Ten Teambuilding Tips

Will teamwork bring in more clients and keep the ones you've got? Yes! nnPeople who work together may develop the dreaded "Who cares?" disease. Highly infectious, it slowly erodes all the good efforts that a few excellent workers produce.nnHowever, it’s reversible if you take immediate action. Start with these 10 tips:n n 1. FIND OR CREATE A TEAM LEADERnGreat teams don't just happen. They are carefully and purposefully built by a team leader. Get someone to take charge - whether it’s the manager or anyone interested in group leadership.nn 2. DEVELOP GOOD COMMUNICATIONnNow that the team leader is in place, call the team together. Focus on how individuals can improve skills and finances and help the company grow – only possible by working together.n n 3. FIGURE OUT WHAT YOUR COMPANY NEEDS TO BE SUCCESSFULnEvery winning business starts out with a purposeful, short-term and long-range plan. Decide what the company goals are for the next day, week, month, and future.n n 4. ASSESS THE STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES AND NEEDS OF THE TEAMnWhen you know who is good at what, it’ll be easy to assign tasks to team members in order to reach the goals. Assign accordingly!nn 5. AGREE ON TEAM RULESnSuccessful teams have written rules which they develop themselves. Start with these helpful ones: Tell a person when you don’t agree, don’t talk about people behind their backs, and never be late for trivial reasons. Your team will get the idea after a few examples.nnn 6. SUPPORT THE TEAM—EVEN WHEN THERE’S CONFLICTnIt's easy when everybody gets along … the real test of a team is when there’s disagreement. If team members learn to mediate differences of opinion, then you know you have an effective team. nn 7. ENCOURAGE CREATIVITY AND RISK-TAKINGnNo one wants to make a mistake, especially if coworkers are going to be punitive. However, only those who are willing to fail will be willing to try new things. Team members need to support creative ideas, learn from the ones that don't succeed the first, second, or even tenth time, and try again.nn 8. GIVE POSITIVE AND CONSTRUCTIVE FEEDBACKnI never met a person who started the day by saying, "I think I'll be terrible at work today." Nearly everyone wants to be liked and accepted. If the team keeps this in mind, it’ll become natural to give positive and helpful feedback. People will want to contribute to a team that recognizes their strengths and offers to help with weaknesses.nn 9. MOTIVATE THE TEAMnPeople are motivated by what they want. It could be money for me, but a trip to a resort for somebody else. So how do you find out what makes a person happy? Just ask them! Compile a list of rewards, and let the team know how they can win them.nn10. LEAD BY EXAMPLEnIf you don't follow the team rules, but expect everyone else to, eventually they’ll stop, too. If you’re critical, expect your team to be that way. If, on the other hand, you arrive early, take on more than your share, help out, and are supportive and positive, you’ll be modeling the kind of behavior that you want your team to display.nnAn empowered team can do what others thought was impossible – get started today!