assignment on team work

Cover Story

What makes teams work?

Psychologists are pinpointing the factors that make teams gel—research that has far-reaching implications for health care, education, research, industry and more

By Kirsten Weir

September 2018, Vol 49, No. 8

Print version: page 46

15 min read

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The lone wolf is becoming an endangered species. In fields from health care to hospitality, startups to big business, teamwork has become the favored way to get things done. "The world is so complex, no one person has the skills or knowledge to accomplish all that we want to accomplish," says Susan McDaniel, PhD, a psychologist at the University of Rochester Medical Center and 2016 APA president known for her dedication to team-based work. "Interdisciplinary teams are the way to make that happen."

While humans have always joined forces with one another to achieve shared goals, psychologists are zeroing in on the methods and processes that make those collaborations more efficient and successful. "What's changing is the understanding and appreciation that there is a science behind how to manage teams," says Suzanne Bell, PhD, an associate professor of industrial/organizational (I/O) psychology at DePaul University in Chicago.

Now, a special issue of American Psychologist (Vol. 73, No. 4, 2018) details what psychologists have learned—and need to learn—about working in teams. "The Science of Teamwork," co-edited by McDaniel and colleague Eduardo Salas, PhD, of Rice University in Houston, in cooperation with American Psychologist editor-in-chief Anne E. Kazak, PhD, offers 21 articles that delve into the theory, research and applications of team science.

Here, we look at some of the most significant findings in the special issue, particularly the ways that team processes matter for psychologists, whether they're working in health care, research, industry, the military or education.

Building a dream team

Sometimes teams seem to click without too much effort, working together seamlessly and producing great work as a result. Other collaborations crash and burn. A team's success often depends on its composition, as Bell and her co-authors describe in their contribution to the special issue.

Surface-level attributes of individual team members—such as age, gender and reputation—can be important to the team's overall function, but they aren't necessarily the factors that matter most, Bell says. Instead, it's the "deep-level" factors you can't see at a glance, such as the members' personality traits, values and abilities, that tend to have a much bigger impact on work teams, studies suggest.

Those deep-level factors shape what researchers call the ABCs of teamwork: the attitudes, behaviors and cognitive states that collectively influence whether a team achieves its goals. Those elements depend to some degree on the context and on the team's objectives, Bell says. If the goal is to design an innovative new digital device, it's a good idea to build a team with diverse thinkers who bring a range of knowledge, skills and abilities to the project. But if a team's goal is to be more efficient, diverse attitudes might be less critical.

Team success also hinges on some basic tenets of team composition, say Bell and her co-authors. One person's mood and outlook can spread within a team, so a pessimistic team member could negatively influence the way the whole group views its goals. Individuals who value working in groups tend to be both more confident and more cooperative in a team setting. When team members are high in conscientiousness, they are better at self-regulating their teamwork. And groups composed of high-ability members who are able to learn, reason, adapt and solve problems are more likely to work well together.

Researchers are working to design algorithms that help organizations create effective teams for specific goals. In a project with NASA, for instance, Bell and colleagues are developing algorithms to identify crew members suited to working together on long-distance space missions.

Ultimately, such tools can help organizations create the best possible teams from the outset and tailor interventions for the unique needs of a team with a specific composition. "Teams are complex systems," Bell says. "The more you can manage them using a scientific basis, the better your teams will be."

The secret sauce: Cooperation in the military

Using scientific methods to understand teams isn't a new trend. Military researchers have been studying teamwork systematically for more than half a century, as Gerald F. Goodwin, PhD, of the U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences, and colleagues describe in an article in the special issue. "The military has been really central in supporting and executing research on teams since the 1950s," he says. "That support has been critical to moving this science forward."

That distinction might seem obvious, says Goodwin, but understanding the elements that allow teams to function well—team cohesion and shared mental models, for example—is important for training teams as well as evaluating their performance. "How well people work together may be more important than how well they work on the tasks," he says. "The secret sauce comes from the teamwork."

Research from military settings has also clarified the importance of team cognition—what teams think, how they think together and how well synchronized their beliefs and perceptions are. Team cognition is what allows team members to understand intuitively how their teammates will think and act, whether on the battlefield, in a surgical suite or on a basketball court. "Team cognition is really important for teams that have to quickly adapt to dynamic circumstances without having the opportunity to communicate a lot," Goodwin says.

Many of the empirical findings from military research apply to civilian teams as well. From the earliest studies, military and civilian researchers have openly shared findings and worked together to grow the science of teamwork, Goodwin says. The military, for instance, has made use of results from team research in aviation. Meanwhile, findings from military-funded research have informed processes in many industries, health care in particular.

Teaming up for better health

Teams in the military and in health care share an important commonality: They can be operating in situations in which team coordination can be a matter of life or death. Some of the earlier research on health-care teams focused on hospital settings, where teamwork failures can lead to patient harms such as misdiagnoses, medication mistakes, surgical errors and hospital-acquired infections. In a paper for the special issue, Michael Rosen, PhD, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and colleagues describe how medical team coordination affects patient safety and the quality of patient care.

Unlike teams in a business setting that might collaborate with one another for months at a time, health-care teams are often fluid, especially in hospitals. Medical personnel including physicians, nurses, surgical assistants and pharmacists might have to jump into a new care team at each shift change or for each new patient. The fundamentals of good collaboration are the same no matter how transient the team, Rosen says: "It's about having clear roles, clear goals and a clear plan of care."

Teams are also becoming increasingly important in primary-care settings. "I think the industry is recognizing that we don't have a choice. Health care has become too complex, and the current model isn't working very well," says Kevin Fiscella, MD, a professor of family medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center who co-authored a special issue article with McDaniel on the science of primary-care teams. "It's not a question of whether we adopt teamwork [in primary care], but how we do it—and how we begin addressing the barriers to teams."

Unfortunately, those barriers are not insignificant, Fiscella adds. One challenge is simply changing the way that many physicians think about primary care. "I graduated from medical school in 1980, and our whole training was that care is about me and the patient, and everybody else is there to support that relationship," he says. While that mentality is changing, it's not dead yet. "That unfortunate mental model of what it means to provide primary care can make it difficult" to move toward team thinking, he adds.

Systemic challenges also make collaboration difficult in primary-care settings. Clinicians such as family physicians, specialists and mental health professionals might be spread out in different locations. "It makes it harder to support other team members who are making important contributions," Fiscella says.

The traditional fee-for-service payment model also makes it difficult for medical professionals to prioritize teamwork, Fiscella and McDaniel add. Research has shown, for example, that when primary-care teams have short "huddles" before a visit to coordinate their care plans, they routinely report better teamwork and more supportive practice climates. Similarly, short team debriefings at the end of the day to hash out what worked and what didn't can boost learning and performance among team members and improve outcomes for patients.

