All of us work in a team structure or setup, either remotely or in an office setting. It’s always great when the team comes forward while working together in a streamlined way, gaining employee performance recognition for their efforts, and completing goals on time. What really does make a team thick is the relationships you build with team members. This connection or team relationship helps everyone accomplish tasks, meet deadlines, and even exceed their planned goals.
Lots of companies are undertaking the whole teamwork approach when implementing projects. However, there are certain secrets in making those teams successful and being able to complete goals. Understanding how to pull all this together is especially critical with the remote team culture we’re seeing as we work from home.
If you’re the head of a project, then your need to know how improving teamwork relationships ties in with better work culture. A healthy work culture keeps people motivated, keeps everyone at their best ability. Simultaneously, you want your project to succeed with the same people you started out with. Keeping this in mind, here are the real benefits behind long-lasting team relationships.
Building a balance
How much is too much? You might’ve heard from others how maintaining a neutral or professional stance is healthy. You might’ve also heard how building team relationships or healthy interactions with team members is essential for businesses to work. The reality is that you need to balance out both aspects.
That is, work is enjoyable when you’re on good terms with everyone. Everyone feels comfortable receiving or discussing ideas or suggestions. Fun team relationship-building activities are one way to encourage members to be as innovative and creative as possible.
Healthier work from home environment
Most people were taken out of their comfort zone after being pushed into remote work owing to the pandemic. Managers took on virtual team bonding efforts in order to cull the goldfish bowl effect that team members felt. The aim was to facilitate how team members now have to work with one another from remote locations – something that was only possible with the necessary team relationship levels was acquired.
Increased trust and honesty
You must have a good team relationship in place if you wish to have more honesty and trust. This is how you build a good relationship with your colleagues. When there’s a lack of trust, especially inside a workplace, you’re creating an environment that fosters disappointment, argument, conflict, etc.
Honesty builds trust; it’s when you are transparent when doing or saying anything. Even in the event of friction or misunderstandings, team members won’t harbor resentment. Instead, they will seek out healthier ways to move past those issues and build productive culture.
Ways to build a team relationship
As a team leader, you have to listen to what everyone has to say. When you have open ears, you’re more aware of their needs, devise solutions to benefit everyone and build relationship teamwork. It is vital to take on these mentoring roles as you spend a lot of time with these people. It would be best if you mix business with pleasure, but only to a certain extent, as shown below:
Don’t overdo socializing
Socializing with team members must be limited to office events: festive parties, picnics, annual sports meet, lunch breaks, etc. These occasional socialization opportunities are great but shouldn’t be the only goal. So instead, extend this empathy by taking a genuine interest in their well-being. You could listen to their opinions, avoid situations where they feel frustrated, bored, or humiliated.
- Schedule private meetings to get their feedback on work procedures
- Ask them about their lives occasionally
- Make a list of tools, things, and toys that they need to help them work better (things like an ergonomic office chair, electric standing desk, updated software, etc.)
Convey constructive criticism
Your role as a leader should help team members grow professionally. However, the chit chats you do have with them must include value, like asking them if they need help with careers. Always take the extra initiative to praise individuals when they succeed. This boosts morale and makes team members feel appreciated. Any criticism that stems out of errors, mistakes, or arguments should be in the form of constructive effective employee feedback.
Choosing cooperation over competition
Discourage all forms of unhealthy competition between team members. It leads to members pitting against each other, which could be destructive to the project, person, and productivity. When team members begin to view each other as the enemy, team relationships take a huge setback. As a leader, it’s up to you to encourage cooperation and team collaboration where people can trust and rely on each other.
- Split up teams when allocating tasks to be completed
- Give people a chance to work with others other than the usual suspects
Mitigate micromanaging
Micromanaging only works in a high-octane work environment where the workload is extremely intense. Avoid this when it comes to your team, as it shows that you don’t trust your team. On the other side, your team members will have less confidence, morale and won’t be able to work independently. Look at it this way: if you know you’ve recruited the best people for your project, you should trust that they’re able to do their job.
Building respectable boundaries
It is great to participate in the expectations, dream that your workers have, even in the smallest ways. It’s also OK to be on friendly terms with everyone on your team to build relationship teamwork. You do need to set up some boundaries when doing so. Very close friendships may give everyone the wrong idea; people may think you’re partial to certain individuals. Getting too close to some people results in a lack of trust in others. They may think that you have your favorites in the team and will treat others differently. It would help if you established a hierarchy between yourself as a leader and the people you need to manage.
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