Hidden Truths About Team Work

Teamwork is required to achieve the ambitions of the Gulf nations and to provide prosperity and stability so that they can devote their time and effort to social and economic development and to avoiding the spectre of war, which always results in the destruction of humanity. – Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum

This term “teamwork” you hear everywhere yet who actually lives it. You let your ego, status and other sabotaging acts damage the essence of teamwork. Many a times during discussions, strategic meetings, emails or conversations this word is used as a rag with no respect to the true spirit of teamwork.

Team building is a process that is ongoing in nature and can help your work group to become a cohesive and effective group who makes up for each others weaknesses and takes advantage of each other’s strengths.

For a team to develop and have success, the team members need to learn not only what to expect from each other, but learn how to adapt and to work with others and respect others who may be unlike them.

When you develop a team, it takes on a life of its own. The individuals who were originally hired become part of something that is much larger and far more productive, making a common goal and a united effort to achieve those goals. This provides for a better interaction and has the effect of giving the employer far more productivity and profit than possible when working as individuals.

Team development means embracing the differences and nurturing and supporting others in the workplace. Thus providing a solid foundation that allows the team members to work and support each other is a more productive manner

There is always a buzz in the air to work as team, getting things done as team or we are a team, lets make it happen. Teamwork could be defined as an organised effort to improve team effectiveness. It is simply about through trust creating MAGIC:

? Multiply      ? Affirm         ?Grow            ? Integrate    ? Collaborate

Conflict is very common within any team. Conflict is a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something that the first party cares about. A high performance team is able to minimize conflict by the implementation of the CIDER effect:

?Communication  ? Interaction  ? Development   ?Empowerment  ?Respect

Personality plays a great part in how you interact within a team. Your personality includes your beliefs and values thus your self-development is crucial in working as a team. The personality of you and anyone you know is based on SUE:

• Social experiences (especially from childhood)
• Unique experiences that you have had in your lifetime
• Environment in which you grew up, and how you had to act

A number of organisations feel by doing a team building or team development workshop problems that a team faces will be resolved. Wake up and smell the coffee, this is just the beginning. Jumping or scaling a wall could be great fun for some as a team activity but how does this relate to the actually context of the work carried out by the team. Better still what kind of emotional state is the individual at work?

Our emotional state stems from our personality. The really work starts with individuals improving their emotional state and this organization cannot afford to ignore. No amount of theory, assessments, training or reading books will resolve the matter. It is about thinking about the problems the individual faces, taking action to resolve them and than evaluating what has been achieved. In other words think, act and achieve an emotional state that is high in positive energy.

This is where we need to give respect to Daniel Goleman, the author of Emotional Intelligence, who emphasises the importance on the emotional state of people in all aspects of life.  In his extensive work with His Holiness Dalai Lama in the book Destructive Emotions you learn how emotions can either lead to compassion, collaboration, and productivity or simply to destruction.

As stated by Daniel Goleman “In teamwork, emotional intelligence is the crucial social lubricant, providing the capacity to settle disputes well, brainstorm creatively, and work harmoniously.”

What are you doing to uplift the emotional state of the individuals in the team?