Tuesday 27 April 2010

Team Building


Humans are social living beings who always desire to be in a group. According to Maslow’s need based theory, one of the basic needs of an individual is to fulfill the social equirements and be socially satisfied. Individuals tend to work in groups or teams to meet their goals. Without the proper understanding among individuals in a group, there will not be any growth towards achievement of the desired goals.

This necessitate for a stirring team building process, which in return will help the individuals to have a core responsibility of achieving their goals as planned and feeling of togetherness. In a team building process, various aspects have to be considered.

  • Core strength of team
  • Communication among members
  • Attitude towards fellow teammate
  • Focus of team members

Individuals should be motivated by team leaders in order to improve their performances and work for the common goal - company’s growth. Underperformers always feel a pressure of being treated indifferently by their leaders. Achilles' heel is always been noticed more than the strength. Leaders are tend to note the weak points in their team members more than appreciating them for their small accomplishments and contributions.

Rather than pointing out the weak points, leaders should try to make subordinates understand their strengths and suggest them to convert their weaknesses into strengths. In team building process, leaders play a major role. So many small issues are there which leaders most of the times ignore due to work load, like:

  • Proper eye contact with subordinate
  • Not giving much time for subordinates
  • Ignoring their presence
  • Not delegating proper work to subordinates

When leaders tend to ignore subordinate's presence and don’t make the subordinate(s) occupied with some or the other work, individuals (Subordinates) start losing their confidence and potential. They become idle and lose their caliber, which if taken care properly, can do wonders.

Subordinates always expect some attention towards them from their leaders. When team members feel ignored, the bonding between teammates breaks and conflicts arises. Leaders should always find out the reason behind the underperformance and should make subordinate understand it in a very polite manner. Leaders are expected to execute Employee Empowerment phenomenon at their work place. Employee empowerment deals with giving coaching to employees in order to make them realize their primary and secondary strengths so as to make them confident that they can play the toughest shot of the game even in high pressure. Employee empowerment involves the commitment of the leader towards building confidence and self-motivation level in subordinates. Employee empowerment brings various benefits to both the leaders and subordinates. In a way, leaders attain greater amount of confidence in their subordinates and build a very cohesive communication path with them and they also improve their monitoring skills and delegation skills. Other side subordinates feel motivated and they a get a high level of enthusiasm in them. Subordinates become more dedicated and supportive to their leaders and focus towards the ultimate goal.

Every team moves towards a common goal with a force between the leader and the
subordinates, which drives them till they achieve their goal.