You’ve hired the best talent possible. Moreover, you compensate your team members well. Because of it, they all seem happy with their jobs. Still, performance is not where it should be, nor are results, and growth is slow. What’s missing? You think you have the right talent and all the resources for ensuring success online and offline. Here’s where your challenge could lie: team dynamics.
What is Team Dynamics?
Often, when there’s trouble, even if you have the right talent, platforms, and processes, it’s because your team is not gelling properly. And, that’s a matter of team dynamics. Candidly, it would be great to have a straightforward definition. But, not everything is so clear cut and dry. That said, team dynamics consists of soft skills, as well as technical expertise. At the core, it’s how your team relates to one another and how they communicate. Also, good team dynamics represent the quality of the relationships that happen in your work environment.
For instance, good team dynamics means you have a group of people who enjoy working together. Sure, some days are more challenging than others, but good team dynamics get demonstrated with good behaviors and norms within your office. For example, if you get a new digital platform, it’s realizing whether the change gets greeted with enthusiasm or negative disruption. In short, how people behave and communicate with each other means a whole lot for your company or nonprofit. Good team dynamics could mean the difference between success or failure. Moreover, it could impact performance and employee engagement.
One Mistake Managers Usually Make
Here’s a lesson that’s necessary for leadership development. When recruiting a team or getting a professional group to collaborate for special projects or edge initiatives, managers rarely—if consider—personalities. However, merely putting the right mix of skills together does not result in a successful team. Therefore, taking the time to understand individual team members’ personalities is essential for understanding team dynamics.
So, what makes for an effective team? And why are high-performing teams so challenging to find? Well, it depends on who you ask. Unfortunately, there are no clear-cut answers to those tricky questions. Here is the good news: there is a lot of research on positive group dynamics and building high performing teams.
The following are 5 simple, but effective, strategies based on best practices used by leaders worldwide.
1. Show them the BIG picture
Teams who do not get along well do not work for a common objective and seldom get the best outcomes. What’s more, if there is not unity or a common purpose, team members begin to get frustrated because they don’t see where they “fit” into the grander scheme of things. In short, it’s essential for members of your team to have a greater sense of purpose. It doesn’t matter of you lead a for-profit company, nonprofit, or social enterprise.
When the team members share a passion for what they do, it makes them forget their disagreements to pursue a higher goal. It has an even more significant impact when they enjoy working together, respect each other, and enjoy collaborating. That is when they come together and make magic happen.
2. Create opportunities for your team to connect
It is not often easy to do. The first thing teams need to do if they are going to work well together is to get to know each other personally. Leaders must create opportunities for people to learn each other’s stories, dreams, aspirations, values, and ideals that are important to them. The more they understand each other as human beings, the closer they will grow as a team. And the closeness makes it possible for them to devote their mutual energies and enthusiasm to their organization’s goals.
3. Team dynamics is built on effective communication
Good team communication and collaboration are essential traits that contribute to improving a working team’s efficiency and productivity and setting team dynamics. The purpose of communication is to enhance team performance. Effective communication includes having frank discussions, learning, and also listening. As I often say, listening is one skill which many people could stand to improve. Nevertheless, paying attention is essential for quality communication. Research has shown that teams that perform the best are those who freely share knowledge.
4. Encourage innovation and failures
As a leader, you must ensure to build an environment that encourages innovation, even if it fails multiple times. One of the most essential aspects of allowing for innovation—and failure—is to create a space where it’s positively fine to fail—so long as learning occurs. For anything new, people have to test out ideas and when they fail, they should have information that they use for improvements.
5. Building trust is critical for positive team dynamics
Simon Sinek, a leadership expert, sums up the role of trust in team dynamics very well. He says, “A team is not a group of people who work together. A team is a group of people who trust each other.” The fact is that building trust takes time. Simon often relates to trusting someone to falling in love. It is a long and muddy journey and needs time for the relationship to evolve and grow. But if you follow the steps of building friendships, showing mutual respect and integrity, the trust will follow.
The 21st century demands leadership that gets results. Working on improving team dynamics will enhance outcomes and lead to greater collaboration, faster decision-making, and more outstanding commitment from the team.
© 2020 Wayne Elsey. All Rights Reserved.