When we think of teamwork, our mind immediately goes to a work environment or, perhaps a sports scenario, but why not in life? Why not in marriage? The question here is: why do we strive to be good team members at work or good team players on the field, but we don’t do it at home? Even if you still live with your parents…. Why do we put the effort into building strong teams but not strong families?
If we think about the basic skills that a good team member – or team player – needs, like responsibility, honesty, active listening, empathy, collaboration and awareness, they are totally available on the internet, and if you ever attended/ conducted a meeting in your company about soft skills, you probably have already researched about it before. Here are a few:
Communication
The ability to communicate in a clear, efficient way is a critical teamwork skill. When working with others, it is important that you share relevant thoughts, ideas and key information.
Responsibility
Within the dynamic of teamwork, it is important that the parties involved both understand the work they are responsible for and make the effort to complete tasks on time and up to the expected standard. With the entire team functioning properly by taking responsibility for their own work, they can work together towards a common goal.
Honesty
Practicing honesty and transparency at work might mean working through a disagreement, explaining that you were not able to complete a certain task on time or sharing difficult updates. Without transparency, it can be difficult for a team to develop trust and therefore work together efficiently.
Active listening
Active listening is the act of making an effort to focus intently on one person as they share their ideas, thoughts or feelings. You might also ask follow-up questions to dig deeper into what they are communicating.
Empathy
Having empathy for your teammates can allow you to better understand their motives and feelings. Taking the time to listen and understand how others think and work can help you to communicate with them in the right ways.
Collaboration
Teamwork exists so that a group of individuals with a diverse set of skills and talents can work together towards a common goal. It is crucial to work with other teammates to share ideas, improve each other’s work and help one another to form a good team.
How to improve your teamwork skills?
While it can take time and work to improve soft skills such as teamwork, it is certainly possible to build these qualities. Here are a few steps you can take to improve your teamwork skills:
Get honest feedback.
It can be difficult to identify by yourself the areas you should improve. Finding a trusted friend, colleague or mentor that can offer you honest feedback about your teamwork, strengths and weaknesses, can help you improve them.
Set personal goals. Using both your own observations and feedback from others to form achievable, relevant and time-constrained goals can help you improve one teamwork skill at a time. Using the SMART (Specific-Measurable-Attainable-Relevant and Time-based) goal framework is an easy way to set appropriate goals for your career.
Practice. It takes time and practice to see improvements in your skill set. Pay close attention to your teamwork interactions throughout the day both in and out of work. Take mindful steps to practice the specific qualities you are trying to build. Mimic others with strong teamwork skills. When you see examples of great teamwork, take note and identify why the interaction stood out to you. Apply those qualities in your own interactions when working with others.
Developing teamwork skills can help you in your career and when seeking new opportunities. But all of the above play an important role at home as well. I’m not saying you should act in your house as if you were getting paid by the hour, but do give the same amount of commitment, effort and dedication to your family as you do to your work. Teamwork is not only a work skill, but a life skill, so take time to evaluate your current skill set and identify areas for improvement.
When teamwork is effective, communication, collaboration and combined efforts make for a better outcome. Everyone brings their skills, talents and experiences together for a common goal. The different styles of each person make for more creativity and innovation, and therefore your parents, spouse, family, will eventually just bring their best to the table as well. Be the example, whether at work or at home. Give your best and aim for the common goal, and you will see how things start falling into place.
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