Neither Smart Work Nor Hard Work; it’s called Team Work
A workplace is a sacred premise for many people around the world. The common characteristic found among these worshippers is “Loyalty”
Back in old times when our great -great granddads went for a job or ran a business, the technical skills which drive the operations were given secondary preference to the personality possessed by the job seekers.
In the modern ages, “Smart work rather than hard work”, visibly became popular. Without understanding the deep insight behind the phrase everybody aimed at getting things by any means without considering integrity and ethics.
If the smart work is the core competency, everybody would be hitting the bulls-eye. The reality sparks a difference for each of them. There are some companies, who make it big and able to resolve any kind of critical issues similar to cutting a cake — as smooth as ever — nailing that adversity into opportunity, for the rest, it is walking through a failure battlefield.
I have always wondered how do they overcome those hurdles? How would have they thought this whole scenario? Who lays out the plan and steers the wheel?
The magic potion contains the ingredient “Team Work”. Hard working is most of the time is pulling and pushing the cart alone. Smart work is getting the help of cattle or labor man to drag the cart. But teamwork is different since it involves learning how to pull the cart and the same time managing the task as a leader.
7 valuable lessons that will tell how you can build the teamwork and execute the smart work successfully
Don’t Push The Loyal Employees
As I have stated above in my introduction, personality traits play a significant role still. Valuable assets of a company are employees. Among those, loyal ones and the talented ones might be your critical resources, if both the traits found in the same resource, BINGO. Never ever push your loyal employees to where they no longer care.
It is hard to infuse the habit of loyalty into a talented employee but the reverse may take time, but possible. A loyal resource can be taught skills and trained for betterment. At all costs, they remain with the company, because they believed in your management and the visions you shared with them.
But remember, all have a threshold and when they reach it, be it loyal or not, they will walk away. Don’t push your loyal employees to where they no longer care. These guys are gonna lay that solid foundation for building great teams.
Communication
Communication is art. Effective communication understands that “the piece of information to be passed” over is more important than the people involved.
People respond well to those who are sure of what they need. At your workplace, at least the second tier people, managers, team leads and domain heads need to practice good communication between them. If your firm has a cross-functional team approach, it is crucial that the leads managing these teams should put themselves responsible for passing out information in the right mode and tone.
Most of us never listen, we wait for our chance to reply and convey what we have already prepared. Listening is important because, when people feel they are heard, they respond well to you. Only good communication will build good teams.
Example: If 2 out of your 5 leads are having issues in communicating across the teams. The workload from those 2 teams will become stagnant. It increases pointless tension. Ego clashes might happen. This is not harmony for the juniors under them and to the rest of the company.
Establish communication programs with an aim in creating a good bond among the employees. Eliminate procedures that seem like a one-way channel. Encourage communication forms that give equal opportunity for all the people to express their views and ideas.
Roles and Responsibilities
When there is no idea about where you are, you will not know what to do. Even a trained pilot when accidentally crash-landed on a deserted island (likely to happen 0.0000001%) tries to understand the scenario and his environment before using his instinct to understand the island to survey options for his survival.
Most of the time employees don’t know what is their role in a project or team. Worst cases, no idea about the project at all. Pure Nightmare. I have experienced it once or twice when I was moved to a new project. Trust me, it is not a good feeling — to be in the middle of a no-where island. I had no idea about the goal, who is the end-user and what my customer is trying to achieve. I learned the lesson,
“People who are not clear with the roles will not perform towards the goal”
When you are trying to build a house, if the team does not understand, what they are constructing and the purpose of the construction, you might likely end up building some blocks aligned irregularly. Example: The kitchen has a bathtub instead of a kitchen counter(Sounds hilarious right?) In a company, it is not hilarious, but a catastrophe.
Defined roles of each person in a project put forwards each person’s contribution towards the end goal. When employees know their roles, they understand better about their responsibilities. Set clear objectives while defining the roles of your team members. Without roles and responsibilities, either it pressurizes person for any or all the mistakes committed by the team.
“Roles help to define the responsibilities.
Responsibilities will strengthen the team”
Slow toxic killers
The famous Gary V states that an employee who isn’t having the right attitude will tend to tear up the entire organization growth. The talented employee who doesn’t treat his colleagues with respect or harmony should be fired immediately.
In-house politics, toxic attitude, stubbornness or any other form of negativity that might harm the mental strength of other employees should never be tolerated.
Watch out for the slow toxic killers in your organization, because they will never let a team be built, function and improved.
The “Scary Silence”
Don’t confuse the silence with the introverts present in your team. It has nothing to do with the personality, infact, introverts will have a lot to tell useful since they are highly observant.
The passionate people go quiet when they know it is a waste to put effort. If you hear silence in a particular team or in a particular group of people who were once the initiators, time to press the ALARM!!! The first time they feel they are not being heard or listened will be the last time they actually care.
“A team without voice is scary than the one without vision”
This is also a pro-tip to build leadership skills. When you accidentally silence the passionate people, eventually you will have a group who has nothing to say but just nod the head to whatever you do.
Hear the silence that is sparking in your organization and put some purposeful sound to make them come out as a harmonious track. A team’s strength lies in passionate self-drivers.
Conclusion
Teamwork is so attractive to watch. Many of the time when the celebrations are done as a team, it is quite a feast to eyes and heart. I personally like a team able to put aside their differences and work towards the common cause. I have been on a team that was very mature, fun and productive. Building a team takes time, don’t rush to get things done overnight. Make efforts as each day pass to build a team. That is how the strength of the team grows.
All the best to build that dream team of your organization who will kick off the dust and hurdles.
