen to two people at the same time and get the whole picture?
Unfortunately, it isn’t unusual to find that there’s one particular person in the team really difficult to get along with. It really helps here to focus on their specialities, how they contribute to the overall project or on something positive we know about them. Appreciation can work wonders in ourselves and others.
Teamwork is meant to be fun too. Be light. Be cheerful. This doesn’t mean you have to be cracking jokes all the time. It is more about focusing on what you enjoy in your task. Others then pick this up. Do you feel that you are too serious? A simple practise is, in the morning, to smile at yourself in front of the mirror. Smile from the heart. You’ll be surprised how just doing something as simple as this can lighten your mood.
So, whilst keeping your eye on the goal, appreciate, encourage, support and enjoy the creative process of building something together.