Yet due to scheduling challenges, it can be tough for primary-care teams to find even a few minutes to come together for huddles or debriefings. "Time is money. If you take time out for a team meeting, that's lost revenue," Fiscella says.

Teamwork in the lab

Academia is famous for its departmental silos, but that, too, is changing as multidisciplinary research becomes the norm across all fields of science. Team science is gaining momentum for good reason, says Kara Hall, PhD, director of the Science of Team Science Team at the National Cancer Institute and co-author of a special issue article about collaboration in science.

Globalization and technology have made the pressing problems of society ever more complex, Hall says. Take the public health problem of reducing tobacco use, for instance. To address that challenge, you need an understanding of the genetic, neural, psychological and behavioral factors related to tobacco dependence, not to mention related social forces and the public policy context. "If you want to solve an applied global health problem, you need people who can bring their specialized knowledge to bear," she says. "Multidisciplinary teams can really [create] movement on these big problems."

Research on team science has found that collaborating across organizational and geographic boundaries increases productivity and scientific impact. And cross-disciplinary teams produce more academic publications and publish in more diverse outlets, Hall and her colleagues report.

Despite proven benefits, it can be hard for a researcher to wrap his or her head around team science. Most scientists were trained in an apprenticeship model, learning the ropes from a single mentor. "Historically, our scientists haven't been trained to work in teams or to lead teams," Hall says.

Even if scientists are prepared to take the leap to team-based research, their institutions might not be. Tenure and promotion are usually based on outputs such as academic publications, with more weight given to a paper's lead author and to articles published in journals in a researcher's own discipline. That model rewards competition, with the potential for tension as team members hash out who should be credited as first author. Team science is built instead on interdisciplinary cooperation—but so far, only a few academic institutions reward those cooperative efforts.

Because of the lack of team training and the institutional hurdles, Hall says, a research project may be technically and scientifically well-conceived yet fail to yield anticipated outcomes. If a cross-disciplinary team fails to meet its goals, was it because the topic was better suited to intradisciplinary science? Was it a problem with the way the team was composed? Or could the team have succeeded if members had received more institutional support and training?

Still, some early patterns are emerging to guide the way toward improved science teams, Hall and her co-authors report. Some studies have found that small teams are best for generating ideas that shake up the status quo, for instance, while larger teams are better at further developing those big ideas. And while cultural diversity can increase a science team's impact, diverse teams might benefit from more team science principles to head off challenges such as miscommunication.

Multicutural questions

The role of diversity in teamwork is a topic that needs a lot more attention, not just for scientific teams but in all areas of teamwork, says Jennifer Feitosa, PhD, an assistant professor of I/O psychology at the City University of New York, Brooklyn College. In the special issue, Feitosa and her co-authors describe the ways in which multicultural teams may function differently from teams in which all members share the same cultural background.

Yet it can take longer for a diverse team to find its groove than a team with similar backgrounds and mindsets. Individuals in multicultural teams are more likely to have different ways of doing things and might not understand where their fellow team members are coming from. "If you take a snapshot of a multicultural team at the beginning, it doesn't look so promising. They often need more time to all get on the same page," Feitosa says.

In both multicultural teams and more homogenous teams, trust is a key component for effective collaboration, Feitosa and her colleagues reported. But because of their differences, members of multicultural teams might have difficulty trusting each other at first.

"Focusing on shared goals can really help to develop that trust," she says.

In other ways, diverse teams operate quite differently from teams with cultural similarities. In the general teamwork literature, for example, research suggests that it's important to address and manage team conflict head-on. But when team members come from cultures that emphasize harmony and avoid conflict, calling out the elephant in the room can make people extremely uncomfortable and interfere with the teamwork dynamic, Feitosa says.

Differences in leadership style can also hinder multicultural teams. In North America, organizations are moving toward giving individuals greater autonomy and opportunities for self-management, Feitosa notes. "In very collectivistic and high power-distance cultures, people might rely more heavily on direction from team leaders and might rather be told what to do."

Fortunately, teams can prevent cultural differences from becoming obstacles by creating a "hybrid" culture, the authors report. "It's about establishing team norms that aren't entirely your culture or entirely my culture, but a little bit of everyone's," Feitosa says.

The research on multicultural teams can guide those looking to create collaborations that are both diverse and high-functioning. But to fully harness the value of cross-cultural perspectives and talents, Feitosa and her colleagues conclude, much more needs to be done to integrate findings from research on single-culture teams and multicultural teams. "Teamwork is a complex phenomenon, so we need to get more creative in how we look at this," she says.

Intervening to improve teamwork

Although researchers have more work to do to fully understand team processes, especially in multicultural contexts, it's not too early to apply what we know, Salas says. For the special issue, Salas and colleagues described evidence-based approaches for improving teamwork.

Organizations are clamoring for tools to make their teams more effective. "Team building is probably the No. 1 human resources intervention in the world," Salas says. Yet the results of such programs are mixed. If you send a group of executives into the wilderness for two days, they might have fun and learn something about one another—but it doesn't mean they'll magically develop new teamwork skills.

Put them into evidence-based team trainings, however, and the story is different. "Team training works," Salas says. "We know how to design, develop and evaluate it."

In particular, Salas and his colleagues describe four types of team development interventions that have been shown to benefit team performance: team training, team building, leadership training and debriefing.

Team training describes formalized learning experiences that aim to improve specific team skills or competencies. Structured team training has been shown to improve teamwork functioning and outcomes in industries such as education, engineering and health care. A prime example is TeamSTEPPS , an intervention to reduce medical errors by improving communication and teamwork skills among health-care professionals (see sidebar). Team-building interventions, meanwhile, aim to better teams by improving interpersonal relationships, clarifying roles and improving problem-solving. Such interventions might focus on increasing trust or setting challenging yet specific goals, for example. Leadership training targets a team leader's knowledge, skills and abilities, and improvements to these areas have been shown to support effective overall team processes. When leaders are trained in occupational safety, for instance, their teams exhibit safer behaviors on the job. Finally, team debriefings of the sort used in primary-care settings have been shown to improve performance in a variety of settings, including aviation and military teams.

There's power in numbers, and high-performing teams can be more than the sum of their parts. It's fortunate, then, that teamwork processes can be measured and improved with targeted interventions. But to keep sharpening the science, psychologists must continue exploring the conditions that allow teams to succeed, Salas says.

There's certainly no shortage of demand, he adds. "There's a tremendous amount of interest in trying to understand collaboration and teamwork—in health care, aviation, academia, the military, space exploration, the corporate world. I hope this special issue will inspire people to improve their teams, and to look for new ways of motivating their teams using psychological science."

