Build Team Cohesion in 10 Lessons
15 October 2012
Read by 2141 persons
Creating and motivating a team around a project is ambitious, and your leadership skills are important. But strengthening team cohesion isn't just about skills. Your "soft skills" will be crucial for launching and managing the team. You are the manager, so you are also the facilitator, the regulator, the conductor. Here are ten steps to implement in your company to create an atmosphere of cohesion among your employees.
1. Give everyone their rightful place
To exist within a group, an individual needs a clear vision of their role within that group. They must know precisely what their manager and their team expect of them, what they must do, what their responsibilities and tasks are. They must understand how their contribution is necessary to the group. As a manager, you must leverage talents to make the team work together: someone knows how to run a meeting? They will be the regulator.
2. Create a safe space
To fully participate in the collective effort, the individual must thrive in an environment of trust and comfort. Remember to ask your employees during individual interviews what makes them feel confident…
3. Use humor
Laughter is one of the best ways to lighten the mood and unite groups. Some companies have even found that ten minutes of humor before a meeting allows participants to be more productive and that the meeting lasts less time thanks to the team's newfound efficiency.
4. Consider everyone's motivation
According to Emmanuel Maire and Mathieu Dubost, consultants and authors of the book "{The Keys to Performance}" published by Demos, "motivation is a set of subjective components that lead an individual to accomplish a task with energy and pleasure." Individuals within the same team function through various forms of motivation that greatly impact the cohesion of the human entity. It's up to you to guess, to sense what can motivate your employees.
5. Design user-friendly offices
Create a wellness area in your premises so that members feel good there. This relaxation area will allow employees to meet, exchange ideas and create positive energy. This will also help create that desirable synergy.
6. Step outside the professional setting
Consider inviting your team(s) to lunch outside the company and/or organize a group meal on a fixed date each year. Also invite participants more individually, more personally.
7. Be honest
The targets you present must be real, realistic and objective. Under no circumstances should your objectives be lures or a disguised way of achieving another hidden objective.
8. Establish shared values
Whether it's transparency, respect, customer loyalty, a positive attitude or integrity, define with your employees (through a meeting dedicated to this) what you mean by the concepts presented. For example, regarding transparency: can we consider that transparency means saying everything? How do you say everything?
9. Provide success indicators
This is about defining what will show that the objective has been achieved and anticipating any potential operational difficulties. What can we refer to to be sure that we are on the right track? If problems arise, what indicators will we anticipate them with? How will we solve them? What solutions will we decide to adopt?
10. Lead by example
Don't think that talking, giving directions and instructions can have a real impact if you don't practice what you preach first. Exemplarity comes from actions, not words. A clear, concise and precise objective, values and meaning will only support the project if the manager is exemplary in the motivating sense of the term. They must embody the words and values in their actions and be the closest image of what they propose.
Article written by The ReKrute.com team
Posted on October 24, 2012.
1. Give everyone their rightful place
To exist within a group, an individual needs a clear vision of their role within that group. They must know precisely what their manager and their team expect of them, what they must do, what their responsibilities and tasks are. They must understand how their contribution is necessary to the group. As a manager, you must leverage talents to make the team work together: someone knows how to run a meeting? They will be the regulator.
2. Create a safe space
To fully participate in the collective effort, the individual must thrive in an environment of trust and comfort. Remember to ask your employees during individual interviews what makes them feel confident…
3. Use humor
Laughter is one of the best ways to lighten the mood and unite groups. Some companies have even found that ten minutes of humor before a meeting allows participants to be more productive and that the meeting lasts less time thanks to the team's newfound efficiency.
4. Consider everyone's motivation
According to Emmanuel Maire and Mathieu Dubost, consultants and authors of the book "{The Keys to Performance}" published by Demos, "motivation is a set of subjective components that lead an individual to accomplish a task with energy and pleasure." Individuals within the same team function through various forms of motivation that greatly impact the cohesion of the human entity. It's up to you to guess, to sense what can motivate your employees.
5. Design user-friendly offices
Create a wellness area in your premises so that members feel good there. This relaxation area will allow employees to meet, exchange ideas and create positive energy. This will also help create that desirable synergy.
6. Step outside the professional setting
Consider inviting your team(s) to lunch outside the company and/or organize a group meal on a fixed date each year. Also invite participants more individually, more personally.
7. Be honest
The targets you present must be real, realistic and objective. Under no circumstances should your objectives be lures or a disguised way of achieving another hidden objective.
8. Establish shared values
Whether it's transparency, respect, customer loyalty, a positive attitude or integrity, define with your employees (through a meeting dedicated to this) what you mean by the concepts presented. For example, regarding transparency: can we consider that transparency means saying everything? How do you say everything?
9. Provide success indicators
This is about defining what will show that the objective has been achieved and anticipating any potential operational difficulties. What can we refer to to be sure that we are on the right track? If problems arise, what indicators will we anticipate them with? How will we solve them? What solutions will we decide to adopt?
10. Lead by example
Don't think that talking, giving directions and instructions can have a real impact if you don't practice what you preach first. Exemplarity comes from actions, not words. A clear, concise and precise objective, values and meaning will only support the project if the manager is exemplary in the motivating sense of the term. They must embody the words and values in their actions and be the closest image of what they propose.
Article written by The ReKrute.com team
Posted on October 24, 2012.
