Teamwork
Teamwork
If you want to go far, go together" - African Proverb.
You can certainly do a lot alone, based on your interests and strengths, but you really can’t do anything better by yourself. We seldom operate alone; people contribute their experience, expertise, personality, perspective, approaches – all of which allows to reach better, more creative or efficient results.
You need a team.
A team needs contributors, people who bring different complementary skills and are willing to continue to improve or expand them. Every member must trust on other’s abilities, strengths, and deliverables.
Differences create depth, strength, and bring balance to the team. Different personalities, experiences, and abilities increases the team problem solving approaches.
A clear plan allows members to achieve, they know what is expected of them – duties, standards of performance, time frames and deadlines they are supposed to meet. The team is interdependent, what each member does impact others. Outcome is influenced by approach, think about the team’s effectiveness – how can you improve effectiveness? How can you better utilize your resources – time, money, materials, and people?
Communication is how your team stays aligned, it is crucial to coordinate the group effort. People need to know and understand what is planned to be able to execute. People need to be able to express their ideas and contribute, you can only move forward is you are driving in the same direction.
Team members feel belonging when they are heard and seen, when they witness that their contribution is having a positive impact in the overall result. Belonging is also created when other members of team help them, when there is collaboration, when there is opportunity to cross-train – to learn from each other, to trust the team. A team’s potential can increase by allowing people to experiment, make corrections, and try again. Best products are created by iteration, developing that edge that allows you to outperform the competition.
Although turnover can be hard in a team, it is expected. Get to know newcomers, make them feel welcome, find out their strengths, offer encouragement.
A team needs to be united, it’s never “them vs us” or “me vs we”. Occasional conflict is expected, different point of views should be welcome, but in the long run a person who does not pass the ball in the court will hurt the team. To be a contributor means that you are putting the effort, making a commitment to produce meaningful results and meeting common goals.
If you want to go far, go together.
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Are you building a team or a new team member and need support on how to become a better leader or contributor? please reach out. We can work together. Let’s get started!
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