Team Building in a Corporate Environment
A key challenge in any corporate environment is achieving teamwork. While some workers may be apathetic about achieving strategic business goals, others may show concern towards only towards achievement of individual career goals. An approach that managers can use to develop a work setting that supports teamwork is implementing programs or exercises where workers are required to work together. One of the key foundations of successful teams is having goals and outcomes that are clearly defined.
Having the right people with the rights kills is also fundamental. The right resources should be available to build successful teams in addition to effective process of making decisions. Other key aspects include optimism, trust, and effective leadership. Effective leadership enables teams to achieve meaningful outcomes and the set objectives. This paper will examine the process of building a team, the role played by leadership in ensuring team growth, and exercises that can be leveraged by management to foster team success.
Creating an outline of personal objectives is the first step to building a team in a business environment (Ferrara, 2005). It is essential for every entrepreneur to have a primary aim so as to attain corporate success. A primary aim serves as a guide and gives an individual something to look forward to or worth dying for. One of the key reasons for building a business is to utilize that business as a means of attaining a specific primary goal. This implies that a corporate team has a duty of working towards the growth and success of a business, which will in turn help in achieving a primary goal. Therefore, a corporate team helps in ether direct or indirect realization of the primary goal of an entrepreneur or manager (Ferrara, 2005). It is thus clear that the first step of team building an honest assessment of personal skills and clear identification of personal objectives.
Once the personal objectives have been established, it is essential to outline the business objectives. Business objectives are essential because they help in determining the caliber of individuals worth including in the corporate team. When choosing team members, one has to ensure that their skills would not only add to the bottom line, but also help in achievement of business objectives (Baldwin & Keating, 1998). A member who lacks the skills required to add to the bottom line should not be included in a team regardless of their level of skillfulness. It is vital to have members who would add value to the entire team and be of benefit to others, rather than just for their own benefit.
Identification of one’s strengths and weaknesses is another step worth noting. A manager or entrepreneur building a team should make sure that the team has strengths that would complement the personal weaknesses. For instance, a person who is a strategist and good communicator, but has a weakness of hot-temperedness and rushing into decisions should have a team member who would serve as a confidant and advisor. Once personal strengths and weaknesses have been identified, developing a business mission is necessary. Business mission development is among the key elements of a corporation, owed to the fact that one’s entrepreneurial spirit dwells in it (Begg, 2005).
Members of a business team should not only accept a business mission, but they need to align themselves with it. The mission of a business serves a bond that binds the business together. Lack of a business mission implies lack of a team spirit between the business management team and employees. It is clearly evident that developing a business mission prior to even starting that business is vital Baldwin, (1998). A business that does not have a mission has a less likelihood if standing the test of time.
Another essential step that should not be overlooked is that of developing a plan for business team acquisition (Hardy & Crace, 1997). Some of the questions that should be answered when developing a business steam acquisition plan include, why a business team is needed, the specific role that will be played by the business, ways to use to compensate the business management team, and how the potential of the corporate team will be maximized.
An entrepreneur needs to find answers to the mentioned questions before even thinking of assembling a corporate team. Listing the specific qualities, characters, and skills and that team members proposed need to possess is also advisable. One should keep in mind that it can take several years to build an effective team. Careful planning is essential so as to ensure that individuals with the right qualities and skills are selected (Hardy, 1997).
Once the qualities that a business team should posses have been highlighted, one should start to look for individuals suitable to join the team. According to Syantek, Goodman, Benz & Gard (1999), a greatest business asset is the people. This means that the goodness of the company is determined by the people in that company. This process of searching for individuals to make up a team need to be approached in a tactical manner. There is no specific process or criteria to use in finding the right individuals.
Networking is one approach that can be used to find the right caliber of people to join the team. Some can also choose team members on the basis of referrals from other businesspeople. Another common is that of sending proposals with clearly outlined mission and objectives. One needs to keep in mind that building a strong corporate management team is one of the long-term goals of any given corporation (Staggers, Garcia & Nagelhout, 2008). This means that people will continue joining and leaving the team until the appropriate business team with a common mission is built.
Another key step is that of selling the developed business mission to prospects. The business mission is sold to potential team members. Those who understand and make the decision of being part of it are allowed to join. For an entrepreneur, the process of selling a business mission to team members is more like selling one spirit and passion to the members. The members are told of the values, dreams, and even the culture wanted by an entrepreneur (Staggers, et al. 2008). People who neither comprehend nor grasp the potentiality of the vision and mission of the business are not worth being part of the corporate team. It is essential for a business team to feel the passion of the entrepreneur and be willing to work together to translate the passion into positive energy.
Identification of competent employees and brining them on board is the next step. The employees to choose should not only have a long-standing commitment, but they should also be diligent and competent. An employee who makes it as a team member is perceived as an asset because he or she clearly understands the complexities associated with the business (Zawacki & Lackow, 1998). Unleashing the business team is the final step. It is essential for each team member portray competency and knwoledge in their specific fields. A high level of professionalism should be clearly reflected in books. The newly formed business team should increase the level of competitiveness of a business. Competitive advantage is an aspect that is extremely vital for any business venture (Zawacki, 1998). A business or organization that does not have a competitive advantage should not compete at all.