To read the full American Psychologist special issue on teamwork, go to http://psycnet.apa.org/PsycARTICLES/journal/amp/73/4 .

Further resources

APA: A Curriculum for an Interprofessional Seminar on Integrated Primary Care www.apa.org/education/grad/curriculum-seminar

National Cancer Institute: Team Science Toolkit www.teamsciencetoolkit.cancer.gov

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• 11 Benefits of teamwork in the workplac ...

11 Benefits of teamwork in the workplace (with examples)

Teamwork is one of the most important tools when it comes to organizational efficiency. Though we can all agree that teamwork is important, not everyone realizes just how impactful it is in the workplace. Teamwork in the workplace is when a group of individuals work together toward a collective goal in an efficient manner. When multiple people work together toward a common goal, your business can flourish. 

We’ve rounded up 11 top benefits of teamwork in the workplace, with examples throughout to help you better understand just how important teamwork is. Ready to work on teamwork? Let’s dive in.

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What is teamwork?

Teamwork is the process of working collaboratively with a group of people to achieve a specific goal. It involves the combined efforts of individual members who bring their unique knowledge and skills to the table. Effective teamwork in the workplace relies on key components such as active listening and open communication, and ensures each person's input contributes towards reaching the team's goals.

Why is teamwork important?

Teamwork in the workplace is important because it supports an organization's operational efficiency. Strong team dynamics enable individual members to divide complex projects into manageable tasks, which enhance productivity and enable an organization to function more effectively. Moreover, successful teamwork creates a supportive network that can significantly enhance job satisfaction and employee morale.

Benefits of teamwork in the workplace

1. teamwork cultivates effective communication.

Effective teamwork in the workplace starts with solid communication . In order to work together—whether when ideating or working on a new project—you need to communicate to create cohesion and clear goals.

Communication starts by building camaraderie and team synergy . A great way to do this is by organizing team building activities. This could be a quick icebreaker at the beginning of a meeting or a whole day spent solving fictional problems with teammates. 

A successful team that demonstrates clear communication is more efficient and productive. Not to mention it creates an enjoyable work environment. 

Communication example: Daniella and Kabir are working on a project task together. Kabir is confused when reviewing the project notes so he messages Daniella to ask for help. They hop on a quick call and work through the problem together. By working as a team, they effectively communicated and were able to complete the task the same day. 

Tip: Take communication one step further by keeping tasks and collaboration in a shared digital space. That way, everyone can stay on the same page, no matter where they are.

 2. Teamwork improves brainstorming

Brainstorming is a powerful method that helps teams think outside of the box. It involves individuals working together by communicating ideas for a number of initiatives. These could include projects, processes, products, and services. 

Good teamwork means your team communicates and feels comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas. Without teamwork, your brainstorming sessions could suffer, and, in turn, so could your team’s quality and performance. 

Ultimately, the success of brainstorming sessions relies on solid teamwork in the workplace. By investing time to foster trust and open communication, every individual’s potential can be maximized, benefiting the whole team. You can do this by connecting in a one on one setting regularly and encouraging team members to share their insights. 

Brainstorming example: Kat needs to come up with three design ideas for a new landing page. Instead of ideating by herself, she asks the team to join in on a brainstorming session. Since there are many team members sharing ideas, Kat receives more than enough ideas to get started. 

Tip: Check out 29 brainstorming techniques to help spark creativity within your team. 

3. Teamwork encourages a common goal

Having a common goal in mind is essential when it comes to prioritizing projects and new initiatives. With multiple team members working on individual tasks, a project goal helps keep deliverables aligned and ensures objectives are met. 

There are a number of ways you can communicate a goal in a way that both encourages teamwork in the workplace and promotes collaboration. These include:

Business case : A business case is a document that details the value of a project or initiative. This ensures each team member has the same starting point before diving into a project.

Team meeting: Meetings are a great way to get your team in one place to communicate expectations and work together. Having an initial meeting—as well as a post mortem meeting once the project is over—can help determine deliverables and ensure objectives were met. 

Timeline software : Timeline tools can help your team visualize the work you need to complete and how you’ll hit your project goals. Clarifying task due dates and dependencies unlocks teamwork and allows team members to thrive. 

Goal-oriented example: Kat is leading a meeting on a new process that’s being put into place. Kabir asks what the purpose of the process is. Kat explains that they’ll be adding a new tool to their scheduling process to automate some of the team’s work, like tedious and time consuming tasks. Now, the team understands the underlying goal.

Tip: Align tasks to goals using goal-setting software that helps you achieve progress and keeps team members on the right track every step of the way.

4. Teamwork in the workplace improves problem solving skills

Problems can be difficult to solve on your own. That’s why working together as a team can offer quicker and often more effective solutions. 

Not only does this help create an efficient process for problem solving, but using teamwork creates shared goals.

Problem solving example: Project manager Kat finds out there is an issue with image implementation that’s postponing the project launch date. Instead of trying to solve it alone, she enlists her team in a brainstorming session to come up with solutions. Because she asked her team for help, she was able to co-create a solution in just an hour, as opposed to what could have taken days by herself. 

Tip: Practice problem solving as a group by using team building activites to motivate your team members to feel confident in their solutions. 

5. Teamwork helps build trust

Trust in the workplace is something that is built over time. It takes transparent communication, one-on-one sessions, and support to build that trust with team members. 

A team that trusts each other feels comfortable communicating ideas, collaborating in the workplace , and growing individual strength. Not just that, but they also feel a sense of belonging within the group. 

The absence of teamwork in the workplace can lead to a breakdown in trust. This can result in team members feeling isolated and turning competitive, focusing on individual achievements over team success, which can undermine both morale and performance. 

Trust example: Ray has a task that’s overdue. His manager, Kabir, offers to sit down with him and offer support. Afterward, Ray feels relieved and has the confidence to complete the task. Next time he has an issue, he knows he can reach out to Kabir for support. 

Tip: Building teamwork in the workplace goes beyond the daily tasks; it's about connecting with your team members on a personal level. Figuring out what makes them unique is a great way to build trust over time. 

6. Teamwork improves company culture

Most companies strive for a good organizational culture , but it’s not as easy as having chats at the water cooler or a monthly pizza party. Company culture involves making your team members feel heard and empowered to do their best work while offering them work-life balance and an overall enjoyable work environment. 

To build culture, encourage camaraderie and teamwork in the workplace. Spending time with one another can help build this bond and, in turn, improve working relationships and the culture around the (virtual) office. 

