Successful Teamwork through Teambuilding
by Gary Gasaway (USA)
As a practicing professional life coach, my experiences regarding working with groups or teams are that they are all incredibly unique. This uniqueness stems from my observations focused upon their ability to effectively work together. Some teams are more effective than others, but all required additional building to increase performance standards. The question I kept asking myself was: What is the difference between a team that performs as a unit and one that does not? My answer was: Teams that attempt to operate without building a foundation first, struggled as a unit to work together effectively. I was so intrigued by these observations that I designed and developed a combined management and employee team training that I entitled: Successful Teamwork through Teambuilding.
The focus of this training is to engage and coach managers and their employee teams focused primarily upon the importance of a foundation of teambuilding before the success of effectively working together as a team. First, it is important to identify and understand the differences between teamwork and teambuilding. Once there was a solid understanding of these differences, we moved directly into some of the obstacles of teambuilding. I have found that there are two most common obstacles creating the foundation of teambuilding: organisational communication and conflict resolution. Then finally, explaining what the three critical areas of teambuilding are and how to effectively implement them into their organisations.
The Differences between Teamwork and Teambuilding
Teamwork is simply the ability of two or more individuals working together toward a common vision or goal. On the other hand, teambuilding is the foundation that creates teamwork through effective communication, mutual trust and respect, encouragement, enthusiasm, flexibility, positive attitude, and recognising the diversity of individual talents required to accomplish employee peak performance. The takeaway here is understand that the foundation of teambuilding must exist before effective teamwork can be accomplished.
Obstacles to Teambuilding
One of the biggest obstacles to teambuilding is communication. Communication is the most critical area for managers. Organisational communication issues usually stem from things such asa lack of information, no clear expectations of vision and goals, and misunderstandings regarding team members’ roles and responsibilities. With deficiencies in communication, teams will falter and lose direction. Without direction, goals will fall short of their expectations. All members must be provided with the same concrete message that connects directly to expectations regarding clear roles and responsibilities that also connect to the performance goals.
Another common obstacle to teambuilding is employee conflict. These conflictive distractions can really damage relationships within the group. These issues can be anything from employees verbally blaming or attacking one another over roles and responsibilities or disagreements over work methods and procedures. This is exactly why communication is so important in the team environment. Conflict, to some degree, will always be present in the work environment. With this in mind, managers, along with their employee teams must work in partnership to ensure conflicts are resolved quickly and effectively. Here are six steps to effectively resolved conflicts in the workplace:
Source: iCN Issue 46 (Group & Team Coaching); pages 17-20
About Gary Gasaway
Gary is a practicing life coach that provides individuals and couples with coaching needs concerning life’s difficulties in the areas of career decisions, dealing with stress, developing positive habits, and improving relationships. When not coaching, Gary dedicates his time to family, friends, and of course – writing.
Gary has a Bachelor of Science degree in Organisational Management and a Master of Science in Leadership and Management from the University of La Verne and is a member of Alpha Chi, National College Honours Society. In addition, Gary has earned the professional designation of a Certified Coach from the Coach Training Alliance.
Gary also has written and published seven books: The Coach’s Chronicles Trilogy, The Reflection Connection – Reflecting and Connecting to Life’s Experiences, A Simple Life – Living Less Complicated, Beyond Reflecting – Actions Lead to Personal Potential, and just released, Choices in Life – You Choose
