By D Murlidharan
Teamwork is not rocket science, and mostly a matter of common sense. Here are 50 simple but powerful ways you could make teamwork work.
1. Act with integrity; this is one quality that will make a great team.
2. Credibility as a team-leader is mostly as good as only it is perceived. So display credibility and act with credibility.
3. Walk the talk, you get judged well only when you walk the talk. Example: if you are asking for quality work, it’s a given that you also would do the same. Doing the other way destroys credibility.
4. Be enthusiastic; encourage the team to be enthusiastic as well.
5. Never hire in haste, which makes waste.
6. Educate the team on who your customer is, who your competition is.
7. Create a mechanism to know what is happening in competition.
8. Let the team know that the customer is supreme, and he is your most important asset.
9. Give no room for politics in your team. At the hint of it, stem it at the root; and exhibit the fact that politicking is a strict no-no.
10. Communicate personally as often as possible; use the phone; only re-iterate in written communication.
11. Smile and laugh in the team, work need not be serious as most of us would think it to be.
12. Share the joy of any of your team-members.
13. Share and partake in their sorrows. Give a helping hand, in whichever way you can when a need arises.
14. Make the team workplace a fun place to be; again laugh and smile.
15. Show the team member how happy you are to have him/her in the team.
16. Celebrate each of your team-members birthdays, anniversary… pass on gifts voluntarily.
17. Have a vision statement for the team; in line with the organization’s vision statement.
18. Make the purpose of the team clear – it could be revenues, number of customers, turn around time, producing so many units… whatever.
19. Let this purpose be written down and shared amongst all team members.
20. Set individual goals clearly – leave no ambiguity in this – make it measurable for them as well as you.
21. Clear state the expected quality of work, and quantity of work – on a day, for a week, for the month, and for the year.
22. Go out of your way to help a team member reach the stated goal.
23. Make each of them feel that he/she can confide in you.
24. Understand and talk to them of their job-goals and career goals.
25. Make learning a team habit. Encourage learning in any form.
26. Train the team in relevant and contemporary work skills.
27. Build the team on the strength of his/her personal qualities.
28. Don’t brood on their weaknesses. Or pass comments on them.
29. Make them aware of the business opportunities and threats, and the way to remain in a position of advantage.
30. Build a lot of fun around the goals.. make work interesting…..
31. Celebrate small milestones, by any team member, and shower praises in public
32. Celebrate and reward team ideas, which would bring in better results, fresh insights, and knowledge to all – and celebrate this each and every time.
33. Discourage yes-men. If two people agreed on everything, then one of them is redundant.
34. Show the team members a growth path – a path that would be intertwined with positive contribution.
35. Reward excellence. Abhor mediocrity.
36. Do not reprimand team members. Grown ups don’t need to be reprimanded; they only need to be counseled or advised.
37. Allow people to make mistakes, which are the only way you get a learning team. Sans mistakes, no new things are going to happen.
38. Make corrections well in time; not once in a blue moon. Once in a blue moon corrections upset the person, you and the team objectives.
39. Evince interest in each individual; know them a little more than professionally – their family, their interests, passion, hobbies etc.
40. Go for lunch once a week outside the office campus; this is by far the best way to bond.
41. Get the families of teams together once a month. If the teams are cross location, make it at least once in a quarter.
42. Be transparent and rational in all decision making.
43. Be objective and not subjective in any of your deeds at work, and related to work.
44. Make incentive plans objective, simple and clear. Complicated plans lead to a lack of uniform understanding across the team. This colors judgment, and defeats the team spirit.
45. Take personal interest to ensure that all pay-out timelines are adhered to by the organization and the divisions.
46. State clearly that a performer would have a soft corner, and would be rewarded.
47. Reward performers often. And for the accomplishments.
48. Keep team meetings brief, and with a stated objective and agenda.
49. Do not meet formally without a written agenda circulated.
50. Build in a surprise element in rewards for small wins – this could be internal or external to the organization – could be a new client acquired, a new proposal, a cost saving measure, a new idea, whatever…
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Muralidharan is an HR practitioner and a recruitment professional. A strong believer in spreading cheer and positivity, Murali currently works out of Chennai and is a voracious reader and a prolific writer.
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