No business can reach the top position when there’s no connection between the leader and team members. A great leader is not only someone who can plan out and organize the working process but also someone who becomes a motivation for their team.
A perfect team has to be built and developed. It’s not enough to gather a bunch of experts with outstanding skills and experience. In order to make the team work, you’ll need to ensure the high quality of the communication process and that all the members of your team are on the same wavelength.
Today, we want to talk in more detail about the importance of team building and how a great leader can use it to boost the effectiveness of the working process. If you’re eager to learn more about it, keep reading!
What is team building?
The first point we need to define is what stands behind the term team building. Many people have heard this term, but they’re not really aware of all the details.
It’s quite common to think that team building is like an annual event when all the workers gather together and perform some activities. You can say that it is like that in a way. However, to make use of team building, it’s essential to merge it into the ongoing working process rather than conduct it as a once-a-year matter.
How exactly team building helps the leader to organize the working process?
First of all, the leader defines the strongest and weakest points of each team member and decides how they can compensate them for each other. They built the most effective communication channels between the members of different units.
They need to notice even the slightest conflicts and misunderstandings and find the solution as fast as possible. It allows the leaders to understand the peculiarities of each personality and define which workflow is the best for each member. It also allows to create a stronger bond and trust between the members and erase certain boarders that may stall the working process.
Basically, the whole point of team building is to unite your employees around a common goal and find what type of work path is the most suitable and effective for them.
What is the importance of team building process?
We already defined in a few words the main purpose of team building, and now it’s time to review why it is so meaningful and how it impacts the development of your business.
We can all agree that it doesn’t really matter how skilled and experienced the worker is, it’s impossible to complete certain tasks all by yourself. That’s why it’s so essential to acknowledge your individual strengths and combine them with others to succeed.
Communication
One of the crucial factors that strongly influence the working environment in any organization is communication. Any kind of work requires a constant exchange of information within the team, especially when it comes to big projects with many stages and processes.
You’ll need to do the following:
- Discuss all the tasks that need to be completed;
- Divide the work between each other;
- Offer ideas and suggestions that you find to be the best, etc.
However, not all people are great communicators and a good leader has to understand that and find a way to engage that person in the discussion.
Team building will allow you to create trusting relationships between the members. In that way, they won’t be scared to ask questions about something they’re not familiar with or ask for help and advice when needed.
Dividing the roles
Another point that depends on proper teamwork is an accurate division of tasks and responsibilities.
As we have already mentioned before, a good leader knows the strongest and weakest sides of all the members. With the help of team building, it becomes way easier to define who can deal with certain processes better and which people are more fitting together.
It might be beneficiary to combine innovative and visionary people that are full of ideas with pragmatic individuals who can easily organize the process. Or you can team up some of the older employees with the newer ones to let them share the experience and find ways to cooperate.
How can leaders apply team building to the working process?
Now we want to present you with some useful tips and practices that can be used to unite your team and boost the effectiveness of your work.
Choosing leaders
This kind of practice can be used to define the employees with the potential to be leading the team and organize the processes. To do that, you’ll need to form a few groups of people and ask them to share which qualities they value in a leader and which characteristics that person needs to have. Then ask them to choose the person that suits these characteristics the most within their group.
Creating survival scenarios
A practice of that type allows you to see how each member acts in a stressful situation. You’ll be able to develop critical thinking within the team and define which members you can assign for tasks that require stress resistance.
Give your team a scenario, like a plane crash or natural disaster, and ask them to describe the actions they would take.
Emoji talk
As you can guess, this practice is relatively new. It is really helpful to understand the personalities of each member and create a superior communication platform.
Ask your employees to communicate with each other and express their thoughts in the form of emojis. Other workers will have to interpret that and figure out what their coworkers are saying.
Human icebreaker
This practice is pretty common, and many people are familiar with it. The whole point of it is to discover something new about your coworkers and break the ice between you.
You’ll need to gather your members and let them ask each other some random questions about anything. Starting from a favorite color to the least favorite food, etc. Questions like that will make them feel closer to each other and help defuse the atmosphere.
Spot the difference
You can use this practice to teach your employees how to pay attention to the details and always stay engaged in the process.
Divide your workers into pairs and let them talk for a few minutes, then give them some time to change things up in the background or their appearance. After they’re done, each employee has to figure out what the changes were.
Summing up
To make your team work like a well-oiled machine, it’s important to pay a lot of attention to team-building activities. A great leader always knows the strong and weak sides of each worker, their skills, and their personality types. By gathering that information and using it in practice, a good leader will make the most of it to enhance the effectiveness of the working process.
We hope you’ll find our little guide on team building helpful and will use some of these practices for your team.
