Daniel Menard Explains How Team-Building Should Be Properly Integrated for Success

Proper team-building techniques are essential to running a successful business. Building a team doesn’t have to be complex, but you should follow the right principles to assemble the best workers and leaders to bring your business forward.

Daniel Menard, a senior executive from Carignan, Quebec, shares how team building can be appropriately integrated to increase your business’s chance of success.

The Basics of Team-Building

Following are some of the main points that business leaders should consider when building a team. Strong marks in multiple areas will lead to optimal team construction for your company.

Communication

Communication is likely the most important aspect of running a successful team. Productivity comes from a team’s energy and its team members’ engagement outside meetings and work-related conversations. When team members have a rapport that extends outside work, they will have an easier time communicating and relating to their fellow employees. Having a positive rapport with fellow employees leads to better productivity and employee satisfaction.

It is also helpful when the entire team or certain team members have worked together well in the past. They can carry their good personal relationships over into the workplace.

In an effective team, everyone talks and listens in approximately equal measure. They connect directly with each other, not only with the team’s leader. They maintain robust side conversations with other members of the team. Finally, they frequently explore outside the boundaries of the team and bring back information.

Communication patterns are positive, with intra-team competitiveness kept at a minimum. The team understands that their goals mesh and that they are no stronger than their weakest member.

Shared Commitment

Secondary to communication is a sense of shared commitment to an idea. If not everyone on the team is on board with the group’s mission, the group will suffer. Ensuring that the team has ambassadors for the company’s values is one of the most important ways to build this shared commitment.

Good Leadership

Daniel Menard believes that an effective team has stellar leadership. Team leaders should be open, fair, and concerned with the positive interactions among their employees. Having a difficult leader can lead to a fractured and dissatisfied team who are looking for work elsewhere. Their commitment to the shared ideal suffers, and they are less likely to communicate effectively with their fellow employees.

Intelligence

The intelligence of individual team members is important, but it takes a backseat to communication and shared commitment. Teams do need standout performers who can parse the most difficult problems and present creative solutions. Having a team that is lacking at least a few thought leaders may interfere with proper team-building.

At the same time, these intelligent team members need to have a humble method of interaction with their fellow workers. Understanding how to balance intelligence with people skills is paramount.

Personality

There should be a mix of positive personality types within an effective team. There may be some quieter people and like to work on their own and others who are gregarious and like to work in groups. As long as these work archetypes are balanced, they can present advantages for the team. Every type of worker should feel that their contributions are honoured, even if they are not the flashiest members of the team. 

Skill

Team members indeed need to be skilled in their areas of expertise. When choosing team members, be sure that you are collecting people who already possess certain skills and those who can be easily trained to fulfill new job requirements.

Examples of Positive and Negative Teamwork

In a positive team environment, the members work together toward a common goal. For example, a manufacturing company may have a particularly effective team on the factory floor. There is a mix of skills represented among the employees. A spirit of collaboration allows employees to ask questions and receive training and encouragement from more experienced members. Their team leader is less concerned with a pure performance by the numbers and more interested in how their employees work together to accomplish a common goal. This team has high productivity and excellent communication.

A negative example of team-building could be found in a law office. Attorneys do not make themselves available for questions from the paralegals and support personnel. The team members are pushed beyond their limits without support, and they are constantly led into competitive situations. Employees become disgruntled and cynical, and their performance suffers considerably. They communicate poorly, sometimes only interacting when they are blaming another department for their errors. This team will quickly break up, with members looking for work in another firm that will better respect their skills. 

Communication is Paramount

While many aspects go into building a positive and productive team, communication is likely the most important. If a team cannot communicate effectively, they are unlikely to achieve their goals. Leaders can foster team-building by becoming skilled communicators and encouraging their workers to follow suit.

Daniel Menard understands how communication affects team-building. He encourages all employers to learn about how they can change their teams’ communication styles to better fit in with these concepts. 

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