5 Habits of Highly Effective Teams

One of the first things you hear when you get hired by any company is “welcome to our team”. Team work has changed the foundations of organizations since it replaced the “I did it” with “We did it”. Building up and managing teams can be a very challenging task.  Following are five habits of highly effective teams that we would like to share with you.

Habit#1: Emotional Intelligence

Emotional intelligence has always been linked to individuals rather than to groups. The idea of strengthening emotional intelligence among groups is somewhat new, but recent research has shown that teams with high emotional intelligence among themselves and their surroundings tend to be more productive than teams with average or low emotional intelligence. But what is emotional intelligence, put it simple it is the ability to understand and react to one’s or other people’s emotions.

Habit#2: Team Self-Awareness

No team can give you the best results without self-awareness. Self-awareness helps building up emotional capacity and confidence among team members. Many factors help in developing a team’s self-awareness; Naming the team, Developing a mission statement, Developing a team credo, Learning from past experience, Sharing supportive words among team members.

Habit#3: Practicing Empathy and Respectfulness

The importance of empathy and practicing empathy is not only key in order to be a successful manager, but it also applies to team work effectiveness as well. When members working in a group tend to be listening oriented, act in an honest way, show fair attitude, embrace diversity among the team, they tend to practice empathy among the team itself.

Habit#4: Entrusting Team Members with Appropriate Roles

No team can operate without trust among its members. Team members should be assigned to do certain roles and should be provided with the full support do so. You will be shooting yourself in the foot if you do not empower teams to accomplish what they are assigned. Creating boundaries which might hinder anyone’s role in a team might have a negative effect on the overall output of the team. Team trust empowers team cohesiveness and its productivity.

Habit#5: Lateral Thinking

Lateral thinking helps in building awareness among team members and helps in avoiding conflicts among team members. Practiced among teams, it can lead to more ideas, more choices, more creativity, and simply lots of success for the organization.

These were some points we mentioned that might help in building up a good team. What other key points do you think might enhance team productivity? We would like be more delighted to view your thoughts and ideas in the comment box below. Thanks for reading.

Photo Credit by marie-ll