Culture example: Kabir’s team has a huddle every Monday where they share what they did over the weekend and any upcoming projects for the week. Since they get to talk about both personal and work-related topics, the team enjoys their Monday meeting. In fact, communication and overall culture have improved since the team began meeting on Mondays. 

Tip: Build shared values by giving team members the opportunity to share the values they think are important. 

7. Teamwork creates efficiency

From communicating effectively to improving company culture, teamwork drives many benefits, including creating team efficiency . An efficient team works together to quickly manage problems and daily tasks. As a result, efficient teams use resources more effectively and reach their deliverables faster. When it comes to organizational growth, few strategies are as impactful as cultivating streamlined efficiency through teamwork in the workplace. Such cohesion is instrumental in fostering innovative solutions while maintaining consistent quality.

Efficiency example: There’s a new project on the horizon for Ray and his team. Ray’s first instinct was to ask Kat, his senior specialist, to tackle it since she’s the best fit to handle the task. After analyzing the difficulty of the project, he decides to have his entire team tackle it together. To his surprise, they completed the project in just half the initial timeline.

Tip: To encourage efficiency across projects, align your team using one work management tool. That way, everyone can clearly see the goals you’re working towards, the timeline for that work, and who's responsible for what.

8. Teamwork increases employee engagement

A little known secret to fostering long-term happiness and engagement is to nurture teamwork in the workplace. When team members feel part of a supportive group, they're more likely to be content and involved, which naturally boosts their work satisfaction over time. 

To increase employee engagement, encourage teamwork inside and outside of work. Schedule time for your team to connect about more than just work. Your team will feel more open when working in a group, which leads to a higher retention rate. 

Engagement example: Kat’s team has been working hard on a top priority project. Unfortunately, issues arose and now they have to stay late to finish the project before the weekend. Kat knows that she needs to do something to keep the team’s spirits and energy up. She decides to start the evening with a team building activity. This immediately engages the team and gets everyone excited to put their heads together and finish the project off strong.

Tip: Make your virtual meetings more engaging by starting them off with a quick ice breaker question to lighten up the mood. 

9. Teamwork motivates high performing teams

Accountability is a powerful motivator, and teamwork in the workplace is a surefire way to instill this sense of responsibility. It spurs team members not just to meet expectations, but to exceed them and willingly contribute their best ideas to the group's endeavors. The higher performing each team member is, the higher performing your overall team will be, meaning you can create high quality work more efficiently. Not only is a high performing team good for your company, but it also helps job satisfaction, as doing well will motivate individuals to continue growing their skillset.

High performing example: It’s team review time and Kat gets a shoutout at all hands for implementing a new process to increase productivity. Kabir, a new team member, feels empowered to work hard and will receive a superb review next quarter. 

Tip: High performing teams are usually made up of individuals who seek motivation from within, otherwise known as intrinsic motivation . 

10. Teamwork in the workplace develops individual strengths

Teamwork isn’t just about team success—it also supports individual development as well. Team members who grow their individual knowledge can then share that with others during future projects. 

The result: Individual team members grow their own strengths as well as the strengths of the team. These could include your ability to problem solve, effectively communicate , and combat procrastination—all of which are important skill sets to develop in the workplace. 

Individual strengths teamwork example: Kabir is new to the team and working on his first task. He’s a little stuck so he reaches out to a team member for help. Kat shares her tips on how she works on a similar task. She even shares a tool that Kabir didn’t know about. This helps him complete the task more efficiently.

Tip: If a team member can complete a task just as well as you could, delegate it without intervening. This allows your team members to grow their individual strengths and skills. 

11. Teamwork improves decision making skills

While problem solving and decision making sound similar, decision making skills are all encompassing. To be good at decision making, you need the confidence to make quick decisions based on the knowledge you’ve gathered in your role. 

Teamwork in the workplace is invaluable for improving decision-making abilities. It creates an environment where team members are encouraged to tackle questions and make decisions promptly, which is essential for real-time problem-solving.

Decision making teamwork example: Kabir is leading his first team meeting for a new project. As he’s explaining the upcoming timeline and deliverables, an executive asks who will be working on the project. Kabir is quick to answer confidently, as he’s already brainstormed with his team on who will tackle what. 

Tip: Encourage teamwork in the workplace by inviting team members to actively participate in important meetings, such as by presenting their solutions. This gets them used to explaining their thought process in front of other team members. 

How to improve teamwork in the workplace

Improving teamwork in the workplace is about fostering an environment that values the contributions of all team members and encourages collaborative efforts towards shared goals . It involves enhancing teamwork skills across the board. Here are seven steps you can take to foster great teamwork.

Clarify roles and responsibilities. Assign clear goals based on desired outcomes, allowing employees to understand their objectives. For instance, a designer might be tasked with improving user experience, as measured by customer feedback, rather than just completing a set number of designs.

Establish outcome-based expectations. Shift the focus from processes to results, which urges team members to think strategically about accomplishing their objectives. For example, this method could lead a sales team to prioritize closing deals that align with long-term business strategy over merely hitting short-term numbers.

Set standards of excellence. Define what high-quality work looks like for each position and establish performance benchmarks. A customer service rep, for example, would aim for swift resolution times and high satisfaction ratings, setting a clear target to strive towards.

Provide time for self-reflection. Allocate time for individuals to assess their strengths and passions. A software engineer might discover their knack for algorithm optimization, steering them towards new learning opportunities.

Align strengths with tasks. Give individual team members roles that capitalize on their strongest skills. When a marketing analyst with a talent for data visualization is tasked with creating campaign performance reports, their skill set directly enhances the value of the work produced.

Foster an atmosphere of trust and openness. Cultivate an environment that values teamwork in the workplace through sharing and open communication between colleagues. By establishing regular "open floor" meetings, team members can freely exchange innovative ideas and feedback, bolstering team performance.

Encourage continuous improvement. Establish a routine of constructive feedback, supporting personal and professional growth. This approach might involve quarterly performance discussions that not only review past achievements but also set actionable objectives for skills and career development.

Teamwork in the workplace FAQ

What are the benefits of working in teams .

Working in teams is beneficial because it allows for the division of difficult tasks, making complex projects more manageable and enabling solutions that leverage diverse skill sets. Teamwork in the workplace fosters a collaborative environment where each person contributes different perspectives, which can lead to more innovative solutions and shared success.

How do you demonstrate teamwork skills at work? 

Demonstrating teamwork skills at work involves actively listening to colleagues, contributing ideas, and showing reliability. Being part of a team means collaborating effectively, whether in person or virtually, and supporting others in achieving shared goals. Teamwork in the workplace is about being adaptable, communicative, and committed to the team’s success.

