Teaching Teams New Tricks

There may be projects in your business that require a team effort. Getting a team together to accomplish a common goal can be a mixed bag. Sometimes the team seems to work well with little effort, other times, you need input and training from a strong leader to make it all work.

It takes more than one brilliant mind to achieve a goal or complete a project and you have to contend with personality styles, internal politics and external challenges. Your teams must learn their roles within the team and understand the desired outcomes in order to reach success.

While shared goals and timelines will motivate your team, there are so many other factors to consider.

Individual Learning Styles

Not everyone on your team is going to have the desired skill or experience to work within the team. There are often times you need to manage and train your team.

Team members may learn through being hands-on, being told information, or being shown information. This is known as kinesthetic, auditory or visual learning. Think about each team member as an individual and how they best learn.

Remember, skills can be taught, knowledge can be shared. It is the individual’s motivation to learn and be part of the team that matters.

Openness to learning

Knowing your team’s learning styles is only going to be effective if the team is willing to learn. This is one of the critical elements to a successful team.

Your team must be willing to learn from each other as they will not all individually possess the skills and knowledge to achieve the desired outcomes. They must be willing to take risks, experiment, fail and try again.

They must also be willing to share their knowledge and expertise with the others in the team. Having the willingness to receive new information and feedback is essential for each team member to improve.

Skills

While skills can be taught, there needs to be a minimum of people on the team who already possess the skills needed for the execution of the project. They are then able to assist with training the other team members, especially when a problem arises.

It is, however, imperative that the whole team possess basic skills such as problem-solving, communication, conflict resolution and organization. These skills allow the team to work cohesively to achieve their common goals.

The goal

Everyone on the team must know the desired outcomes. A strong team is one that is all headed in the same direction. This cannot be done without having clear goals, accountability and a final destination or project outcome. Having the team agree on a clear plan provides clear direction and each team member can set about achieving the objective.

Acknowledgement

Once the team reach certain goals within the project, it is important to acknowledge their efforts. This creates more motivation to keep going, especially with more lengthy projects. Consider how each member is motivated. They may all be motivated by different types of recognition.

Team building is both an art and science. It takes leaders to create successful team, but with the right guidance and motivation, your team can exceed all expectations and achieve true greatness