Team leaders have a huge responsibility when it comes to forming a good team and as much as they are responsible for making this team succeed, the team members are also responsible. When a team starts working on a project, its members have to be aware that they need to collaborate and work together. Teamwork is an asset to being in a team, without it, the whole team will fail!
So, if you’re a team or a member of a team, here are some mistakes to avoid to prevent your teamwork from failing.
Not Giving Each Other A Chance
As a team member, you have to know how to stop and listen to your colleagues.
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Many team members struggle with not having a chance to express their opinions in the brainstorming meetings; this can have a huge negative effect on the team as these members will feel that they’re a useless and non-effective part of the team.
So, as a team, each member has to know when to talk and when to stop and listen to the others; you have to give each other a chance to be heard.
This is how you can all work together as one big team.
Lack Of Planning
As a team, when you start working on a project, it’s important to have a well-structured plan that has all the details with the deadline scheduled.
Don’t immediately dive into the project and start giving tasks without a plan! Each member of the team needs to know their exact role; so before you all start working, you need to have a meeting to have an objective look at the project and you have to plan how you will work together and which member will handle which part.
The plan also has to include the standard process you will all work accordingly.
Also, this plan has to be created with the team leader.
Lack Of Communication
As a team you have to have strong communication as lack of communication will lead to failure.
Teamwork is built on communication; to be able to have great results in all the projects you are working on, you have to communicate, this will also allow you to be more aligned with each other.
Good communication will allow the team members to ask for help from each other, and it will also make a room for giving feedback and sharing opinions.
Also, as team members, when you know how to listen to each other carefully and give each other a chance to talk, it will help you form strong communication.
Treating Your Colleagues As Competitors Not Team Members
You need to understand that your team members are not your competitors, they’re colleagues and similar to a family.
You all share the same goal and you all work together to achieve it. When you start treating your team members as competitors, you will lose the sense of unity and you will all work in different directions trying to achieve your own goal, not the team’s.
You can have a healthy competition where you try to improve yourself to improve your team not step over the members.
Not Following Up With Each Other
All team members need to follow up with each other to make sure they’re all working according to the plan.
When you follow up with each other you’ll be able to make more enhancements and spot mistakes before it’s too late. Also, following up will encourage your team member to ask for help, so you will be able to finish everything on time.
Put in mind that if you didn’t follow up with the rest of the team, you might end up with bad results and might redo all the work again.
Not Sharing The Same Goal
As a team, you all need to share the same vision and have one goal and you need to work together towards achieving it.
Working selfishly in a team will lead to its failure; as team members, you have to all work together to achieve the company’s goal while achieving yours.
Teamwork has no room for individuality as most of the time you and your colleagues work towards one purpose.
To conclude, teams should know that having one selfish team member could ruin all the teamwork they’re doing and could lead to the end of the team.