What makes a good team? 

A good team operates with a strong sense of unity and shared purpose. Its members possess complementary skills, and there's a balance of roles that ensures all necessary tasks are handled efficiently. Strong teamwork in the workplace embraces open communication, respects each other's contributions, and is focused on achieving collective goals.

Why is teamwork important in business? 

Teamwork is important in business because it brings together different viewpoints and improves problem-solving capabilities. It fosters efficiency and productivity, as tasks are completed faster with collaborative effort. The importance of teamwork in the workplace is also evident in driving innovation, as employees are encouraged to brainstorm and contribute ideas in a supportive setting. Plus, when teamwork is strong, it can lead to improved employee morale and job satisfaction.

Drive teamwork through communication

Teamwork is a valuable tool to use in the workplace that comes with a multitude of benefits. From building trust to encouraging problem solving skills, teamwork brings your team together and creates clear communication. 

If you want to encourage teamwork in the workplace, try work management software. Make working on common goals easier and keep communication streamlined.

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The Secrets of Great Teamwork

Collaboration has become more complex, but success still depends on the fundamentals. by Martine Haas and Mark Mortensen

Summary .   

Over the years, as teams have grown more diverse, dispersed, digital, and dynamic, collaboration has become more complex. But though teams face new challenges, their success still depends on a core set of fundamentals. As J. Richard Hackman, who began researching teams in the 1970s, discovered, what matters most isn’t the personalities or behavior of the team members; it’s whether a team has a compelling direction, a strong structure, and a supportive context. In their own research, Haas and Mortensen have found that teams need those three “enabling conditions” now more than ever. But their work also revealed that today’s teams are especially prone to two corrosive problems: “us versus them” thinking and incomplete information. Overcoming those pitfalls requires a new enabling condition: a shared mindset.

This article details what team leaders should do to establish the four foundations for success. For instance, to promote a shared mindset, leaders should foster a common identity and common understanding among team members, with techniques such as “structured unstructured time.” The authors also describe how to evaluate a team’s effectiveness, providing an assessment leaders can take to see what’s working and where there’s room for improvement.

Today’s teams are different from the teams of the past: They’re far more diverse, dispersed, digital, and dynamic (with frequent changes in membership). But while teams face new hurdles, their success still hinges on a core set of fundamentals for group collaboration.

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Work Life is Atlassian’s flagship publication dedicated to unleashing the potential of every team through real-life advice, inspiring stories, and thoughtful perspectives from leaders around the world.

Contributing Writer

Work Futurist

Senior Quantitative Researcher, People Insights

Principal Writer

Better together: 8 essential teamwork skills to master

Use these strategies to align expectations, streamline communication, and crush your goals.

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5-second summary

• Building “soft skills,” such as effective communication and collaboration skills, are vital components of a team’s success. 
• Making sure everyone is aligned on goals and responsibilities may seem like a no-brainer, but research shows that team members do not always have the clarity that leadership assumes they do. 
• Using formal procedures to make decisions and solve problems can help ensure that teams don’t get sidetracked by predictable bottlenecks. 

Teamwork is powerful. Tapping into people’s individual strengths and collecting diverse perspectives and ideas helps you get projects across the finish line more efficiently – full stop.

Here’s the catch: those perks only pan out if your team works together effectively. And most of us have seen firsthand that successful teamwork doesn’t just happen . Leaders are required to make strategic decisions, encourage positive behaviors, and cultivate an environment where people can get their best work done – not just individually, but as a unit.

That all starts with ensuring your team has mastered the most essential teamwork skills.

What are teamwork skills?

Teamwork skills are the traits and competencies you tap into when working with other people toward a common goal. Knowing how to work well with others isn’t an inherent trait – it’s a malleable skill (and an important one, ranking as one of the most in-demand soft skills employers look for).

When you focus on improving your ability to work on a team, what you’re really doing is strengthening the critical skills that fuel successful teamwork. Whether you want to better yourself or help your direct reports master working together as a unit, let’s take a closer look at eight skills to focus on. 

1. Communication

“We never listen when we are eager to speak.” – Francois de la Rochefoucauld 

A large portion of team or project failures (just take the untimely explosion of NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter , as one example) arise from miscommunication. So, for teams to work well together, it’s non-negotiable that they know how to share information and get on the same page. 

The ability to openly convey a message, align expectations, and offer feedback is essential in the workplace. However, improving communication skills isn’t only about talking – listening plays an equally important role. Active listening in particular enhances shared understanding and helps teams avoid crossed wires. 

Help your team communicate:

• The extroverts on your team are more than willing to jump in with suggestions and opinions, but that can mean steamrolling their colleagues. To make sure everyone’s voice is heard, send an agenda to all participants beforehand so people have time to gather their thoughts. Then, be sure to check in with each person during the meeting to make sure they’ve had a chance to speak. For in-depth guidance, run the inclusive meetings play to make sure that everybody’s input is considered when your team meets.
• Communication isn’t one size fits all, and your team will be better equipped to communicate information and ideas if they know other people’s communication styles . Having each member of the team create a user manual gives them a low-pressure way to share their ideal conditions for getting work done – from their favorite communication channels to how they prefer to receive feedback.
• Schedule a regular team stand-up to avoid siloed information your team. This is a short, dedicated huddle where you can discuss team goals, progress, and obstacles to keep everybody in the loop and aligned.

2. Collaboration

“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much. – Helen Keller

Collaboration and teamwork are more or less synonyms, so it makes sense that you’d see this skill high on the list. But simply throwing a group of people together and giving them a task doesn’t inherently lead to effective collaboration , no matter how talented those individuals may be.

Rather, clarity needs to take priority. Team members should understand their unique roles, responsibilities, and deadlines, as well as how their individual tasks impact the project as a whole. That broader focus increases accountability and empowers people to find answers or proactively solve problems themselves.

Help your team collaborate: 

• Who does what shouldn’t be a mystery on your team, however, people may not always have visibility into what tasks their coworkers have to do. Try creating a shared document that details everyone’s regular tasks and current projects. You can also run the roles and responsibilities play so there’s no doubt or confusion about what’s on each person’s plate.
• There are certain norms that play out on your team on a daily basis – like muting yourself on Zoom when you aren’t talking or using bullet points in emails – despite the fact that they might never be formally discussed. Consider creating a shared doc that spells out the “rules of the road” for your team. Encourage people to add to it regularly. It’s a great way to help newbies on the team get up to speed quickly. Running the working agreements play can help your team iron out a list of those previously unspoken expectations and avoid misunderstandings.

