Team building is the ability to recognize the diverse skillsets and ability of various workers, categorizing and motivating them so that they work together as a unit toward a common goal.

People misconstrue team building for team training – both are different in their own ways. Whiles team training is geared towards improving on the efficiency of a given team, team building deals more with improving the interpersonal relations of each individual so that there is fluidity and enhanced collaboration among team members.

Though team building is an obviously vital skillfor every organization, it is only possessed by a handful of people. That can be attributed to our school systems since they promote more of individualism.

Importance of team building

Whatever your career path may be, you will definitely face the need to use this skill. Team building is extremely vital for top management. However, it is necessary for climbing up the career ladder too.

You may be extremely good in your field but until your team members are equally efficient, communicate appropriately and relate well with you, you may not enjoy the best of results at work.

Any person in a team that fails is a failure as well, no matter how well s/he carries out his or her duties.

Team building will help:

  • Create positive and open-minded inter-group communications
  • Create a ubiquitous joyous atmosphere which boosts team motivation and confidence
  • All members understand the objectives and work uniformly towards goals
  • Improve familiarization among members
  • Members identify their strengths and weaknesses and improve upon their skills
  • Promote intergroup learning and idea sharing

People know it when they have been motivated by someone’s actions and have had their confidence boosted by a person’s team building skills. Colleagues who have felt your impact cannot help but recommend you to top management. That should score you some great points during employee appraisals.

How to improve on your team building skills

Perhaps, your career or job position is one that requires that you build up teams every now and then. You can always make use of thesethree tips to improve on your skills:

  • Learn to capitalize on individual strengths. It is worth noting that people have differing strengths and weaknesses. Observe carefully to understand the weakness of each member. It is very difficult for people to change, and it is more likely that a particular deficiency cannot be improved upon, especially when it is embedded in their nature or temperament. Pair such individuals with others who have that particular trait as their strength. It helps hedge the problem and improve the teams’ output. For instance: Some workers are very hardworking but pay little attention to details. You can pair such a person with another worker who pays extremeattentionto details.
  • Promote Transparency and Freedom. Always remember you want to build up the confidence and fluidity in your team. You are likely to have members reporting every little problem and concern to you, in other words, making you a middleman. Your objective is to help the members gel in intergroup communications. Allow members to agree on decisions among themselves, especially on trivial issues, but step in only when a matter is of great essence. It helps build their sense of ownership.
  • Establish bi-laws or rules. Your team should have specific regulations and modes of conduct. This reduces ambiguity and uncertainty in the working environment. The confidence of workers is boosted when they are sure what they are doing is the right thing.
Job profiles that require this skill