7 tips on how to build a team
In this article, you will discover how to build a team within your organization.
This is a crucial element for any company and will allow you to accomplish your tasks in an efficient and effective way.
There are many ways to build a team.
The key is to ensure that you build a team that works together to achieve your business goals.
You will discover:
- what you need to do to make sure your team works well together
- how to keep your team motivated so they can succeed
Let’s get started with my tips.
1 – Be aware of the team culture
Every team has its own culture, its own way of working, and its own history.
Your team’s culture may or may not be in line with your company’s culture.
In order to create an alignment between the two, your role is to show your team that there is an inconsistency between how they currently operate and what is expected by the company’s leadership.
You don’t have to provide custom solutions all the time.
Instead, you can rely on team members to come up with their own strategies to contribute more to the company’s success.
If there is no conflict between the culture of the group and the culture of the company, it will be much easier to start bringing the team together.
2 – Adapt your management style to your team
You have a management style that has both qualities and flaws.
If you want to build a strong team, you need to understand how your team functions as a unique entity.
If you impose your management style without taking into account the uniqueness of your team, you will set yourself up for failure.
But if you use the strength of your team’s functioning to lead, you will have excellent results.
From this group energy, you will develop a new way of managing that will bring value and support to your team members.
3 – Communicate effectively with the team and its members
As a manager, you need to be able to communicate with the team as an autonomous entity, but also with each of the individuals that make up the team.
When you communicate with your team you are not only the manager of the team but also one of its members.
Instead of dictating your point of view and exhausting your resources, create a space of trust and experimentation to allow everyone to express their opinions.
Be an active listener, accepting both pleasant and difficult opinions.
If you pretend to listen or prevent voices contrary to your own or the company’s point of view from being heard, you will block the evolution of your team.
At the same time, you need to be open to the individual needs of each of your staff. If you want to learn the basics of active listening, I recommend reading my ebook on active listening.
To do this, leave your office door open when you don’t need to focus on an important task.
You will also need to be careful about what information you share with your team and understand if you start sharing too much confidential information with your team or if you are sharing too much unnecessary information.
4 – Become conscious of your attitude
This is not an easy step because becoming aware of your behavior requires being able to observe yourself from the outside in an objective way.
But even so, you can begin to notice what your behavior reflects on your colleagues.
The way you walk, the way you dress, the way you listen, and the way you interact with others, all communicate a set of signals to your team.
The goal of this process is not to strive for perfection but rather to correct inconsistent information that you may be unintentionally conveying to others.
You will also need to ensure that you are able to recognize when your behavior is becoming inappropriate and when you need to modify your behavior, especially when you are under stress and pressure.
5 – Build on individual motivations to improve overall team effectiveness
Building a team that works together can be daunting, especially if it’s your first time as a manager.
It’s often easy to get lost in the day-to-day management and forget that you have a team whose members have very different motivations.
If these motivations are in line with those of the company, you won’t have much trouble.
But if not, you have the choice between:
- ignore them
- fight them
- use them to your company’s advantage
My advice is to choose the third option by having an open group discussion to make your employees understand the gap between their goals and those of the company.
If possible, ask the team to co-create one or more viable solutions to meet both corporate and individual needs.
To go further on this topic, I recommend you to read my article on how to retain your workforce.
6 – Improve your team’s performance
It’s important to think about how your team could work better and make sure everyone understands their role.
One way to do this is to help your team identify their strengths and weaknesses.
Doing this will start a process that will help them understand what they need to do to work together and succeed.
Another effective strategy that requires openness on your part as a manager is to ask the team what they need from you in order to function better.
Conversations with your colleagues are also an opportunity to eliminate unproductive procedures and create new ones that not only improve performance but also bring more well-being to their work and reduce the risk of burn-out.
7 – Improve yourself
The efficiency of your team also depends on you.
Here are some ideas to start or continue this process:
- manage your time to work better and find a greater balance between your personal and professional life
- learn more about yourself to increase your resilience
- recognize when you are at your best and when you are less performant
- find strategies to better cooperate with your colleagues and other players in the organization
- analyze your performance
- learn from others
- develop new ideas
- help others improve their performance
- communicate your ideas more effectively
- think creatively to solve complex problems or emergencies
- demonstrate self-discipline
What to do if you need to build a new team?
If you are involved in recruiting a new team, the first key to success is to ensure that you are recruiting people:
- who can communicate with each other and are willing to listen and learn from one another
- who have the right attitude and understanding of what it means to work in a team
- who are motivated and have complementary skills
You will need to look at the overall structure of your team and think about how you will manage it to make sure that each person has a good balance of work and responsibility.
You will also need to create an effective strategy for:
- building your team
- support the team in the long term
- manage stress and pressure during difficult times
Conclusion on how to build a team
In this article, I have outlined 7 tips on how to successfully federate a work team.
You can take advantage of a free session with a team coach by writing to us using our contact form, or by calling us at +33 6 69 46 03 79 or on WhatsApp at the same number.
Read this article in other languages
Français : Comment fédérer une équipe : plus de performance et de bien-être
Italiano: Come creare un team di lavoro: maggiori prestazioni e benessere