Annie Dias lists some guidelines that can help your team perform as a cohesive unit

Today teamwork has become far more significant that it was a decade ago. Team building skills, therefore, have come to be an essential part of seeking a new job or promotion into the next level of management.

There are several studies that show the effectiveness of working in a team and tell us that a team achieves much more than the same group of people working individually.

So, how can you become a team builder? How can you get the members of your team to work as a cohesive unit?

Here are some guidelines..

Communication: every member of your team must be allowed his share of talk time when he can voice his concerns, air his ideas, and share his thoughts. Any decision taken must be a collective one. Good communication also involves active listening among team members and every team members and values the suggestions of other members.

Trust: every good team must trust each of its members. Only then will they be active and productive.

Define Goals: set clear and specific goals to every members of your team. Team goals must be given separately. Each goal should also come with a set time limit.

Reviews: goals mean nothing unless you monitor them. For Example, you need to conduct a regular progress review on how members are proceeding and what glitches they may have come up against that could affect deadlines. Members of your team should be encourages to sit down regularly to take stock of the situation and review not only their goals but also that of the team so that they can work through any problems that may have arisen. 

Cooperate: every team member must be encouraged to collaborate and cooperate with the others in the team. Remember this is not about personal accomplishments.

Be professional: team members must be willing to set petty differences aside and work together for the greater good of the organization.

Diversity: every team member must enjoy and celebrate the differences in the others. They have to respect the value of being different and you must highlight the fact that being different means getting so many more ideas and new ways of approaching a situation.  

Enthusiasm: encourage members to jump into the team process with enthusiasm.

Collaborate: encourage each team member and see that they feel that they play a vital role in sharing the work.