“Soft Skills” for Business

Mastering Synergy Towards a Purpose

Unfortunately, teams are not necessarily teams. Coordinating the work of several people with their own unique skills, opinions and mind-sets is a challenge. To ease the task and deliver extraordinary results, create processes that build consensus.

Good teams start with effective leaders, managers who earn the trust of their employees so that they work well even when the boss isn’t around.

The Basics

Ideally, you want to pull together between five and 10 individuals with complementary skills and areas of expertise into clearly defined roles around a common objective.
Foster open communication.
While you want everyone to share core values, you also want to encourage the diversity of your team members’ strengths and their independence.
Recognize your team members for their accomplishments and reward them when they meet their goals.

Unstoppable Teams

US Navy SEAL Alden Mills shows how to develop the best small-unit teams, whatever your mission demands.

Alden Mills HarperBusiness

Fundamental to a high-functioning team is an understanding of how they fit in with the overall organization.

Within a team, different people have different functions, but they know how their skills relate to a shared purpose.

Team processes that are clear, allow for continuous improvement through feedback and move the team forward towards completing goals are crucial. When communication is honest and respectful, based on trust, team members are on the same page when it comes to the game plan, and there are processes and space for differing viewpoints, the team will function creatively to meet challenges.

Next Steps

Make sure you have a clear agenda set for meetings.
Relate the assignments you hand out to larger team targets as well.
If you’re just getting updates, keep meetings brief. Planning or problem-solving meetings will be longer.
Do what you can to elicit feedback from all team members.
Trust, camaraderie and confidence will build your team members up.

Encourage team members to be unafraid to throw out even half-baked solutions, and refrain from judgement while your team is brainstorming.

Group Creativity

The whole is greater than the sum of its parts, so put the power of collective creativity to work. Like it or loathe it, brainstorming is the most well-known framework for tapping a group’s creativity, but many other group-thinking strategies can summon forth your organization’s next great idea.

Avoid Micromanagement

Micromanagers are overly critical and expect constant updates about assignments. Often they are frustrated by the way an employee is doing a task and decide to just do it themselves. This is a destructive habit that erodes the confidence and trust of your team; avoid it.

If you’re a manager, your job is to oversee employees and workflow, not do the work yourself.
If you’re not happy with someone’s work, mentor them.
If you must be critical, be diplomatic and constructive.
Failures happen.

When they do, help your employees get up and try again. Here is how:

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Leading Teams

The way you lead your team makes all the difference in whether your team members work well together, feel motivated, and meet their goals and your organization’s objectives. Working as a team can be an efficient, smart way to pool talent and boost effectiveness or just a contentious waste of time. It depends on how you lead.

Remote Teams

The home office trend became the home office mandate with the outbreak of COVID-19, leaving managers with a challenge. Getting team members to function together smoothly is hard enough when everyone can meet. How do you generate teamwork in cyberspace? How do you work with far-flung employees at every step, from supervision to advancement. The experts recommend connection, communication, culture and mutual accountability. Here’s how that works.

Teamwork

So much of work now is organized around teams, which is a great thing if you have a great team. Learn how to work smoothly with your co-workers and unite to reach your team goals.

Caryn Hunt

Caryn Hunt is a writer and editor at getAbstract.