3. Goal setting

How to write SMART goals

“If you don’t know where you are going, you will probably end up somewhere else.” – Lawrence J. Peter

Teamwork is all about working your way toward a finish line together – but first, you need to agree on where that finish line actually is . While managers might like to think their goals are obvious and widely accepted, team members may disagree: 72% of employees admit they don’t fully understand their company’s strategy. That’s why this particular teamwork skill is so important.

In order to reap the benefits of effective teamwork, team leaders need to not only explain team- and company-level goals, but also actively involve employees in the process of setting those objectives so that they can take ownership of the outcomes.

How to help your team set goals: 

• Boost clarity and accountability by setting SMART goals , which are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. 
• Use a defined goal-setting system like objectives and key results (OKRs) or goals, signals, and measures so everybody understands what success looks like.
• Make juicy, long-term targets feel more manageable by setting smaller short-term goals along the way.
• Store your team goals somewhere centralized and accessible in the workplace (like Confluence ) so that everybody on the team can refer back to them when needed.

4. Decision making

“Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

Teamwork is often at its most frustrating when you feel pressure to make a speedy decision. With so many perspectives to manage, reaching a consensus can be slow. That’s why decision-making is a skill that’s vital in a team environment, especially in collaborative cultures where the manager isn’t always the one with the last word. 

To get their best work done, people should be able to listen to other opinions and suggestions with an open mind, then come together collectively to choose the best way forward.

Help your team make decisions: 

• Default to a standard decision-making process to give your team a straightforward framework to rely on as you make choices together. 
• Sometimes a consensus isn’t possible. In those cases, who has the final say on a project? Who’s contributing but not necessarily a key decision-maker? Those roles can get murky. Use the DACI framework so your team knows who fits where and can make more efficient group decisions.
• Does your team suffer from major decision delays? Try setting a deadline for your team to make a choice. Psychology says that while deadlines can be stressful, they also tend to increase focus.
• Be mindful of common phenomena that stand in the way of decisiveness, like analysis paralysis and decision fatigue , and take steps to address them when you see them creep in.

5. Problem solving

“If I had an hour to solve a problem I’d spend 55 minutes thinking about the problem and five minutes thinking about solutions.” – Albert Einstein 

Whether it’s a project that’s running off the rails or a conflict between a couple of colleagues, you and your team are bound to run into your fair share of roadblocks. In those moments, your team’s problem-solving skills are what will carry you through. 

Successful problem-solving isn’t about slapping on a quick-fix band-aid. Some stumbling blocks can be deceptively complex. To truly address and prevent issues, start by digging deep and understanding all of the factors at play using critical thinking skills and problem-solving abilities.

How to help your team solve problems: 

• Use problem framing to step back and understand the who, what, why, and where of a problem before jumping into solutions.
• The 5 Whys Analysis is simple on the surface – it essentially involves asking, “Why did this happen?” five times in a row. This exercise helps your team uncover the root causes of a problem rather than acting on assumptions and surface-level symptoms.
• The first possible solution to a problem isn’t always the best one, and that’s one of the many benefits of a team: everybody has access to an assortment of ideas and experiences to find the most suitable answer. Sparring helps your team get quick, honest feedback from each other in a way that feels structured and approachable.

6. Interpersonal skills

Beyond the buzzwords: Why interpersonal skills matter at work

“Emotions can get in the way or get you on the way.” – Mavis Mazhura 

The thing about teamwork is that you’re working with other people – and everyone has their own feelings, perceptions, experiences, preferences, and more. That’s what makes working as part of a team so enriching (and challenging). 

It’s also why interpersonal skills are so critical. They’re the soft skills that you use when working, communicating, and interacting with other people (and plenty of the teamwork skills we’ve already covered also fall under the “interpersonal skills” category). From emotional intelligence to negotiation, these competencies help you work alongside others with less conflict and fewer hiccups.

How to help your team work well together:

• Participate in a team personality assessment like Johari Window so team members can uncover traits they may not see in themselves.
• Provide training or other opportunities for team members to build their conflict resolution skills to better handle disputes and disagreements when they come up.
• People can’t always control their emotions, but they can control and improve their reactions and behaviors. Unfortunately, emotions can easily become confused with personalities. Try to model and encourage people to switch from “I am…” language to “I feel…” language to keep those lines clear. For example, “I am anxious about this deadline” becomes “I feel anxious about this deadline.” It’s a small but significant shift in how your message comes across.

7. Time management

Time is really the only capital that any human being has, and the only thing he can’t afford to lose. Thomas Edison

There’s often a lot to get done and that’s another perk of being part of a team: there are more people to chip in on all of the work that needs doing. But without effective time management skills, teams are setting themselves up for conflict, chaos, and frustration. Bottlenecks halt progress, deadlines become suggestions, and the team’s entire plan runs off the rails. 

By focusing on improving time management – both individually and as a unit – people can get their work done without the frantic and frustrating dash to the finish line. 

How to help your team manage their time:

• Use one (or several) tried-and-tested time management strategies to help your team prioritize and focus.
• Team collaboration falls apart when people don’t have a grasp on dependencies. For example, Team Member A might not think missing a deadline by a few days is a big deal – until they realize that it means Team Member B can’t start their assigned tasks. Dependency mapping gives you and your entire team a better sense of how things fit together, so you can proactively manage bottlenecks and other issues.

8. Growth mindset  

“Success is the ability to go from one failure to another with no loss of enthusiasm.” – Winston Churchill

All teams encounter rough seas from time to time, and a growth mindset is what helps them power through obstacles and find creative solutions. 

Put simply, a growth mindset is a teamwork skill that frames problems as opportunities – chances to reflect, learn, and improve. A growth mindset helps your team use past experiences to drive better collaborations – and it also means they won’t bristle at perceived failures or criticisms.

How to help your team have a growth mindset: 

• Run a retrospective regularly or at the end of project milestones so that your team can honestly discuss what worked, what didn’t, why, and how you’ll use that information moving forward.
• Prioritize regular and frequent constructive feedback for all team members. These candid conversations help them understand how they can improve themselves – which, in turn, helps them improve the entire team.

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4 Characteristics of an Effective Team

• 02 May 2024

Building and managing an effective team is a competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced world.

According to a report by management consulting firm Deloitte, 71 percent of professionals say focusing on teams to cultivate culture, agility, and diversity is vital to organizational success. But what does your team need to excel?

Here’s an overview of what characterizes an effective team and how to build one to achieve business goals and objectives .

Access your free e-book today.

What Makes a Team Effective?

Traditional teams have stable membership and one shared goal. However, those with conventional structures can fall short when faced with unpredictable circumstances.

In Dynamic Teaming—one of seven online courses comprising the Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) program—Harvard Business School Professor Amy Edmondson describes today's environment as a "VUCA world."

