How to Build Successful Teams

If you are in a leadership position, harnessing the talents of your staff is a top priority. Projects only run smoothly and produce satisfactory results provided your team collaborates effectively. The onus is on you as a leader to gel staff into well-oiled teams. This post examines how to build successful teams, outlining team-building principles and listing fail-safe techniques you can bring to the workplace. You will need much emotional intelligence, actionable tools, and a stellar commitment to prioritising team-building at your workplace.

Any work process or project is only as good as the team completing it. The better your team members collaborate the more smoothly and successfully they will fulfill their tasks. But what engages individuals to the extent that each and everyone wants to do their very best for the team? If you’ve asked yourself how to build successful teams, you must first explore what transforms individuals into productive, enthusiastic team members willing to go the extra mile.

Going deeper, you must also discover the ingredients for workplace satisfaction. To thrive at work, people want to feel valued and connected. They want to see through challenging projects with the support of others and have the chance to use their talents and pursue their passions. This wishlist throws up pressing demands on managers, but the opportunities to harness each person’s potential for the best results are multifold.

Ingredients for Job Satisfaction

With most of your precious time gobbled up by work each week, you can understand why workers are fussy when choosing a job. Considering the time people spend at work, the time they invest thinking about it plus their time commuting to it, job satisfaction becomes a must-have.

According to Psychology Today, workers are happiest if leaders address the following six needs.

• Wanting Purpose: Regardless of the industry, employees want to feel they make a difference within their work environment and beyond.
• Wanting a Long Leash: Research suggests that workers do not like being micro-managed. They need a sense of choice and autonomy.
• Wanting to Progress: Personnel seek to experience professional growth, upskill, and climb the career ladder.
• Wanting Fairness and Respect: Leaders must treat staff equally and fairly while building a culture of respect and validation at the heart of the workplace.
• Wanting Appreciation: People like their work to be recognised and valued.
• Wanting Team Spirit: Harmonious teams make for happy workers.

Again the importance of building successful teams emerges as a top priority, not only for better business outcomes but also for workforce happiness.

Team Building Principles – The 7 Cs

Much study has gone into effective team-building strategies. Published in 2020, the Tannenbaum & Salas book Teams That Work: The Seven Drivers of Team Effectiveness introduces the 7 Cs of effective team-building:

1. Cooperation: Team members must prioritise team effectiveness over individual performance, build trust, and forge productive collaborations.
2. Coordination: Much attention must be paid to coordinating tasks and building effective collaborative structures. Management guidance and clear communication are paramount.
3. Cognition: All team members must come to know the people and processes intimately and share values and goals.
4. Coaching: Team members have a mutual duty of care, meaning they become leaders and participate in team-building efforts.
5. Conditions: Leaders must emphasise the value of teamwork while enabling each member to contribute and thrive.
6. Communication: Excellent and clear communication is a cornerstone of team effectiveness.
7. Competence: Each team member possesses unique competencies and must have the scope to use them for the benefit of the team.

The 7 Cs are today’s golden team management principles, with many business consultants assessing team performance within this concept. When building or optimising teams, the 7 Cs can provide structure, process clarity, and guidance.

How to Build Successful Teams

In Developmental Sequence in Small Groups, Bruce Tuckman outlines the five stages of team building and performance.

During the initial ‘Forming’ period, individuals meet and get to know each other. Most feel optimistic about the collaboration while some may need encouragement to contribute.

Next up is the ‘Storming’ stage during which team members drop their guard and show their personality. This invariably leads to conflict situations to be smoothed by leaders. Managers must step up and identify individuals’ strengths and establish clear communication and conflict resolution structures.

The ‘Norming’ period sees team members settling into their roles and focusing on their tasks. Providing positive feedback, reinforcing clear communication, and firming up a positive work environment help solidify the team, motivate, and improve the work quality.

During the ‘Performing’ stage, teams focus and excel. At this point, leaders can easily resolve potential conflicts.

The final stage of Tuckman’s process denotes the ‘Adjourning’ stage. The project has been completed, and members evaluate and assess what’s next. Leaders must provide feedback, support, and reassurance.

This sequence emerges in most teamwork settings and industries. Managers must be cognisant of them and provide specific support during each stage. The following steps facilitate team-building and staff collaboration.

Provide Clear Project Objectives and Structures

The clearer the guidelines, task allocation, and workflow, the easier you make it for your team to deliver. Distribute the task to suit skills, provide continuous feedback, and establish goal metrics so staff can self-evaluate.

Establish Clear Communication Systems and Frequencies

Encourage open communication, set up regular progress meetings, and lead by example by being approachable and responsive. Strive to be an excellent, active listener.

Harness Team Member Strengths

Encourage creativity and close collaboration among staff, honing in on personal strengths and competencies.

Introduce an Accountability System

Projects with accountability systems run far more smoothly. Provide interim milestones, targets or deadlines to help stay on track and provide ongoing feedback. Staff value accountability checks to feel a sense of achievement and a motivation boost.

Be Supportive in Conflicts and Crises

When staff fail or fight step in and provide additional support. Make sure they learn from mistakes and grow as a result.

Celebrating Team Success

Whenever your team reaches a significant goal, celebrate and reward them. Small tokens of appreciation work, while team success celebrations help to motivate, strengthen bonds, and lift the team spirit.

Do Team Building Trips Work?

Love them or loathe them, the jury is still out on the effectiveness of team-building activity trips. Some companies and organisations insist on staff participation while others have scrapped them altogether. Right now, opponents shout loudest even though anecdotal evidence suggests those trips fire up the team spirit.

Good Interpersonal Skills Wanted!

Any leader can acquire effective team structures, tools, and team-building techniques. For exemplary leadership, you also require excellent interpersonal and soft skills. With both skill sets in your back pocket, you can gel any team, get the best out of any member and jointly bring any project to a fruitful conclusion.