Corporate teams are built in accordance to the needs of the business and the value of an entrepreneur. This implies that a business team that is appropriate for a given corporation might not be right for another corporation. Hence, different businesses have different needs and require different teams to attain specific goals and objectives. Additionally, different entrepreneurs would have different core values and different personal objectives. Creativity is what sets people apart. A person who is creative and uses a creative approach has a high likelihood to develop and build a successful team (Syantek, et al. 1998). Every person has the potential to achieve any set goals and objective, provided an open-mind and creativity are maintained.
It is undoubtedly evident there are specific foundations necessary for successful teams to be established. Goals and strategies are among the primary foundations, ion that, they should be clearly defined. The steps to be followed to achieve those goals need to be defined also. Having the right people is another foundation. This implies that teams are likely to attain success if they are comprised of the right people having the right knowledge, experience and skills. It is also crucial to have the right resources (Hardy, 1997). Teams that lack appropriate resources often struggle to deliver the anticipated results. Effective decision making is also fundamental. A characteristic of teams that lack an effective process of decision making is the tendency of coming up with ideas that are never reflected in actions and outcomes.
Effective leadership is another key foundation of successful teams. Teams that lack effective leaders have a tendency of drifting and struggling to achieve the expected results. Leaders should not only avoid drift, but also avoid the imposition of solutions and ideas to the team. Optimism is another foundation worth noting. Teams that are optimistic have a positive attitude. Such teams hold the belief that they can attain positive outcomes and results. Such teams appreciate the fact that obstacles are inevitable and to overcome them, time and effort is needed (Begg, 2005). Basically, a manager who wants to develop a strong and successful team should put in place the appropriate foundations. Failure to do so will result to team failure.
Leadership plays a fundamental role in growth and development of a team as well as the individuals making up the team. Every corporate team has to have a team leader to play the role of maintaining the team’s togetherness and extracting the best out of individual members of the team (Baldwin, 1998). Individuals draw inspiration from the team leader and seek advice from him or her. A team leader should be perceived as a role model or person to look up to by the member of the team. Leadership gives direction to members of the team and helps them to maintain the necessary focus. Owed to the fact that every team has a specific purpose, it is the role of the team leader to set the specific objectives and goals that the team should work together to achieve.
Conflicts are inevitable in a business team. This is because different team members hold different values, beliefs, and ideologies. From time to time, differences may arise, resulting to conflicts. Leadership comes handy during such critical times. Conflict resolution within a team is a key challenging task that a team leader encounters. A conflict can result to either positive or negative results. On the positive side, a conflict can motivate members of the staff to improve on the skills and add towards the team’s success. On the negative side, a team may fail to attain the success needed because of intense conflicts and disagreements (Bjorn & Ngwenyama, 2009).
Any team should have specific rules and policies to serve as guidance to behavior and other activities. It is the responsibility of a team leader to institute the policies and rules applicable to a team. This means that leadership is needed to direct and guide a team. A team that has good leadership has members who clearly comprehend the specifics concerning the objectives and mission of the team. A team leader establishes an effective method of communicating or reaching out to individual team members and working with them to carry out different obligations (Bjorn, 2009). The leader serves as the team’s spokesman or representative. The leader should have a clear understanding of operations and needs of a team.
Trust is one of the key foundations that must be in place for a team to attain success. One characteristic of a team that lacks trust is the fact that individual members act in their personal interests instead of team results’ interest. A vital foundation in successful teams is building trust (Klein, DiazGranados, Salas & Burke, 2009). A good example of an exercise or activity that can be leveraged by management to create teamwork and build trust is known as Minefield. In this activity, a manager scatters objects such as book stacks and chairs in a random manner to simulate mines as they appear in a mine field. Each worker is then asked to give direction to a blindfolded teammate or colleague by only shouting instructions. The blindfolded worker should not hit any of the other participants or mines. This exercise is essential in building trust because the safety of the blindfolded team member depends on the level of trust that he or she has on the member giving instructions.
Another critical aspect of teamwork that is required for successful business accomplishments is communication. Managers strive towards building team communication, owed to the fact that it results to increased productivity in the workplace. Team-building exercises or activities are a perfect platform that managers can employ in strengthening interaction among team members (Syantek, et al, 1999). An example of such an activity is the treasure hunt. In this case, employees or team members are required to complete a treasure hunt. A manager should start the exercise by dividing the members into small groups and giving them a treasure map. Each group follows the instructions indicated in the pan in an attempt to retrieve a treasure when the game ends. This is an exercise that would enable team members to learn how to communicate, listen to each other and follow directions.
Successful teams should be based on accountability. A manager who creates accountability in a corporate setting encourages workers to take accountability for completion of roles and duties assigned to them (Begg, 2005). There are a number of team building games and exercises that a manager can engage team members in so as to develop accountability. An example of an exercise that can help in developing accountability is composing mission statement songs. Employees often portray accountability towards the company mission when they are clearly aware of its mission. Engaging team members in creating mission statement songs ensures that they understand the team’s mission. This ensures that they are accountable towards accomplishing that mission.
In conclusion, teamwork is essential for organizational success. It is essential for a manager to form a team with the right kind of people with the right skills. The “one size fits it all” belied does not hold true when it comes to building a team. This is because different corporations will have different needs in the same way that different entrepreneurs hold different values. Hence, while one team may be perceived right in one business it does not necessarily mean that the same team will be successful in another business. A manger should create a team on the basis of personal objectives, business needs and mission. The right foundations should be built for successful team. This entails incorporating elements such as trust, communication, optimism, effective decision making, and clearly defined goals. Additionally, successful teams should have effective leaders to direct and serve as the teams’ spokesmen.
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