DEVELOP A SUCESSFUL WORKPLACE TEAM

When there is the right synergy in the organisation, it reflects on the productivity and in the work culture 

The first organisational challenge a manager faces is to develop and maintain a successful workplace team. It’s not easy to manage human beings, be it in the family, a relationship or in an organisation. There are many factors that determine a person’s nature, productivity, emotional tendencies and communication. All those factors that structure human nature and behaviour on a day-to-day or hour-by hour basis can be categorised under two primary influencers–Time and Space. By ‘time’ it means factors that change in the course of a person’s lifetime such as age, hormones, menstruation, health, hours spent awake after last meal, hours devoted for rest and sleep.

If you see closely, the ‘time factor’ directly influences a person’s behaviour, mood and emotions on an hourly basis. By ‘Space’ it means all factors that physically influence the person, like the condition of the work place such as the size of the cubicle, chair, desk, computer and commutation distance from workplace.

Don’t judge or perceive rather constantly evaluate

The human tendency is to build perceptions about people based on one or two actions, behaviour and reactions. No doubt! In today’s competitive corporate environment where deadlines mean everything, no manager has the time and psychological energy to sit and think about their team members. But evaluate the time and efforts that you will save and goals you could achieve if you help your team member overcome his/her time and space constraints. If overcoming the time and space challenges is not possible, a manager should communicate that they do understand and respect their team member’s problem.

Remember helping and supporting team members is always rewarding

Initially going deep in someone else’s life and helping them is difficult but with constant effort one can inculcate this capability in themselves. The rewards, such as ‘walking an extra mile’ efforts are very high, not only can one start earning respect from their workplace team, there would be more team loyalty, more scope for creativity and the manager would require less fear to get things efficiently done by his/her team.

Be your team’s role model

Remember, no one likes an idiot who just speaks and does not act right, so always be your team’s role model for how to talk to others, doing hard work, being punctual and achieving goals.

Encourage team to recognise each other’s strengths

It is essential that you encourage your team members to recognise each other’s strengths. For example, during morning briefings let each team member identify some business trait they appreciate about the person seated to their next. Someone might recognise a co-worker’s willingness to work late while another team member might state that a teammate’s organisational skills contribute to the group’s efforts.

Never leave the opportunity to celebrate life’s moments with your team

Celebrating employee’s birthdays as well as other milestones in their lives helps promote positive team relationships. So never leave an opportunity to celebrate life moments with your team. 

Credit: Mice Talk