Team collaboration is the foundation of any successful business. Collaborative workspaces enjoy high levels of trust, improved performance, and more engaged teams. Studies have shown that collaborative teams perform better because they are motivated to work towards a common goal.
Despite these benefits of team collaboration, most managers are still lagging in implementing collaborative procedures in the workplace. Here are a few strategies to get you started on promoting and managing collaborative teams in the workplace.
Share the company’s vision and mission repeatedly
Companies seeking to manage different personalities in the workplace must give the team members a reason to show up daily. Defining your company’s vision and mission is the first step toward ensuring everyone is on the same page.
Your company’s mission and vision should be simple yet compelling enough to push the team members to work together.
Your responsibility is to keep the team motivated and passionate about their job since they are more likely to work together to achieve the mission. Make sure to bring it up several times so every team member can recite it on their own. Even when faced with challenges, team members will know how to stay focused on the company’s mission and vision.
Define and communicate team goals
Informing your team about their goals is not a one-time conversation if you are looking at how to manage different personalities in the workplace. Ideally, discuss team goals daily so everyone understands their role.
Brief meetings held every morning can be very helpful in reminding team members that they are working towards specific goals together. Even better, such meetings can allow team members to develop their own daily goals that will help them achieve the bigger organizational goals ahead of them.
Communicate your expectation of collaboration
If your team members don’t understand what you expect of them, then their focus will be different.
If you are looking for how to manage different personalities in the workplace, you must set your expectations of collaboration from the start. For better results, communicate your expectations from the onboarding process so that people interested in joining your team understand that you prioritize collaboration.
The employee job descriptions should indicate their individual roles and what is expected of them when they are part of a team. When differentiating these roles, you create clear boundaries on when individuals should take personal responsibility and when they should work collaboratively.
Modern team leaders take advantage of technology to communicate with diverse teams. For instance, if your company operates physically and virtually, you can use an online collaborative platform to ask questions, find information, share documents, and send and receive messages.
Create a supportive work environment
Leaders looking for how to manage different personalities in the workplace should understand that making team members feel safe is vital.
People are comfortable working in an environment where they can comfortably share their ideas without ridicule. Managers and team leaders should strive to create workspaces that support sharing of ideas so that everyone feels that their contributions are supported and appreciated.
The benefits of an empathetic team outweigh the efforts as members become empathetic towards their team members and openly communicate with each other. Members understand each other’s strengths, and they know when to step in for their colleagues.
Highlight your team’s strengths
If you are looking for how to manage different personalities in the workplace, you need to understand that people will look elsewhere if they feel that their diverse skills are not being utilized. A successful team thrives where everyone brings their unique set of skills to the table since everyone has different capabilities.
The process of identifying the strengths of your team members should start with the recruitment process. As a leader, emphasize these strengths in collaborative environments.
You can also identify individual strengths by getting your team members to take personality tests and share the results for the group to see.
Encourage creativity
Collaborative teams are generally very creative. Likewise, creating room for creativity helps foster collaboration among teams.
There are various ways team leaders looking for how to manage diverse teams can foster creativity in their workspaces. For instance, brainstorming sessions can open your team to creativity since it helps create and challenge ideas that will help members feel that they are part of the company’s mission.
Ask your team members what they think and for new ideas regularly. The more they get used to generating new ideas, the less intimidated they feel, increasing their chances of speaking up. Also, consider that not everyone is always ready with new ideas. You can stimulate creativity by sending ideas to the team via email or posting them on the group’s online platform.
Create zones for employee interaction
For team leaders looking to manage diverse teams, there’s no need to feel like the employees need to sit at their desks all day to remain productive. Create room for unplanned interactions during coffee or lunch.
During unplanned interactions, individuals can meet individuals from another team and share a few details about a challenge they are facing, and the answer becomes clearer.
Get out of the office
If you are just a corporate events team leader, then you are leaving out important aspects of team building through offsite activities.
Getting out of the office regularly benefits team members by allowing them to build relationships based on interests rather than what is shared at the office. There is a wide range of outdoor team-building activities to choose from that can help your team members view each other from a different perspective.
But team building doesn’t have to wait until you are out for offsite events. Surprise your team members with an impromptu coffee or lunch where they interact outside the office space.
Final thoughts
Collaborative teams are more productive, and companies that understand this are ready to invest time and resources to foster this collaboration. These environments are open and trusting, encouraging knowledge-sharing among team members.
Team collaboration is vital for your organization, whether a large corporation or a small startup, as you will soon start seeing better results associated with a happier, more satisfied team.
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