Teamwork Makes the Dream Work

Doesn't the quote "Teamwork makes the Dream Work" sound euphoric? Let's break down the terms and talk about both 'Teamwork’ and ‘Dream Work' individually for a while.

Teamwork

'Teamwork', when you repeat this word to your team, pay attention to the expressions that come out instinctively as a reaction; those faces reveal all about your beliefs. Ignoring those expressions, continuing to give a briefing on great teamwork will appear to be the same as a politician making promises to address public grievances, where both the politician and the public are well aware that they will not be fulfilled, and it is simply for the sake of filling the words the politician is uttering bluntly in the disguise of a leader.

I'm sure you're aware that your teams are your internal customers. So, ask yourself what strategies you're doing to please your internal consumers and get them to participate in their jobs and responsibilities. If you believe you are paying the salary, is enough, and why you should facilitate them more in the name of motivation, then let me tell you, for your information, there is a difference between freelancers and teams.

For example, if you are a customer, you will almost certainly choose a company's product that provides more advantages or services; similarly, why should your internal customers do the same by choosing another company in your company, which motivates the team? You are not doing them any favors; most companies have established strategies for motivating their employees, and you should as well.

Team collaboration doesn't happen all by itself, all the different minds have to be assembled by you to drive towards the common goal. Learning to be a great team leader is tricky. It's a multi-dimensional role and people often feel that they need some training to help them. If you don't have time, the following are a few strategies, that are both practical and effective, that can make your dream work.

Be the Leader, Not a Dictator

One thing to keep in mind, although the role of manager or team leader may appear to be one of power, it is also one of responsibility, as you must manage or balance both your company and team expectations.

You are the mediator between the company and the team, so don't give them orders and put them in a do-or-die situation, it will stress them out and make them wonder why they chose this company in the first place, let me remind you of a quote, ‘people don’t quit a job, they quit the boss’. So, check how flexible your team is, consider their concerns, and try to make an acknowledged decision, it will make them feel like they have a great leader.

Never act like a dictator or a boss, instead, be a leader who stands and is with the team. Your team should aim to become a manager like you.

Control the Attrition Rate

If your team begins to leave your company, you will be given the additional task of hiring a new team on a cyclical basis. You will train the new team, and then they will leave the company to work for another company, where they will spend the majority of their first few months getting trained, especially freshers. They will gain the expertise in your company and gain the profit in another company by becoming their asset.

The benefit of continuing to manage the company with the same team is;

• You won't have to spend money or time on recruiting new employees.
• Your training team will be able to focus on more important activities such as grooming your employees.
• Your current employees will be loyal to the company.
• In comparison to a fresh team, an experienced team will take less time to complete a project or job and is more likely to succeed.
• The existing team will get stronger day by day, and reinstate the new version of effective teamwork daily, boosting the possibilities of your dream work.

Find the root cause, what is making your team leave your company, and try to correct it. If you make them a counteroffer just for the sake of stopping them to join another company, they may hold themselves for a while but considering the Harvard Business Review, they will leave the company very soon.

Suppress your Favoritism

You may have a good reason to pick favorites based on their work, timeliness, or demeanor, but avoiding showing favoritism in front of your team will encourage outstanding teamwork. Yes, no one wants to work for a boss who doesn't praise or recognize others' contributions because he or she is preoccupied with favoring their favorites.

Your favorites are likely to take advantage of your cooperation and expect you to defend their actions, such as taking an unauthorized or unofficial position of influence over others while you are away. It may look to you as a responsibility, but it will undoubtedly appear to your colleagues as pretentious acts, which will disrupt everyone's peace of mind. This action will have a significant impact on your dream work.

Treat everyone the same, regardless of their ability, position, or experience. Your job demands you to be a righteous manager, and as a result, every team member will feel comfortable approaching you with any topic.

Interpersonal Communication

Any industry's success is dependent on effective communication. You should be able to convey the company's work standards, vision, deadline, and other pertinent information to your team so that everyone is working toward the same objectives. You can discuss some communication quotes with your team in the daily briefing, it will determine the importance of communication.

In some circumstances, your team members may require your level of expertise, but if they continue to work on vague suggestions of your subordinates while being unwilling to contact you, the overall result will suffer. As a result, be friendly with your team so that they can call you if they have any questions.

