Anytime you’re entering the workforce, you can rest assured of one thing.
One thing runs across all companies in virtually every industry and it is critical for organisational success.
It is being a part of and working as a team!
A team is a group of people working together with a shared interest or common goal. Teamwork is a cooperative process, that takes harmony and teamworking skills to achieve success.
Teamwork skills help you to navigate the dynamics of different personalities and work as a synergy to achieve the intended purpose.
Very few companies, if any, allow you to work in isolation all the time. You may have a balance of independent work and teamwork, which you must be equipped to handle.
Types of Teamwork Skills
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Assertiveness
Teams need assertive members. You need to have confidence in your ideas to inspire and motivate others. Even if all your ideas aren’t considered, teamwork thrives on positive and enthusiastic energy. Lacking this assertive energy results in your team doubting your competence and can affect the momentum of the team’s progress.
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The ability to read people
This is a specialised skill and relies on a combination of gut instinct, experience and careful observation. Reading people is so valuable to a team’s success. It allows you to identify personality types, strengths, weaknesses, skill set and contribution to the team. Reading people involves studying body language, work performance and a team member’s character.
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Collaboration
Information needs to be shared across the board so each employee can identify how the project is progressing and whether the objectives are being met. Within a team, every member is expected to contribute and bring a variety of skills, expertise, ideas and feedback to the table. As such, collaboration is key in transferring information, so the team is equally informed and functions as a cohesive unit.
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Strategic Planning
Achieving a goal needs a strategy. Team leaders ought to identify how this strategy will work to reflect the needs of the entire team and get the work done. Therefore, strategic planning is critical to allocate tasks, establish lines of communication and accountability, as well as having a possible contingency plan.
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Flexibility
Challenges arise frequently during teamwork. Budgets are cut. Resources are allocated elsewhere. Members may leave and timelines may change. A crucial part of working together as a team is knowing how to remain flexible to accommodate untimely changes in project scope.
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Reliability
Whenever a team is working towards a common goal, it is essential that each member is reliable to deliver their work on time and of high quality. The team is only as strong as its weakest link. Therefore, one unreliable member can cause the entire team missing their overall goals.
How to Make your Teamworking Skills Stand Out?
Given that teamworking skills are listed as one of the highly valued skills by organisations – your teamworking skills must be highlighted effectively on your resume. When changing jobs, you are essentially leaving one team for another.
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Refine your skills
As the world is changing, the skill set of ten years ago may be deemed near obsolete in today’s market. Therefore, you should always seek to invest in yourself. Courses, training programs, literature and other resources are fortunately available today, at the click of a button to help you grow as a professional and sharpen your skills.
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Involve yourself
Take the initiative and ask to be a part of projects you’re interested in and would allow you to utilise the skill set you have sharpened. These projects would later serve as your professional proof on your resume, that you have the teamworking skills, but more importantly, that you know how to use them.
Common Interview Questions About Teamwork
To determine your teamwork capability, recruiters typically ask for examples. A time you would have used your teamworking skills to rectify a conflict or successfully deliver a project. Recruiters need solid evidence to back up your claims.
Employers also ask about collaboration, conflicts with team members or working with different personalities. They can also look at past responsibilities you’ve listed in your resume and ask how you worked with others to accomplish the end result. The story you provide illustrates to them if you are the candidate, they’re looking for their team.
How to improve teamwork in the workplace?
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Assign the right people
Team members must work together. As such, it is essential that a team comprises of individuals who can plan, collaborate, make decisions, and rely on each other. Therefore, when assembling teams, the ability to read people is critical. Personalities, work ethics and styles of communication must be compatible.
Some persons, for example are classified as abrasive communicators, where they can be very blunt and even hostile at time. Other team members may be passive type communicators, who take a while to open up to people. It would be unfruitful to assemble a team of only abrasive or passive type personalities. Improving teamwork in the workplace, therefore, starts with choosing the right team members.
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Establish trust
Teamwork is built around trust. Members must trust each other so that the common objectives will be achieved. Trust in the workplace can be fostered through participation and engagement. When working on projects, each team member must be heard and contribute. By participating and working together, the team will build rapport with one another and learn to rely on each other to get the job completed.
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Open the lines of communication
Once trust is being established, the lines of communication must be opened to reinforce this. Team members need to be upfront and forthcoming with project details. This solidifies the notion that indeed the group is indeed functioning as a team should, with appropriate information sharing and consideration for each member’s perspective on a subject.
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Engage in teambuilding
For relationships for nurture and grow, there must be a sense of camaraderie. Team members will establish trust and work more productively if they enjoy each other’s company and there is a positive working energy within the team synergy. Team building activities, outings, special projects, volunteer work or engaging retreats can work to foster a cohesive team spirit in the workplace.
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Ask for help
Nothing destroys team spirit than assuming you can do it all on your own. For stronger teamwork, each member should recognise they’re all on the same side. Asking for help builds the team dynamic. It reinforces reliability and collaboration.
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Avoid Micromanaging
Micromanaging defeats the purpose of teamwork. It destroys trust, collaboration and reliability. It essentially says to an employee, “I don’t trust your way, let me show you how it’s done”. Perhaps in the early stages of teamwork, it would be beneficial to provide a sense of direction, particularly if team members are novices. However, at some point, for teamwork to flourish, there has to be a level of trust to allow them to function without micromanaging their every move.