VUCA stands for:

• Volatile: Rapid changes, ups and downs
• Uncertain: Inability to predict future events or societal values
• Complex: The world’s increasing interconnectedness
• Ambiguous: Unsureness of events’ and signals’ meanings

In a VUCA world, your team’s effectiveness hinges on its agility and adaptability. Those qualities enable employees to maintain operational continuity, capitalize on opportunities, and respond to emerging threats in fast-evolving markets.

You can bolster your team’s adaptability through:

• Proactive learning: Constantly acquiring new skills and knowledge to stay ahead of changes
• Flexible processes: Adjusting strategies and workflows to respond to external pressures
• Resilience: Demonstrating persistence and bouncing back from setbacks

Building adaptability also requires setting clear expectations, providing support, and practicing what you preach.

To help you better lead your employees through shifting circumstances, here are four characteristics of effective teams in the modern workplace.

4 Characteristics of Effective Teams

1. dynamic teaming.

With the world becoming more unpredictable, one way to boost performance is through dynamic teaming —working in groups with fluid membership to navigate shifting circumstances and tasks.

In CLIMB , Edmondson describes how dynamic teams compare to traditional ones.

“Think about a routine dental visit,” Edmondson says. “The same dentist and hygienist team you’ve probably gone to for years is prepared to care for your teeth. They’ve practiced together and can move efficiently through their tasks with skill and expertise. Now imagine you’re visiting Boston and slip on the ice, knocking out a tooth. You’re rushed to the emergency room (ER). The hospital that will care for you is open 24 hours, and the doctors, staff, and nurses rotate through shifts, working in different teams and on different patients. You come to the ER with a set of unique and complex challenges that differ significantly from the patient before you and the patient after you.”

While your industry may not have high-pressure environments like an ER, that doesn’t mean dynamic teaming isn’t relevant.

For example, the rise of remote work has fundamentally transformed team dynamics and introduced complexities not typically present in traditional office settings, such as differing time zones, cultural expectations, and communication barriers. With employees dispersed across locations, dynamic teaming can enable you to better lead and manage remote teams .

Related: How Online Education Can Help You Work with Virtual Teams

2. Psychologically Safe

Psychological safety is the shared belief that offering opinions, asking questions, and making mistakes should be met positively—and it’s essential to innovate in the workplace .

According to Dynamic Teaming, psychological safety has four dimensions:

• Willingness to help: Employees believe asking for help is appropriate and their colleagues are willing to provide it.
• Inclusion and diversity: Employees feel included and that their diverse experiences and expertise matter.
• Attitude to risk and failure: Employees view mistakes and failures as acceptable in favor of learning.
• Open conversation: Employees perceive conversations as open, candid, and safe to contribute to.

As a leader, you must create a psychologically safe environment where conversations among team members aren’t only possible but expected.

“Part of your role as a leader is to eliminate the risk of silence by inviting participation from your team,” Edmondson says in the course. “You can establish a formal process to require participation from your team, but there are also less structured ways of inviting participation.”

Edmondson suggests asking questions that reassure team members they’re safe to share thoughts, such as:

• What do others think?
• What are we missing?
• What other options should we consider?
• How might a competitor approach this?
• Who has a different opinion?

If you’ve struggled with this in the past, request employees’ feedback on how you can create a psychologically safe environment for them.

3. Diversity

Recruiting employees with different backgrounds, experiences, and ways of thinking is crucial to team performance .

Diverse teams can better understand and connect across perspectives, helping drive business growth and innovation. They’re also less prone to groupthink, which can inhibit creative problem-solving .

Factors to consider when building a diverse team include:

• Background and upbringing
• Expertise and skills
• Sexual orientation
• Culture and nationality

Team diversity is particularly important if you work for an international business . Employees can bring insights critical to understanding different markets’ cultural nuances and preferences, allowing you to better identify and react to global trends and shifts.

4. Inclusivity

Beyond diversity, you must consider your work environment.

“Diversity can be created through the recruitment and hiring of talent,” Edmondson says in Dynamic Teaming. But diversity doesn’t guarantee that everyone feels a sense of inclusion or belonging.

To ensure all team members feel valued, prioritize diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) . According to the online course Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability —one of the courses you can take as a CLIMB elective —DEI comprises:

• Diversity: The presence and participation of individuals with varying backgrounds and perspectives, including those who've been traditionally underrepresented
• Equity: Equal access to opportunities and fair, just, and impartial treatment
• Inclusion: A sense of belonging in an environment where all feel welcomed, accepted, and respected

Inclusion isn’t just ideal but vital to your team’s success. By promoting it, your team can influence your company’s culture and business outcomes.

“You cannot have a diversity, equity, and inclusion strategy as a separate strategy,” says Oona King, vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion at Snap Inc., in Leadership, Ethics, and Corporate Accountability . “It's not going to work. You have to tie it into the heart of your business strategy because separate is never equal.”

One way to foster an inclusive workplace is to involve team members in the decision-making process . This reinforces their value and ensures their diverse perspectives contribute to your organization’s strategic direction.

How to Build an Effective Team

As you build your team, one way to develop your skills and showcase your leadership potential is by continuing your business education.

For example, by enrolling in CLIMB , you can immerse yourself in a dynamic, interactive learning experience alongside a global network of peers to explore team effectiveness and how to lead in a constantly evolving world.

Do you want to build an effective team? Explore our yearlong Credential of Leadership, Impact, and Management in Business (CLIMB) program, comprising seven courses for leading in the modern business world. Download the CLIMB brochure to learn more about its curriculum, admissions requirements, and benefits.

About the Author

15 Ways to Radically Improve Teamwork in the Workplace

While everyone knows teamwork in the workplace is important, the hard part can often be getting everyone to work together. Whether someone runs a Fortune 500 company or a local coffee shop, there are common pitfalls to watch out for. From role uncertainty to unclear team goals, these problems can quickly get in the way of successful collaboration.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

If you want to get people working together, you need to give them clear, understandable goals. Your team has to know what they need to do in order to actually do it. In addition, you need to clarify roles, so your team members know who is taking care of which task.

A good leader understands the different talents and skills represented by the team. This helps the leader determine who gets a certain task. Each task assignment should be based on the individual’s specific abilities and skill level.

Teamwork is also based around trust. As a group, everyone must complete tasks together, make decisions as a team, and rely on each other’s work. Because of the importance of trust in teams, many team building tasks focus extensively on this skill.

Lack of participation and disengagement are also fairly common problems. A team needs direction and a clear goal for everyone to stay motivated. If the team members can’t understand the larger picture, they find it difficult to get engaged or want to participate.

