Great and impeccable teamwork is scarce as hens' teeth. We don’t get to see a team which has amazing teamwork. Yet there are some qualities which any team can build to improve teamwork or to even become a powerful team.
Let’s explore these.
They don’t fear debates
All stunning teams, which are able to achieve magnificent things in a short time, can carry out long constructive conflicts and even emotional debates without any damage to the relationship. It is very sad that conflicts and debates are seen as taboo, especially in the professional area. And, most people in senior management, try to avoid them. Productive conflicts and debates are an essential part of teamwork as they help teams build trust and high levels of comfort. One thing to note here is that teams must avoid any personality focused debate or any mean-spirited attack.
If you don’t have passionate debates and constructive conflicts at your workplace, your team members will dread team meetings, try to ignore any topic that is controversial or intense and won’t be able to understand the perspectives of other members. Moreover, a non-reliable environment is developed where back-channel politics takes birth.
On the other hand, teams with high levels of trust are able to carry out debates and conflicts. And, as a result, team meetings are interesting, big problems are solved in a short span of time, politics is reduced and there is less discomfort when discussing controversial topics.
They are committed
Great teams are committed to decisions and goals. They have clarity. The move ahead with complete buy-in. But how do you know if your team members are committed or not? Committed team members are able to support a decision completely even if things are not certain. Or, if the decision is totally against what they suggested. This helps people decide more quickly and get things moving faster.
Teams which wait for enough data to make a decision suffer because of indecisiveness. Being decisive is very important when it comes to teamwork. You cannot always reach consensus. Your team members come from a different background. They have different experiences and different perspectives. So, it is impossible that they all will always agree on the same thing. Certainty is another enemy of commitment. As discussed earlier, people who wait until things get certain, regret later due to their indecisiveness. It is better to take a wrong decision, stay bold and then change direction if you get to know you are in the wrong direction.
Committed teams can create clarity when setting priorities, align the entire workforce around common goals, can learn from mistakes, exploit opportunities and stay ahead of the competitors.
They don’t avoid accountability
Accountability is the fundamental pillar of great teamwork. Great teams have team members who don’t fear calling out their peers on bad performance. They are not stuck in thoughts that if they call out their team members they will develop resentment against them. Many people avoid calling out their team members because they don’t want to deal with the discomfort which comes due to the confrontation. Amazing teams are able to get over this discomfort and establish an environment where calling out other peers is not that difficult.
This mostly happens in team members who are close to each other. They think that if they call out, they are going to jeopardize an amazing relationship. However, the relationship is jeopardized not because of the confrontation but because of the resentment that grows because of non-confrontation.
Great are teams build an environment where poor performers feel the need to improve due to the pressure. They are able to recognize important problems ahead of time. They develop respect among team members to avoid politics and performance review and management.
These are the qualities which set amazing teams apart from others. If you feel the teamwork at your organization is suffering, you can hire an advisory consulting firm to help you improve teamwork at your organization.
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