Man is a social creature by nature and always tends to team and collaborative work to satisfy part of his spiritual needs, but experience shows that usually an experienced and efficient person can perform better alone; because group management is difficult and not everyone has the ability to do it. Of course, it goes without saying that there are always exceptions; one may be placed in a group that has brilliant results. This happens if he is in a dream and ideal team with a knowledgeable leader or manager. Dream teams are very few and far between, and according to the achievements of humanity throughout history, traces of these ideal teams can be seen.
If you look at human success, in many cases, a group of people have united with each other and changed their lives and other people’s lives by trusting each other. You might think that gathering these people together was a coincidence, but you are wrong and behind such a powerful team, there is a great thinking.
In this article, which is a comprehensive guide on team building for managers, I have specialized in important topics such as; I will talk about the importance of team building, the characteristics of successful teams, the effects of team building on businesses, the optimal method for team building, leadership after team building, common team building mistakes, etc. and I will introduce you to team working completely.
Table of Contents
What does team building in companies mean?
Team building does not just mean hiring several different forces and assigning some tasks to them. Team building means building strong relationships between individuals in the group. People who are compatible with each other, have a constructive mindset, and despite their differences, they strive for a specific goal and gain valuable experience along with it.
On the other hand, team building can include activities that managers outsource to teams outside the company to facilitate part of their projects. Contrary to popular belief, this issue is not considered a negative point at all, and in some cases it will also help the speed and efficiency of your team.
The importance of team building
With the daily and rapid growth of technological and social changes and the amount of information, the concept of teamwork has become very important for the performance of successful organizations. For this very reason, the society has faced a lot of stress that it had never experienced before. Organizations have become more complex and more competitive. A company or organization can no longer depend on only a small number of efficient human resources to achieve better and higher positions.
If you want your organization or company to survive, you must find new ways to use the creativity and potential of people at all levels. Benefiting from the opinions and views of others and involving efficient forces to do things is so important and fundamental that it is referred to as the third revolution in management practices. Carrying out team activities increases commitment and ownership, flourishes creativity and creates skills in the troops.
Today, a manager and leader must be able to empower people and facilitate teams and not only be recognized as an effective leader of a team, but also as an effective member of that team.
Characteristics of successful teams
Building trust: With team building, you will give each team member the space and independence necessary to perform tasks and achieve individual and organizational goals.
Communication regulation: Another advantage of team building, which has a psychological dimension, is the creation of communication between different people and the nature of being a part of their social life. According to Margaret Carty: The most interesting thing about team building is that you are not alone and you can interact with different people.
Increasing efficiency: One of the most important reasons for team building is to increase the speed of projects and improve organizational efficiency. Expert people together will be able to achieve a constructive goal more efficiently.
Enhancing creativity and learning: A successful team can motivate team members to learn more, and on the other hand, their creativity flourishes.
Healthy competition: Creating constructive competition between team members is another advantage of team building. This creation of competition, which is one of the side effects of team building, apart from improving the performance of team members, will also improve problem solving skills, communication and management skills among them.
Conflict adjustment: The discussion of conflict between team members is a very broad and specialized topic, and there are different opinions about its negative and positive effects. But according to recent research and theories, conflict between team members is a basic need that, with its proper management, will leave tremendous positive effects in the organization. (In the following articles, organizational conflicts will be discussed in detail.)
Improving organizational culture: when teams and its members interact with each other, apart from increasing their creativity and innovation at work and improving the performance and efficiency of people and increasing the acceptance of professionals, people are effectively recognized, which is It motivates them to work harder for individual and team success. As mentioned, this issue improves the output of the company and at the same time brings the organizational culture closer to its goal.
How to build a team? (Special for managers)
Every year, many businesses are started in our country, but the sad truth is that most of them fail. Many factors such as access to capital, market understanding, innovation, etc. should not be underestimated. But there is one factor that almost all business owners can control and directly guarantee the success of the organization in the long term, this factor is nothing but hiring the right people and combining them in a team.
To build a team, you must go through the following 9 steps in order:
- Make expectations and duties very clear on the first day.
- Respect the individuality and non-working life of team members in order to witness their flourishing at work.
- Communicate between team members but not with words but with your behavior and management system
- Strengthen the emotional intelligence of team members and look at it as a trump card in proper management.
- Implement positive thinking in your management style so that this way of thinking is strengthened among your team members.
- Have a conversation; strengthening the communication skills between the leader and the team members and encouraging the members to talk will solve many differences.
- Rewarding outstanding work and individual and team successes will inject tremendous energy into your team’s body.
- Create diversity in team building; don’t limit your team to the same age, gender, background and opinion.
- Trust, flexibility and interest of people are as important as their expertise in team building. Do not underestimate them in any way.
Leadership after team building
Today, most psychologists and experts believe that having the ability to lead a group of people is the product of their efforts to learn some behavioral formulas and personality rules, rather than being related to the inherent characteristics of people. John C. Maxwell, as one of the most famous writers in the field of management and leadership, endorses this belief and believes that every human being, regardless of their potential personality traits, has the possibility to develop a set of skills Special in himself, to have the power to lead.
Making effective decisions and using resources to reach conclusions is the simplest definition that can be given for management. Planning, organizing, sourcing, directing, monitoring, controlling and improving things to achieve different goals are considered to be one of the most important duties of a manager. After teaming up to develop and create ideal influencers, leaders can monitor the following; Abandoning personal interests for group interests, showing strength and self-confidence, communicating with followers by talking about their core beliefs and values, facilitating greater cooperation and participation of followers with leaders by creating a shared vision and Clarifying the importance of a strong commitment to the goal, creating a healthy competitive atmosphere to develop the potential capacities of employees by providing material and spiritual rewards to superior individuals and groups, strengthening the spirit of collectivism instead of individualism by creating work teams and providing rewards based on the participation and cooperation of members. Teams, this can lead to an increase in cohesion among members and facilitate the acceptance of the role model by the followers.
Common mistakes in team building
- Instead of hiring an expert, do the work yourself or leave it to other team members.
- Focusing on how to do things instead of results
- Unbiased planning for team members
- Focus on multiple projects
- Recruiting junior staff for important positions
- Intensive and amortized time planning for team members
- Failure to provide quality work tools for team members
- A lot of focus on training the troops