"A successful team is often made up of different personalities that complement each other."
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Contributing Author: Zoe Williams
For businesses to succeed and projects to be completed on time and within budget, the most important factor is a team of dedicated individuals.
Building a successful team can be difficult.
Business leaders and managers face problems such as personality clashes, communication breakdowns and difficulty in defining team member roles. However, there are a six simple steps that can be implemented to bring together talented people focused on working together to deliver a successful outcome.
Step One: Outline the team's objectives
Before a team of people can be brought together, it is vital that the reason for building the team is understood and defined.
The objective of the team must be communicated to the relevant parties. A good way to communicate this is to write it down in the form of a mission statement and ensure everyone understands it.
Within the team's objectives, there should also be a defined set of expectations, from the group as a whole and of each individual. The earlier this is set out and understood, the quicker the team can progress to deliver its objectives.
Step Two: Build a team with a variety of personalities
A successful team is often made up of different personalities that complement each other. It is important that a good mix of skill sets is brought together.
For example, teams need good listeners as well as good communicators, creative thinkers should be complemented by technical thinkers and leaders need to be balanced by followers.
Team members should have defined roles and know how their roles contribute to the overall team objective. Practical skills and job knowledge are also important to consider i.e. IT, finance and sales/marketing. IT project teams are often employed by larger organizations to install IT infrastructure.
Companies sub-contracting this type of project must ensure they meet IR35 compliance rules. Team members from different cultural backgrounds can also provide variety and bring new dynamics to a group of individuals.
Step Three: Create a good working environment
Defining the team's objectives is the first step in creating a good working environment because everyone should understand the common goal.
Individuals will have their own goals, however, it is important that they fit into the overall team objective.
While competition is healthy between team members, it must not impede on the successful completion of team tasks. Gaining team members' commitment is essential.
There is no point having people on the team that are not committed to achieving success.
Step Four: Foster emotional connections between team members
Teams that are made up of people who trust each other, even like each other, are more likely to succeed than teams with individuals who do not share an emotional connection.
Providing help and support to one another is important.
Individuals who feel they can rely on their team members create good working relationships.
Step Five: Encourage open communication
The only way teams will be successful in delivering their objectives is if all team members talk openly, discuss any problems or conflicts and look to resolve issues (internally or externally) in a professional manner.
Step Six: Appoint an influential leader
All teams need a leader because this provides direction.
They need someone to ensure deadlines are met and project timescales are on track. An appointed leader is also important for when things don't quite go to plan. This may include reporting to senior management if objectives are not being met or acting as a mediator if arguments break out between team members.
A team leader should also have the ability to empower others. This also allows individuals to grow in confidence and in expertise.
About the Contributing Author:
Zoe
Williams is a freelance writer and blogger from the UK. She has written this
guest post today on behalf of Brookson; specialists in accounting for contractors,
freelancers and self-employed individuals. Feel free to tweet your thoughts on
this article with Zoe @bloggingstyle.
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