Although we are born to become social beings with goals and needs that imply coexistence, it is difficult for most to learn how to carry out teamwork.
To help you better understand this crucial process for an organization, in this article, we will present what it consists of and what its main advantages are.
What is teamwork?
Teamwork arises from the need to improve performance, attitudes, and the workgroup’s loyalty; it occurs when a group of people try to cooperate, using their skills and providing constructive feedback beyond any conflict that could arise on a personal level or between individuals.
Teamwork fosters a sense of loyalty, security, and self-esteem that satisfies the members’ individual needs, valuing their belonging and maintaining positive relationships within and outside the team.
It becomes a new lifestyle that involves other co-workers and even family.
What is required to achieve teamwork?
To achieve true teamwork, which impacts the organizational climate, we need to have specific characteristics, mostly attitudinal, namely:
- Share new ideas and provide solutions.
- Provide opinions, information and relevant facts.
- Coordination and cooperation in the activities of all members.
- Empathy; understand the other; support ideas other than our own; take an interest in the views of others and develop them.
Difference between teamwork and group work.
When working in a group, people get together to carry out a specific project; the final product matters, but not the process. Tasks are distributed, and there is little or no participation in collective decision-making.
The role that each one plays in developing the final objective is not understood. Not being involved in planning the goal(s), people who work in a group rather than a team focus primarily on their productivity to carry out the assigned task.
If personal goals are incompatible with the corporate team’s, cooperation is reduced, hiding information and declining participation.
On the other hand, when we achieve teamwork, the union of interests and goals creates cohesion or attraction towards the team, reducing conflicts. If they arise, they are treated positively, with good communication and the opportunity for each team member to participate in the decision-making.
What are the advantages of teamwork?
Among the benefits of working as a team are:
- Share situations of daily coexistence and develop the goals proposed by the organization.
- Talk about common interests, combine strategies, methodologies, procedures and techniques to achieve the objectives that are held together within the company.
- Increase the sense of belonging to the role that employees commit to performing to achieve the goals they help create.
- Having people who organize to achieve common objectives is a critical factor in this union that personal interests and goals are compatible with the team’s goals and, therefore, the organization.
- With the union of team interests, behaviors are achieved that maintain it as a social system that seeks to avoid emotional confrontations and conflicts, favoring interpersonal relationships and contributions to long-term work.
What is its importance?
The constant and competitive changes in the market can lead companies to extreme situations. The need to do more with less and have teams of fewer employees, more qualified and with higher levels of responsibility is a real challenge.
Having the best human resources and directing them towards the achievement of global objectives are fundamental challenges that will determine the success of an organization.
At this point, we must consider teamwork as a philosophy of organizational functioning, as a first response to the challenge of productivity.
Promote a collaborative spirit and identify people within the company’s goals. Achieve the common union of interests and efforts, collaboration and use of the team members’ skills, talents, training, and experiences. It also applies to virtual teams.
Create an environment with honesty, respect, and knowledge on listening to the other, which are essential bases to work as a basis for the success or failure of the organization.
For the effective development of these challenges or challenges, it is essential to consider the prevailing work environment in the organization, which is nothing but the environment in which our daily work materializes.
The quality of teamwork directly influences employee satisfaction and, therefore, their productivity. This determines their degree of motivation, responsibility and commitment.
How to strengthen teamwork
The motivation provided to our workers to create a team spirit in their family and work-life will manifest in their acquisition of skills to overcome difficulties, organize themselves and maintain initiatives.
These skills will allow them to manage and obtain resources, know the advantages of teamwork, and have a sense of personal, collective, and social responsibility to get the best results.
The organization must be part of this personal growth, accompanying individual and team achievements with certain activities that entail interest and demonstration by each one of them, putting its effort into:
- Encourage, accept and show agreement with the ideas presented.
- Current performance standards to be achieved by the team or used to evaluate the process.
- Identify the team members’ most effective and viable ideas and authorize their realization.
- Seek to harmonize and channel the team’s disagreements, seeking to reconcile the differences.
- Support the participation of all and not just the most daring.
A committed organization focuses on the benefits of teamwork and seeks the success of its members as part of its team-building strategy.
The company must build trust by encouraging everyone to express their opinions, points of view, and disagreements and raise their doubts, creating a strong sense of community and belonging.
In this way, we will prepare the way to achieve effective teamwork performance in our organization, motivating personal and professional growth of the basic skills necessary to achieve results.
Conclusion
As you can see, teamwork is vital for an organization’s goals. To achieve success, it’s necessary to provide a good work environment where employees can develop individually and collectively in an optimal way.
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