TEAM WORK
Teamwork can provide collective strength and good work culture for the organisational as well as individual growth. Strong teams can help your group be more productive and create a friendlier, more open environment. By instilling positive teamwork habits, individually you can add to your skills that will benefit in your professional career as well social life. A team comes up with team members of different background, mix attributes, habits & nature and each team member brings along with all of their baggage—for good and for ill. Belonging to a team, in the broadest sense, is a result of feeling part of something larger than yourself. In a team-oriented environment, you contribute to the overall success of the team. It has a lot to do with your understanding of the mission or objectives of our Seva Marg.
Positive Teamwork Attributes:
- Good communication skills: Without communications, there is not a team at all. Good communication skills are absolutely crucial for every good team and effective teamwork. One of the most important characteristics of a good team is open communication. Each team member must be able to communicate with the rest of the group for updates, questions, ideas and general input. A team that encourages open communication allows everyone to be able to share their ideas and opinions without fear. Communication should be open, honest, and respectful. People feel free to express their thoughts, opinions, and potential solutions to problems. People feel as if they are heard out and listened to by team members who are attempting to understand. Team members ask questions for clarity.
- Active listening: Listening skills have the top position in the team building skills list. To build a team you have to understand other team member’s needs, beliefs, worries, hopes. This can be achieved only by active listening with paying attention to other members. Active listening is a skill that allows a person to completely focus on the communication of another person. Active listening requires patience.
- Collaboration skills: To make collaboration with many people is one of the most difficult tasks, but also one of the most important prerequisites to achieve successful team work. That is why collaborative skills are keyteam building skills. Effective team means a great collaborative team. Each person must figure out how his or her skills and talents fit with those of the other team members. For a team to work, everyone must understand what their role is and how to use it to contribute to the team’s success.
- Building Confidence: This is absolutely critical ability among the team building and team leader skills. Confidence keeps a team together. It promotes support and reliability. No matter whether you are a team co-ordinator, leader or a member, you have to be confident. To be confident means that people can rely on you and can trust you.
- Creativity, Creative thinking and idea exchange: Creativity is a characteristic of every good and effective team. Creative thinking is the most important factor for future success. Good and creative ideas are among main reasons for growth and success. Every team should have a suitable environment for idea exchange. Members have to share and develop ideas. The team members recognize that the strength in having a team is that every member brings diverseness to the efforts to solve a problem, improve a process, reach a goal.
- Patience & Support: To be patient is also a very crucial quality. Patience is about being tolerable and understanding. Team members should have enough patience to listen to other members, without which there will not be confidence and feeling of participation in team members. There is no team without support. Team members have to support each other and have to rely on each other. These are the main building elements of a team. When you suspect that a team member is struggling with something, you should suppprt your teammate. His Holiness Shree Gurumauli always tells a Hindi Proverb, “दस की लकडी सौ का बोछा !” means When we help someone, we share their burden.
- Problem-solving skills: In every team there are problems. No matter whether you are a team co-ordinator or a leader, you have to learn to deal with conflicts in the most effective way. An effective team must develop its own strategy of problem solving and conflict management. The strategy will differ from team to team based on the situation and the individual members; the individual team must work out the problem-solving methods that work best for it. His Holiness Shree Gurumauli always refer a Sanskrit Shloka on this skill, “अमंत्रम अक्षरं नास्ति, अमूलं नास्ति औषधी। अयोग्यम् पुरुष नास्ति, योजकः तत्र दुर्लभः”॥ Means, every letter can be used in some form for a Mantra, every herb has medicinal benefits, every person can be useful in some way or other, but there should be a person who can make it happen.
- Respect: For a team to be a comfortable and safe place for all members, each person must respect everyone else. Members should respect views of other members, though they may not agree with it. Because a great team requires open communication, respect can create the trust that will allow members to be open. This does not mean that you have to let teammates get away with inappropriate behaviour. In fact, respect for your teammates will allow you to support them in behaving in ways that are in alignment with their fundamental nobility as human beings.
- Transparency & Sharing: Sharing our knowledge, time, skills or physical resources are all aspects of sharing. Sharing among team members is focused on those things which will help a team reach its goals. Transparency should be maintained in flow of information. Every team member should understand the the objectives of the team and the updates on the activities. Transparency builds the confidence in the team members.
- Participation: It’s probably obvious, but in order to effectively be on a team, members must participate! If you are not participating when the team makes a decision, you abstain from helping to execute the decision because you disagree. Team members should have a strong sense of belonging to the group. They should experience a deep commitment to the group’s decisions and actions. This sense of belonging is important and is developed when there are common goals. A shared mission can help a group of people to work together and create enthusiasm. When everyone is using their own abilities to work toward a common goal, the result is greater than the efforts of a single person. In a strong team, the good of the common goal comes before the individual preferences and interests of the members. The team is committed to attaining the goals, this clear direction and agreement on missionand purpose is essential for effective teamwork.