Building A Team
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One of the most frustrating things you can experience as a leader is to continually try to build a strong team, but experience difficulties and obstacles in human relationships continually.
Make no mistake, human relationships are everything in teams. After all, that’s what teams are: people striving for a common goal.
There are several evident barriers to team success that are common to most teams; let me describe some of them. Hopefully, if you’re struggling with managing your team, you can identify with some of these issues and realize it’s a problem.
Three Barriers
to Building a Team
1. Poor Leadership
Everything flows from leadership. And when there’s a problem in the team, usually, it’s the leader’s fault.
Either he’s not giving enough direction to his team, or he’s not communicating enough to his team.
Remember, when there is a problem with the team, look to yourself first.
Do you think you gave enough instructions for your team to fully understand what you’re telling them? Are you committed to your goals, and it came out through a speech that you gave them?
If you’re not sure, you can always ask someone in the team for feedback about yourself. Be ready for criticism; after all, you’re asking so that you can improve.
2. Poor Communication
Communication is the key of life; and more so in teams. You need to have a lot of communication amongst the team members, and the team members with you.
With communication, you can eliminate a lot of misunderstandings, ambiguity and hence possible conflict from the team.
A team with bad communication often has a lot of mistrust, politics and backstabbing. Everything is under the table, because nothing is brought upon the table.
This often causes the team dynamics to breakdown. Because information is not shared openly or timely, the team cannot operate at its full potential.
3. Poor Team Dynamics
Teams can fail because some people just cannot work with others. For example, if you have two extremely opinionated team members in the team, you’ll be seeing conflict all day in the team.
Also, if you have team members that are ‘yes’ men; people that are just passive and wait for orders, you won’t see a lot of participation and open discussion in the team.
The thing is that, you must find the right mix of individuals to make a team; not just in terms of personalities, but also in terms of skills and abilities.
Overcoming these barriers are not just a simple task. I have learnt from experience that it takes time to break any team through these barriers. Know them, and start dealing with them one at a time.
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Articles on Team Building
Creating a Team Mission Statement
Before your team can work effectively, you must set the vision for the team so that every individual in the team understands the purpose of coming together. Are they coming together for a common interest, a specific project, or for a long term vision?
Examples of Team Mission Statements
Here are some examples of good mission statements used in the biggest companies in the world. Learn the elements required in a mission statement and how you can draft a good mission statement.
Formulating Great Team Mottos
A team motto captures the values of a team in a few words or a phrase. Learn about some simple team mottos and how you can create a great team motto for your team.
Setting the Stage for Teamwork
Before you send your team off to do their task, you must set the context and the foundation so that your team will succeed. You need to set expectations, make certain rules within the team and more.
The Barriers to Team Success
There are several barriers to building a successful team. Learn about the pitfalls in teambuilding and how you can avoid them.
Characteristics of Good Teams
Every good team has similar characteristics. Learn six invaluable characteristics that are required to groom an effective, successful team.
Why Doesn't My Team Speak Up?
Getting your team to speak up is probably one of the greatest challenges you will have as a leader. You need to move your team's mindset from the traditional top-down decision making process into the new paradigm.
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