Focus On Strengths

Teamwork begins with you! That’s right, you are the key to making your team come together and succeed! If every person in your organization took on this mentality …. WOW! Teamwork can be magical. Teamwork is a mindset, a way of thinking, a way of working. These simple strategies provide you with a recipe for creating team unity in your organization. Commit today to being a team player!

Be a part of solutions in your organization. Focus on that which is right. Those that focus on what’s wrong usually are not the ones that add value to your organization. These people waste all their energy on complaining and bickering. Stay positive and offer up your very best!

Reach out to discover the strengths of others. Focus on others’ strengths and help them to maximize their natural abilities. Part of being a great team player is your ability to focus on the strengths of others and not nit-pick their deficiencies. As you do this for others, they will return the favor and focus on your strengths.

Find ways to partner with others in your organization in a complementary way. Thank goodness everyone does not have the exact same skillset. Find ways to provide assistance to others in ways that bring out the full benefit of your strengths. If you have specific skills that others lack, help them by filling those gaps. For instance, if you are pretty sharp with Excel spreadsheets, a skill that others in your department lack, step up and provide that assistance any chance possible.

Look for ways that your strengths can be further developed. Not always are we able to do what we do best everyday all day long. However, look for ways to strategically position yourself to be able to do what you do best most of the time.

Common Vision

Identifying and communicating a clear vision is one of the most important assets of any organization. A vision is a mental image of the future of the business. The vision defines who and what the business is, why it exists, and where it is going in the grand scheme of things. In order to understand or identify your organization’s vision, you must define:

· Your business’s fundamental reason for existence beyond just making money

· The timeless, unchanging core values of the business

· The “big picture” aspirations for the future of the business

· What drives your passion for doing what you do as an organization

Discover for yourself what the vision is for your organization and how your role in the company plays into this vision.

A shared vision exists when every person in the organization accepts the vision, understands the vision, takes ownership of the vision, and most importantly aligns their behavior with the vision. Be sure to add value to this vision and be a part of the big picture in your organization.

Equality

In any social relationship, people are monitoring the checks and balances – what they give versus what they receive. This is also common in the workplace; we monitor relationships just as we do outside of work.

Make sure that all you do contributes to the strength of your team. Add value every chance you get. Share the workload fairly. Volunteer to take on your fair share of the work and be the one that is willing to step up your contributions. Make teamwork the norm. Sometimes “doing the minimal” is the norm and people become bitter when their perception is that they are doing more than everyone else. When you have multiple people being careful to not do more than their fair share, you have got a big problem! Change these norms by embracing a sense of full collaboration, helping, and good hard work. See your coworkers as equals and do all you can do to provide them with any assistance that is needed.

The beauty of this kind of work is that real relationships are reciprocal. What you get out of a relationship is proportionate to what you give to it. If you abide by this simple rule, you will win more times than not in workplace relationships and teamwork. Give first always and don’t measure what comes back! This is a simple rule, but one that has dramatic positive rewards. If you embrace this as your norm in life, you will be amazed at the rewards to relationships at work and in your personal life.

Trust & Openness

Building trust in your organization is no simple task, nor is there a secret recipe for creating trust. However, there is a secret first step to creating trust. This secret step is to be willing to trust others. Anytime “Watch your back!” is commonly stated in an organization, the lack of trust is inevitable. You’ve got to transition the norm to commonly stating, “I’ve got your back!”

Like any kind of phenomena in relationships, you get what you give. So if you want to be trusted, you’ve got to be trustworthy. Similarly, if you want to have a lot of friends, you’ve got to be friendly! Not rocket science, right? So, commit yourself to being trustworthy. If you commit to having a project completed by a certain time, or if you promise to cover a shift for a coworker etc. Just do it! Do what you say you’re going to do! Trust will be destroyed if people talk the talk of teamwork, but are unwilling to walk the walk.

Express your dependency to your coworkers. Let them know that they can count on you and that you need to count on their support. Expressions of trust and confidence such as this can open up opportunities for trust building.

Acceptance of Differences

Diversity in the workplace is oftentimes brought up in reference to differences of race, gender, religious, or other aspects of one’s ethnic definitions. But think about this, you could have two people with a long list of ethnic descriptors (i.e. – African American, female, Christian, married with three children, each with a household income of $75k per year), yet these two individuals have very distinct ways of thinking and behaving. Diversity comes down to thinking differently.

Diversity in the workplace has always been present and will forever be present in our world. We are fortunate to get to work with people that think different from ourselves. Recognize this as a strength to your organization and to yourself personally. Learn from others’ differences. Be willing to accept others’ ways of thinking. Narrow minded people think their way is the only way. Don’t fall into this trap! Just as you want to be yourself at work, let others be themselves as well and celebrate your differences.

Great organizations look within for innovations and solutions to difficult market conditions. This is obviously a great practice, and one that is underutilized. Seeking new ideas from your team will give them a voice, empower their opinions, and engage them in the building up of the company and its objectives.

If your organization has such a program, participate! You have ideas, but they are worthless if you don’t share them openly and in a structured way so that the “higher-ups” can catch wind of your brilliance.

 

Communication

Communication is oftentimes blamed as the culprit for faltering teamwork. Better said, the lack of communication is oftentimes labeled the culprit. You know what’s kind of strange, but I am sure you can think of a time that this has occurred in your workplace … Communication is oftentimes blamed, although it is just part of the more serious and more difficult underlying issue. For example, you might hear people say, “We have a major communication issue.” Upon further investigation you discover that nobody trusts the boss or that a new policy that was just implemented is causing a decrease in sales. Oddly, neither one of these issues is really a “communication issue,” yet both could easily be labeled as such.

So what is a real communication issue? What is at the heart of good communication? Commit yourself to the following and you will be perceived as a great communicator in your organization. 1) Be open, clear, and honest. Be real with people. Tell the truth and don’t sugar coat situations. 2) Assume good intent in others. Be positive with others and focus on what’s right. Communicate about what’s right. 3) Keep people informed. Wherever you fall in the chain of command, keep people in the loop. Communicate upwards and downwards, left and right. The more people know, the less people will have to invent stories about. 4) Avoid all drama. That’s right I said it – drama! Stay out of the gossip in your organization. If there are chats taking place around the water cooler, don’t approach with your ears and interest keenly on point. Stay out of it! Drama, rumors, and gossip are completely destructive to the wellbeing of an organization and specifically destructive to teamwork.

Altruism

Lastly, embrace a spirit of altruism by demonstrating an unselfish concern for the welfare of others. Selfishness pumping of one’s own ego has become way too common in the workplace. Build yourself up by making others look good. Put others’ needs first.

The power of team begins with you! You are the key. Model excellent team skills and you will see a dramatic transformation in your reputation and true character. Others will see you as a team player. They will follow your example and opportunities will be presented to you that will allow you to continue to achieve long-term success and sustainable personal growth.

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