How to turn employees into an efficient team

Teamwork: A group of individuals who work closely together, each playing a vital role within the team to get the job done.

Does this sound familiar? Do you have a group of highly skilled individuals who get together rarely and may even need named stickers on their clothing? If so, you have some work to do.

Here are 3 key ideas to help bridge the gap:

Get people together to tackle a problem
Issues pop up on a weekly basis, which should make getting people together easy. During these times, a leader should round everyone up and remind them that their input will benefit the business. The more opportunities people have to work together, the more likely they will start to function as a team.

Celebrate work accomplished
Intense group efforts will result in individuals working in an entirely different way, thus bridging the gap between individual and team based activities, but it is easy to slip back into old habits. As soon as a project has reached its conclusion, the leader needs to celebrate the work that was accomplished, and congratulate everyone on a job well done. It’s essential to reflect with the group on how they felt working so closely together, what could be improved, and what worked well. There may be some resistance initially, as people often worry about how they will manage their own work load, but it’s a leader’s job to remind the group about the upsides of teamwork, and how all involved play a vital role in creating values and vision within the business. As for the perception of work load being heavier, the opposite is usually true; when there is no communication, there is often duplication.

Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Give the process time, an effective team takes time to build. It’s not an event that gets solved with one day of team building — it’s a process. Many of us spend most of our careers being told what to do and need time to adapt to a more process orientated way of working within a team. Leaders aren’t the only ones responsible for generating ideas; everyone needs to play a part to produce fantastic work.

By aligning the visions of your employees, you can create a more effective, efficient, and creative workforce!