How to build and manage an effective team

Once you have built your team, you must carefully manage it to ensure it continues to operate effectively and delivers the business goals you have set. If you want to ensure that your staff work well together, here are some tips on how to lead and manage a successful team.

• Business goals - clearly outline the goals you expect the team to achieve and help your team maintain focus on their goals at all times to make sure they stay on track and avoid any temptations to divert from their objective. Having a unified focus and purpose will inspire them to work effectively together.
• Encourage input from all - be inclusive and look at ways to encourage all individuals in the team to contribute. Ensure that a limited number of individuals are not dominating team discussions.
• Communicate - make it easy for team members to communicate with one another by encouraging regular meetings with set agendas to focus discussions. Give staff access to the technology that they need to help them communicate effectively - eg work phones, Skype or other electronic devices.
• Support information sharing - encourage team members to share information that will contribute to the achievement of team goals. Make it easy for them to collaborate by utilising technologies that enable everyone to access documents if required.
• Share the workload - ensure that the workload is shared evenly across team members.
• Monitor performance - monitor the performance of your team and look for ways to continuously improve. This way team members know they will grow and develop in their roles by taking a closer look at what they do and how they do it.
• Maintain positive relationships - look at ways to build and maintain strong relationships among your team members. This will lead to increased trust, cooperation and a willingness to help each other out.
• Resolve disputes early - address any disputes between team members early on. Look for chances to mediate and resolve minor disputes by highlighting the team's higher goals.
• Seek consensus - while it often takes longer to establish group consensus, this approach can lead to improved decision-making and productivity because it secures every employee's commitment to all phases of the work.
• Reward team efforts - give thanks for a job well done and reward your team for their efforts. Reward the same behaviours every time they appear, discourage poor repeat behaviours when they occur and treat every member of your team with the same fairness and consistency.
• Set an example - as an employer or manager, you should display the behaviours you expect from individuals in your team. If you aren't a team player, how can you expect your staff to be?

See the advantages of effective teamwork for business and steps to building an effective team in the workplace.