Six essential skills for teamwork
As more organizations adopt a teamwork framework, it’s important to consider what skills make up great teamwork. Here are six skill areas for leaders and team members to consider developing further.
For effective teamwork to occur, there needs to be a Foundation of a clear vision and purpose of the team. Teams will want to consider these questions: What is the purpose of the team? Why do we exist? Why is it important to operate as a team, rather than individual collaborators? What is our vision of where we are going? Is this vision aligned and shared by all? Do all team members know how their role and work impact this vision and purpose or mission?
1. Communication – Communication is essential for effective teamwork. Communication consists of several factors: listening, as well as our words, body language and rhythm. A reminder that communication is not just what we say. In fact, in face-to-face communication, body language contributes almost 55% of the message, followed by words at 7%, and tone, rhythm and tone at 38%. These numbers change when we switch to phone calls where we lose body language cues. In email, the balance changes again since the tone is lost. Through email, our words carry weight.
In a team communication is not only what is said, it is also what is not said in a team. What is the team not talking about? What difficult conversations may be necessary?
Linked to communication is listening. What is the quality of listening in the team? Do team members really pay attention to what others are saying, in addition to paying attention to the other non-verbal cues that are out there? Instead, team members are so eager to “say a word” that they don’t actually listen to what the other person is saying, but instead focus on what they want to say.
What are your team’s strengths in the areas of communication? Where is there an opportunity to develop them further?
two. Adaptability- In the business context of doing more with less and continuous change, adaptability has never been more important. The ability to regularly change course, think critically, and be resilient is critical for teams that want to be at the top of their game.
How adaptable is your team overall? The members of your team? How important is adaptability in your context?
3. Appreciation of differences – There can be tremendous diversity that exists in any team. From different work styles to professional backgrounds, priorities, and even generations, effective teams appreciate differences. Part of this appreciation requires looking at how team members are alike and how they are different. Finding out more about each team member’s preferences and styles can create understanding rather than conflict. For example, one team member may be very detail-oriented, while another team member is a “big picture” thinker. Knowing our individual preferences and styles allows us to be more sensitive to our biases and how we should adapt our approaches when interacting with others. This theme goes hand in hand with the emotional intelligence of the team.
How does your team appreciate and work through differences? What are the differences, synergies and strengths that exist in your team?
Four. trust and respect: Trust and respect is a fundamental requirement for any team. If each team member doesn’t have each other’s back, then team members operate within their own silos. Similarly, getting things done relies heavily on the team trusting each other and sharing the resources and information needed to get things done.
What is the level of trust and respect in your team?
5. emotional intelligence – Emotional Intelligence, or EI, is getting more and more attention from leaders these days. Emotional intelligence is “The ability to recognize our own feelings and those of others, to motivate ourselves, to manage emotions well in ourselves and in our relationships”. (Daniel Goleman, Harvard Business Review). Individuals and teams that are strong in emotional intelligence possess self-awareness (awareness about oneself), social awareness (awareness about others), relationship management (the ability to develop strong relationships), as well as self-management (the ability to control emotions ) .
6. Commitment, Responsibility and Monitoring – Teams exist to produce results. The commitment to the goals (shared and individual) required to achieve the results is essential. Accountability and follow-through are often lacking in many teams. What are you committed to doing or undertaking as a team, collectively and individually, to move the team forward? How are you creating this accountability and checking? Is there a point of contact to go back to check progress around the action steps or is everyone supposed to have followed them? High-performing teams agree on how actions will be tracked and focus on this consistently.
What is your team committed to? What supports the team in terms of accountability and follow-through?
Finally, in which of these areas does your team excel? What areas will benefit from developing as a team?