Business Meetings

Business Meetings in the workplace are supposed to be informative, but not tedious. So, during breaks, try to incorporate some fun activities or demonstrate your sense of humor; otherwise, your participants will stop paying attention and they will start acting, in the worst-case situation, they may fall asleep.

If you don't use competent team communication tools like Troop Messenger or collaboration tools like an online presentation maker, you'll end up repeating your statements or spending half of the meeting checking whether the message was understood.

Appreciate in public, criticize in person

Finding opportunities to appreciate your team members, or making a habit of recognizing one team member each day for their previous day's work among the team, will increase team productivity and confidence.

If you need to correct or criticize someone, invite them to your cabin or meet with them in person to discuss the incident, but also provide them a solution on how they may avoid it in the future. If it's not a matter of integrity or legitimacy, don't take drastic measures, instead, allow them to take considerable time to change. Remember, "Rome was not built in a day", and anyone's transformation will take time. I'm sure you didn't come in as an expert on your first day of work, your seniors and managers shaped you to be the best.

Assign responsibilities

Everyone is not equal, and everyone will not possess the same quality, so assign additional or essential responsibilities, as per their expertise. It will give them a sense of motivation and validation of their capabilities, in addition, it makes them feel more accountable.

Be a Friendly Manager

Effective team management is an elusive process, so you can’t afford to slip away from being righteous. Talk to your team, and take their opinion for every random month.

Some of the best ways to approach them are, asking them to use their leaves to get relax, moreover, suggesting some ideal places is not a bad idea, or you can ask them why they are not utilizing their leaves.

Unless and until it is legitimate, it is completely alright to help them for the benefit of their personal life.

Be their role model, they should get undertrained by you, and be the best you are.

Encourage the ideas

When you conduct a meeting or one on one session with your team, try to encourage them in giving their perspective. Sometimes, their ideas may create wonders in the process of handling a team, or product. If you are rejecting the idea, do it respectfully, and let them know your reason why their idea is not applicable.

In a project, allowing your team members to bring new perspectives, and ideas will aid them to solve problems more quickly, which not only increases team productivity at the workplace, in addition, it also enhances their technological expertise.

Feedbacks

Giving team members feedback is one of the most successful strategies, that not only assists them in improving their abilities but also aids in increasing team productivity.

As aforesaid implied, there is no such thing as a perfect team, you must create one. Giving well-crafted criticism to team members who don't do as well as their peers would inspire them to improve their skills and be kind in assisting them when needed. Use all your experience to talk with them, about how to deal with such situations, this gesture will not only encourage them, but it will also show how empathic you are with your team.

Training

Hold the training sessions for every random period, it will make them more strong, and whoever requires training will get trained and become a valuable asset to the team and the company. With the help of training, they can learn new market trends and can get hands-on experience with new tools.

Training makes your team adaptable to change flexibly and molds it to their advantage.

Plan Social Outings

Take it or leave it, this factor is crucial in enticing your team and increasing their belief in their ability to perform better. I understand that you will need to set aside a budget for it, but why do you think large or corporate firms organize social outings for their employees? It's an applied and proven strategy for encouraging your employees. Plan a social outing at least once a year, or if your project succeeds or you have an achievement to celebrate. It's all about making your dream work.

Dream Work

When you have a dream, you must evaluate what it will take to achieve it, gather all of the criteria, and employ a skilled team. If you hire two mediocre members to fill a senior member job, you will certainly, get to see mediocre results. And, in the process, neglecting your team's motivation results in ignorance of your dream work.

It is your dream work, and your vision, the conviction, and the efforts you show towards it, certainly, you can’t expect the same from your family members, so how can you make your team as determined as you are? All you can do is be with your team at every step, encourage them with every achievement, and never leave a stone unturned in boosting the spirit of teamwork. Your team can be as good as you and vice versa you as a manager to outshine as good as your team.

TEAM - Together Everyone can Achieve More.

You may be astonished to learn, why teamwork contains so much content and dreamwork has so little; yet, if your team and planning are perfect, you are only a few miles away from success; in other words, 'your teamwork makes the dream work’.