Team Building Basics - Communication

In a team where the leader is holistic and strong, the culture is usually very productive and helpful for the team to perform exceedingly well. Effective team interactions and communications happen naturally as the team is built on the tenets of Mutual Respect – When you respect the people that you work with, you value their input and ideas, and they value yours. Working together, you can develop solutions based on your collective insight, wisdom and creativity. Trust – This is the foundation of every good relationship. If you trust the people you work with, you can be open and honest in your thoughts and actions. When you trust your team and colleagues, you form a powerful bond that helps you work and communicate more effectively. Ownership – This means taking responsibility for your words and actions. Acceptance – People in great teams not only accept diverse people and opinions, but they welcome them. Open Communication –All good relationships depend on open, honest communication. The most important thing is as to how to develop such a productive culture in a team and in an organization. All of this starts with a great leader, who knows himself and is very well aware as to what is required to be done. In reality, most of the times, team member’s behaviour usually falls within 4 groups: Unattached and Disapproving A team member remains silent and chooses not to participate freely in discussions. They can be introverted, unsure or disapproving or feel superior to the quality of the discussion taking place. Self-Aggrandizing Often the first person to speak on any issue, always has an opinion on everything and is not afraid to voice it. This type of team member tends to comment on anything too frequently and often tends to dominate the conversation. People often tune them out as soon as they start to speak. Whinger: This team member often gets side-tracked. They may start with one task and end up with another- in conversation they often find something bad about everything. Inflexible: This is the team member who will take an initial position on the subject under discussion and is highly reluctant to budge from his stance and will usually not consider other possible alternatives. The secret to handling Team interaction successfully, lies in being able to recognize the combination of styles and learning as how to deal with each. A great leader helps the team to agree upon procedures for diagnosing, analyzing, and resolving team work problems and conflicts. A great leader practices participative leadership in leading meetings, assigning tasks, recording decisions and commitments, assessing progress, holding team members accountable, and providing direction for the team. A great leader ensures that members of the team make high quality decisions together and have the support and commitment of the group to carry out the decisions made. The positive culture within the Organization is built when the leader start to act on what he preaches, the employees start to see that they are doing something meaningful and they are being appreciated, the fairness in all the decisions is self-evident, if a leader can get these factors right, great team interactions will happen naturally and a rewarding sense of teamwork will follow.