TEAMWORK is attained when you develop strong relationships with your co-workers, which are based on a good attitude and underpinned by purpose.
This is the formula. But how do you accelerate the process?
The starting point is to offer clarity. When there is precision in terms of goals, roles and processes, the trust needed for cooperation can be built. When this happens, you can be sure that success will come.
I can recommend some steps that will help you achieve this.
If you are in a leadership position, start by hiring the right people. Remember that if there is gap in skills, your existing team members will suffer the consequences if you do not fill roles effectively.
Being clear about what you want at the hiring stage will almost certainly guarantee that a potential employee does not end up in the wrong position.
Most employers generate a job description. They follow this by interviewing candidates based on that description. The focus at the hiring phase then becomes that of matching the applicant with the needs of a given job function. This is the traditional way of acquiring staff.
But one of my mentors, Ed Lim, who owns and manages a hugely profitable financial planning organisation in Penang, taught me years ago to spend a lot more time thinking about the entire hiring process.
He has successfully hired and trained financial planners for nearly 40 years. Many of his team members have gone on to open their own firms or establish themselves as entrepreneurs.
Ed does not focus on job descriptions. Instead, his emphasis is on “person specifications”.
His argument has always been that it is most important to invest time, energy and effort to find people with the right temperament for your organisation. So, rather than just listing down what the job entails, be clear about the type of person you want working with, or for you.
List out all the attributes that person needs to have. Do they need to have strong communication skills? Do they need to be versatile and be able to work in smaller teams and take on multiple functions? Do they need have a strong ability to bounce back from setbacks? Once you are clear about what that person needs to do, you must focus on these personality specifications.
Your entire selection process must be based on this archetype. And if you do this diligently, you will be able to determine if the applicants you interview can meet the demands of your company.
Ed has employed this technique effectively for decades. He hardly discusses what the job entails with a candidate. He concentrates on finding out whether a potential hire has the personality, fortitude and passion to work in his team. He always reminds me that if I hire the right person, I can train them for any job.
The next thing that will increase teamwork is to establish ground rules.
The ground rules here refer to a reporting structure, so that roles are not ambiguous. Each member of your team needs to be crystal clear about his or her role and function. And if there is disagreement on an issue, you must make it clear who makes the final decision.
Establishing such a structure will help prevent any conflict from getting out of hand.
The biggest vanquisher of team morale is unresolved conflict. Conflicts in themselves are not bad, if they are managed properly. Skirmishes at the workplace are a common occurrence, and at times provide a fertile ground for new ideas to be developed. However, unanswered conflicts that fester will damage internal engagement levels, and mess with the dynamics of your team.
In your organisation, if you do not have in clear sight who makes the final decision in the event of a conflict, you will find it hard to foster continued teamwork. The final decision-maker must be agreed upon, at the onset, so that clarity prevails.
My final recommendation is that you make your organisation inclusive. Always remind yourself that inclusiveness nurtures collaboration.
Many organisations are run like secret societies where a select few in the upper echelons of power make all the decisions. The façade they hide behind is usually that they are charged with making decisions for the common good of everyone.
This may well be the case. But unless you work in the armed forces, where adherence to a chain of command is a life or death matter, this type of attitude excludes team members from giving input or participating in decision-making.
This will lead to a lack of ownership of processes.
One of the most important aspects of creating a first-rate workplace is to give people an avenue to voice their opinions. You must agree that an excellent workplace has to be a proficient workplace, where individuals seek out skills and that they become interested to learn more about work processes. This can only happen when they are confident to comment about those processes.
It is up to you to create an environment where your team is interested to “have a say” because they want to add value to the work. Such inclusiveness will allow for your people to have freedom in their own work processes. And, it is a well-established fact that autonomy yields tremendous results.
So, to accelerate the process of establishing purpose-driven teamwork, you must have clarity by hiring the right people, establish ground rules for roles and create an inclusive workplace.
Shankar R. Santhiram is managing consultant and executive leadership coach at EQTD Consulting. He is also the author of the national bestseller “So, You Want To Get Promoted?”