GUIDE - HOW TO MANAGE YOUR TEAM EFFECTIVELY & FORM PRODUCTIVE RELATIONSHIPS AT WORK OR SOCIALLY
It is highly important that you and your team remain united and work together towards the intended purpose of its course of action (e.g. completing that stressful project with your colleagues). Being united strongly suggests that the team will work closely together for the achievement of this purpose and will be less likely to work against the team. This will make the team more powerful and effective due to a higher level of dedication.
Loyalty, Encouragement & Consideration
There must be an adequate level of loyalty between you and other team members during the process of interaction. In permanent teams for example, team members should put the team’s needs above individual needs and the needs of other teams, as well as being a trustworthy individual. For example, when the team experiences some form of emergency, the team must trust that they don’t take selfish and personal decisions but act in accordance with the purpose of the team.
The team will experience a radical increase in effectiveness if team members encourage each other at difficult times. For example, in the case of an airline crew, the team experiences long and busy hours of work which can be very difficult at times, therefore some team members might be overwhelmed. The team members mentioned in this example need a motivation boost and support from other colleagues in order to resume and proceed with work.
In permanent teams for example, it is vital that you and the team members show consideration to one another in order to create good working relationships. This will ensure that difficulties and tensions between workers are reduced which can increase team productivity and effectiveness. It is important to think about other team member’s needs and showing kindness to one another for example, when a team member is busy dealing with customers inquires, the other team members can come and assist while the rest of the team can carry out the other tasks. This will ensure great team productivity and contribution.
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Providing Support
If you are the team leader, then you have the fundamental responsibility to provide support to the members due to your higher level of experience and also due to your very personality. Therefore, you must not limit yourself to an interaction that is entirely based on your job role, but enable your personality in providing the support required by your team members. Why is this effective? Because, we as humans, respond better to interactions based on kindness and acknowledgement of the other's efforts. It is also important that as a team leader, enough praising is provided to the members of the team in order to motivate them to perform effectively.
Providing Feedback & Monitoring Review of Performing Against Targets
It is important to provide enough feedback to each individual in your team regarding their progress, and the progress of the task, as the team members will experience a strong feeling of achievement. This encourages the team to move forward and complete tasks successfully. For example, a new member of your team will highly need constant feedback from you, as his or her job can be quite hard therefore, constructive criticism, feedback and encouragement would make the trainee feel worthy, and make the integration process easier. It is also important to monitor each individual’s performance and the team’s performance against the targets set in completing tasks. This shows whether team members perform as expected of whether they have fallen behind with their work. Therefore the team leader can take corrective action and identify the reasons why specific members of the team have fallen behind with their work and help and encourage them to move forwards. For example, a team member has not completed their PowerPoint presentation in time as a result of having gathered limited information regarding the task. Then the team leader can update and give the nonperforming team member the necessary information that will eventually lead to the completion of the PowerPoint presentation. This will therefore lead to the completion of the given project as an effective team.
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Managing Group Conflict
Managing conflicts among team members is a very important responsibility held by team leaders or managers e.g. differences of ideas and priorities within the group. It important to understand the signs and the effects of conflict in the team, as this will help certain group members and team managers prevent and solve these issues. These issues might arise when there are obvious disagreements between team members ideas and views, where certain group members might consider a potential plan for completing the project, other might disagree and see the plan as time consuming and inefficient. Here lies the underlining importance of developing strategies for managing conflict within the team. Therefore, the team manager can look at both views and take corrective actions to solve the conflict and keep the team moving forward.
