Today’s post starts with a high level look at 10 core teamwork skills. Exceptional teams have team members with well developed skills in these areas:
- Listening
- Conflict Resolution
- Communication
- Collaboration
- Emotional Intelligence
- Building Trust and Respect
- Influence
- Working flexibly
- Difficult Conversations
- Relationship Building
Throughout the next few weeks we’ll be taking a look at each one of these in turn. Effective teamwork is about ensuring all team members have developed skills in each area. The weakest link in a team is usually the team member with the least developed amount of skills.
Effective teams listen to each other. They are able to raise difficult issues and communicate across them. The skill of influence is important in helping others see different perspectives. Effective teams are great at building relationships amongst their own members and expanding their network by building relationships outside of the team.
Trust and respect is the foundation of a ny strong team. When trust levels are low you might see things like excessive water cooler talk, issues being swept under the rug, or issues being hidden from the leader. When trust levels are low, these are the things that should be addressed before other things. Click here to review past posts on trust.
Activity:
As you think about your team right now, in which of these 10 areas are their skills developed?
Which areas could use some attention?
What would help them develop skills in those areas?
Tomorrow we will start turning our attention to some of these individual skills, looking at what they mean in the context of effective teamwork, different resources you might want to tap into, and questions you might want to ask.
Have a great Tuesday,
Jennifer
Jennifer Britton, MES, CPT, PCC
Potentials Realized
Author of From One to Many: Best Practices for Team and Group Coaching(Jossey-Bass, 2013) and Effective Group Coaching (Wiley, 2010)
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