According to research carried out recently over half of UK employees state that team working is not promoted by their organisation. The research also showed that the skills of team leaders were pretty poor with many not attempting to resolve team conflict.

The key elements of good team work are great relationships, good communication and a shared goal.   Good team work is essential in creating an efficient organisation – ultimately it will affect the bottom line.   A team working together has more power to achieve results rather than individuals working separately.  Teams can be creative through the brainstorming of ideas and work is carried out more quickly.

Being part of a team means people feel wanted and important.  Job satisfaction comes from working together with like minded people and achieving a result whether it is meeting targets or completing a project.  There is a sense of accomplishment that comes from a job well done.  Everyone in the team should have a responsible role that fits their key skills and experience.

Good teams working together have a great rapport and a shared sense of focus; they have mutual respect for each  other.  It is important that team members have complementary strengths and these are recognised and used appropriately by the team leader.  Effective communication is a major key to success; team members have to talk to one another.  Having respect for each other means problems can be solved and work shared.  Above all a supportive and motivational team leader is essential to set the morale of the team and to provide clear guidance.

Things can go wrong when any of these essential elements don’t exist.  If team members don’t feel wanted or valued in their role then morale will decrease and productivity will be affected.  If there is a mis-match of roles and/or skills are not complementary then conflict can ensue.   There needs to be a clear definition with job roles to avoid duplication and confusion.  If communication is lacking, then resentment can build up if important information is not passed on.  Also having a team leader who is not supportive and who fails to deal with problems can severely impact on a team’s efficiency.

So if things go wrong what can be done to put things right?

The first step would be to identify exactly what the issues are; this provides a base from which to work.  If there are major problems then team building workshops could be considered working with an outside trainer to generate ideas for improvement.  This could help if a team leader is new to a team and needs to get to know the team members in a different environment.

Psychometric profiling can be used to identify team members’ personalities, their strengths and weaknesses, using the analysed information to come up with conflict resolution solutions.  Poor communication can be solved by increasing communication through regular team meetings to discuss and air key issues and/or providing communication training.

Team  leaders can be provided with training to develop their skills.  A team leader’s style can impact greatly on the team and this needs to be in a positive way.  Training in managing conflict will help resolve team tussles.  Team leaders need to know that recognising and reward their team’s efforts will vastly increase productivity.  Rewards can range from merely saying thank you, to implementing a “team employee of the month” award to organising team social outings where everyone can relax and enjoy their time together.