What Is Teamwork in the Workplace?

Teamwork is an essential part of any company’s success. It involves multiple people at the company working together to achieve a larger goal. The team leader communicates the team’s goal, and then everyone works together to accomplish it.

Learning how to implement teamwork is the hardest part. Part of the leader’s job is to make everyone feel included and accepted by the team. This may mean offering diversity training or creating inclusiveness policies.

At the very least, the team leader should work to engage team members who seem shy or uncomfortable taking part in the team. Everyone has great ideas, but some team members may be uncomfortable expressing them with the pressure of a group listening in. Learning how to recognize communication styles , deal with team conflict, and move on are simply additional aspects to getting along as a group.

Why Is Teamwork in the Workplace Important?

Many managers are unaware of how teamwork benefits the workplace, so they avoid using teams. In other cases, managers avoid teams because they are afraid groups will be ineffective or even lead to conflict. But the reality is that teamwork in the workplace is extremely useful if leaders learn how to help their teams do it properly.

With a team, workplaces can improve employee retention and morale. It allows employees to learn from each other, gain feedback, and collaborate to build new ideas. Plus, peer pressure helps to increase accountability for everyone involved in the project.

So once you’ve determined why it’s important, the real question is how can teamwork be improved in the workplace? Managers can encourage new ideas, drive innovation, and find success by using any of the following 15 ideas.

1. Set Clear Roles

If you want to improve teamwork in the workplace, start by setting clear roles. Otherwise, multiple team members may end up doing the same tasks, or no one will do them at all. Plus, if people feel the roles are unclear, they may begin to think the workload is being unfairly delegated and become resentful.

For everyone to work together, they need to know their specific role. Ultimately, this will prevent hard feelings and possible confusion for everyone involved.

2. Encourage Teammates to Visit Socially

When everyone has a close relationship with each other, it is easier for them to get the job done. Rather than force relationships through team building, try to encourage team members to organically build these relationships outside of work. Managers can help the process along by budgeting for activities like social meetups or lunchtime potlucks.

3. Ask for Help

Sometimes, team members and team leaders forget a team exists to make the entire project easier. To become better at teamwork, everyone has to reach out for help when they need it. Whether the individual needs expertise or moral support, the rest of the team is always there to lend a hand.

4. Communication Is Key

Nothing is worse than finishing a task only to realize someone else has already done it. When working as a team, it is important to communicate continuously about the workflow, upcoming tasks, and team roles. Otherwise, some of the tasks won’t be finished and others will be finished twice.

Luckily, tools like Toggl Plan make communicating among team members easier than ever before. The platform allows you to have a visual overview of what everyone is doing, so you can easily delegate and review tasks.

5. Ask Everyone for Feedback

Good ideas can come from anyone in a team. If you want your company to be successful, ask everyone for their ideas and always listen to their feedback.

Try holding brainstorming sessions among team members. For shy team members, a one-on-one meeting with the team leader might be a more comfortable environment for speaking up.

6. Make the Right Choice in Team Members

You could try to train everyone to be a good team member, but it will always be easier to start with a talented, team-oriented group of employees instead. If you are involved in hiring, work to choose people who will be able to take part in a team. At the very least, try to recruit team members who have the skills and personality type to do well in a team environment.

7. Create a Shared Vision

If you want everyone to do their best work, they have to know the bigger picture and where you want the company or department to go. Rally your team members around a common goal, mission, or vision. Set milestones along the way, so team members can easily tell if they are measuring up.

8. Develop a Review Process

Sometimes, team members fail because they don’t realize what they are doing wrong. Without constructive feedback, individuals don’t have an opportunity to improve. Try creating review meetings for everyone on the team.

These review meetings can help bring the team’s goals into focus. It allows team members to become better at their jobs and helps the team catch problems they may have missed otherwise.

9. Celebrate as a Team

Team members have to fix problems and work together to reach shared goals. They should also take time to celebrate achievements as well. From thanking each other for putting in extra work to celebrating milestones together, there are many ways team members can congratulate each other on their successes.

10. Share the Workload

High-achieving employees have a tendency to take on more and more tasks. Meanwhile, low performers may be more than happy to give up a task to someone else, which can lead to resentment. For a team to do its best, everyone needs to learn how to share the workload.

If you want to help your team members, delegate tasks fairly and accomplish major goals using a program like Toggl Plan. This software makes it easy to track what each person on the team is doing and to delegate upcoming tasks.

11. Stop Micromanaging

This tip goes hand in hand with the last one. While a team leader may need to delegate different tasks, they should never micromanage them . Employees are adults and should always be treated as such.

People tend to resent micromanagers, and micromanaging tends to discourage people from taking the initiative. If you want your team to succeed, give team members the deadlines, tools, and goals they need to get started. Afterward, step back and let the team handle everything else.  

12. Set Ground Rules

With so many different people trying to work together, there is always the potential for conflicts along the way. Set some ground rules before working together for the first time or any time someone new is added to the team. This will help everyone know how to act as a group and what to do if there is a problem later on.

13. Be Willing to Steer the Conversation

Brainstorming sessions are a great way for team members to contribute new ideas and find better solutions. Sometimes, these team meetings can end up going off on a tangent. When this happens, try to steer the conversation back to the main topic, so you don’t end up wasting precious time.

14. Improve Transparency

Sometimes, managers try to jealously guard information because they intuitively feel like knowledge is power. When it comes to a team, information is truly made to be shared. Without the right information and a clear, shared goal, the team will be unable to make any headway.

Toggl Plan’s project management software can help you boost transparency among your team members. You can constantly keep all your team members informed of who is assigned to which role and how much each person has accomplished.

15. Never Assume Problems Will Go Away

When a small problem develops, people have a tendency to ignore it and hope it goes away. But most small problems spiral into major issues over time. When you see a problem developing on your team, take action and fix it before this has the chance to happen.

Ready to Help Your Team Work Better Together?

The importance of teamwork is often underrated. By encouraging teamwork in the workplace, managers can inspire innovative ideas and different approaches to common problems. As people develop teamwork skills and relationships with one another, they become more committed to both the group and the company.

To achieve a team-oriented environment, it only takes a few simple changes. From choosing the right team management programs to encouraging feedback, managers can help team members achieve their goals.

Get your company, team, or department on the right track with Toggl Plan’s project management software. Sign up today to start your free trial and see what it can do for you!

Logan Derrick is a full-time business writer and content marketing strategist. For years, he has worked closely with several project management professionals, learning from them and increasing his own knowledge of the industry. Having held multiple management positions in fields ranging from customer service to marketing, Logan has found a passion for helping others learn about project management, marketing, and the powerful tools available to professionals today.

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