What Makes a Good Team
We know that a good team can accomplish great results, and a bad team runs the risk of not achieving much at all. But what makes a good team? What does your team need to form a cohesive unit while working together? Let’s find out.
Why do we need a good team?
A good team often has good connection and trust between teammates. Connection helps you avoid situations where everyone does their own thing, their own way, with no constructive collaboration.
If there’s no consensus and collaboration within the group, the mutual goals become ambiguous and your team may fall apart.
What makes a good team?
There is no surefire formula for building a great team. Solid leadership, effective communication, and access to good resources all foster productive cooperation. However, there are certain traits that almost every good team owns.
1. Mutual respect and trust
Trust and respect help your team move past conflicts quickly and collaborate more effectively. Each person can work independently without anyone watching over their shoulders.
2. Effective communication
Communication is critical for keeping track of progress and collaborating on projects. Effective communication means your staff’s opinions and ideas are received properly and understood precisely. There’s barely any room for misunderstandings and crossed wires that cause poor work results.
3. Having clear goals, objectives, and strategies
If the goals aren’t clear and everyone is confused, it’ll lead whatever your team is working on to nowhere. Your team should work together and agree on mutual goals and objectives. Everything should be specific and clear, from the scope of work of each member and strategies to expected final results.
By determining specific goals, objectives, and strategies, your team has a clear path to follow and something mutual to strive towards together.
4. Diversity
A diverse team includes a broad range of skill sets, strengths, styles of thinking, experiences, expertise, ideas, etc. Each person brings to the table their uniqueness and perspectives, complementing each other and strengthening your team.
5. Leadership
Leaders are the glue that holds the team together. They set the pace, keep everyone informed, provide encouragement and motivation to keep everyone on the right path.
Read more: 30 Important Qualities of a Manager
6. No blaming
When a mistake is made, it’s easy for team members to select a scapegoat or single person to blame. This will only lead to suspicion and a low sense of morale.
It’s true that sometimes you have to remove someone who keeps making severe mistakes from the team. But this is not always the case. Each team member should learn from the mistakes and work to correct them and make sure they won’t happen again in the future.
7. Fun and enjoyment
It doesn’t have to be all work and no play! Bringing some fun to work is crucial to preventing burnout and productivity loss.
There are many ways to create a positive environment that strengthens harmony and collaboration. Check out these posts for making your business a more enjoyable place to work at:
10 Quick Team Building Activities to Bring Your Team Closer Together
10 Remote Team Building Activities You Can Try
Does Team Building Really Work? How to Make It Work?
Competitiveness
A healthy amount of competition can inspire creativity and productivity. Teammates are motivated to work harder and come up with better ideas. However, competition can backfire, so you need to control the amount of it in your team.
Patience
People tend to get impatient and burn out when things are slow and difficult. Patience is what keeps them move past the most challenging situations.
Collaborative spirit
A strong team must include people whose personalities and abilities complement each other. For example, when there’s a problem to be solved, multiple parts of your team need to know what they need to do:
- Who will come up with the solutions?
- Who will make the solutions more practical?
- Who will approve the solutions?
- Who will plan and calculate every detail of the work to be done?
- Who will be in charge of checking and reviewing the work to make sure there are no mistakes?
Conclusion
Teamwork is about lifting each other and motivating each other to grow. Take a closer look at what makes a good team and try to strengthen those good qualities. You’ll soon see better results and even happiness in the workplace.
