How to Improving Teamwork
Teamwork makes the dream work. It’s a decent saying, but the advice is incomplete.
When it comes to improving teamwork, defining what improvement looks like is the first step. Improving teamwork is less about doing that literally than it is about establishing the outcome you’re trying to improve. One cannot simply “improve teamwork” for the sake of improvement alone. Instead, you and your team are attempting to accomplish something that has yet to be done, and defining that clearly and often is paramount.
When team members value each other’s strengths, they more effectively relate to one another, avoid potential conflicts, boost group cohesion and create positive dialogue. One of the most difficult tasks for an individual is easily explaining what they’re good at. You can say you’re “organized,” but that could mean different things for different people.
Because strong teams begin at the individual level, the research-based Clifton-strengths assessment is a powerful tool that gives people a common language and vocabulary they can use to better describe, communicate with and understand each other. After acknowledging the importance of teamwork in the workplace and the power of knowing your strengths, take the next step by giving power to those strengths through Clifton-strengths.
When you have people in roles that fit their strengths and talents, their energy and passion can fuel their own great performance and inspire the same from their partners.
