Whatever your professional position today, you will need to develop teamwork skills. In many instances, executives participate on teams with lower ranking employees, but they work as equals. Being an effective team member means much more than showing up on time and contributing with a generic statement from time to time. Building and participating in a highly effective team requires the practice of specific skills. Learning how to manage teams effectively can be broken down into four main objectives:

1. Monthly team feedback.

Providing monthly team feedback with a scoring and awards system means management can better identify problems and work towards a solution. Doing this allows employees to feel relaxed, motivated and more confident. Incorporating monthly feedback will help the team leader to support and encourage team activities. This will identify team members for their positive contributions, rather than ostracize others for negative performance. By setting up a feedback system on a regular basis, management can pinpoint problems within the department, establish a plan to deal with any issues, and track the problem over time.

2. Create and implement reasonable and attainable goals.

All successful events start with a plan with reasonable and attainable goals. The goals must have a meaning if they’re meant to be the motivating factor behind a highly effective team. One of the most effective strategies for improving the productivity of the members of your group is by getting them involved (to an appropriate degree) in the organizational goals program. How do their goals coincide to the goals of the company? Helping employees identify their individual goals, and express them, will create an improved, cohesive unit.

3. Develop individual stars into superior team players.

It has been shown that productivity and innovation are boosted significantly when teams of people work cooperatively together, rather than when there are individual “stars” in a department. Perhaps most surprisingly, this is true even in fields generally thought of as dominated by star performers.

Broadly shared employee ownership over a task or project serves as a powerful basis for instilling a team orientation, and teamwork is the key to superior performance and results. Be aware that individuals with high performance are sometimes reluctant to blend into a team. They become committed to working alone and believe their notable achievements result from their independence. However, the key to getting these high performing individuals into a high performing team is through enhanced communication, and the creation of common goals.

4. Foster an environment that encourages team learning.

Depending on the situation, this can be difficult or easy to do. Encourage and support team members to develop and share their skills and experiences with one another in order to enhance the effectiveness of the team. A work environment that encourages learning is essential for continuous productivity improvement. Never create an environment in which team members are terrified to ask questions. Rather, cultivate the freedom to engage in solution-oriented discussion and discovery. Make sure that team members are rewarded—not for maintaining the status quo, but for achieving constructive and creative results.  A healthy, dynamic learning environment is characterized by freedom to express dissent, to make mistakes, and to invest time in learning from management and from teammates.

The unspoken rule of an effective team is: “There is no ‘I’ in team.” The most efficient, high performing teams are those who are led to perform as a unit, rather than those who are encouraged to compete as individuals. Since few managers have the opportunity to hand pick their players, learning to manage a high performing team will make you a more productive professional. So, it’s important to be aware of how you need to perform as a leader.

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