How to Increase Team Cohesiveness

“Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence wins championships.”
― Michael Jordan

Right from securing the your first job offer, it took years of hard work, numerous feedbacks and god knows how many efforts to make you reach your comfortable chair at workplace. Yes, you deserve every bit of it. There are people working in your team, moving forth on your command and producing results for you and the organization. But, there is a modicum of introspection you need to make. Ask yourself in what ways have your responsibilities increased.

Being the boss, do you need to ensure certain things among your subordinates?

Yes, you guessed it right. You do have certain duties and obligations towards your team. Right from ensuring the best professional bonding possible to an optimum level of satisfaction among all your employees, your duties as the boss are numerous.

Your organization might demand targets, results or increasing numbers, but they can’t be ensured until the moment you have the most essential quality in your team- COHESIVENESS.

Cohesiveness amongst the team members will not only produce results and higher productivity but will also confirm a self-sustainable work environment wherein employees help each other and move forth as a team to achieve the organization’s objectives.

But, what are the possible ways you can assure cohesiveness amongst the juniors in your team?

The answer lies in some rudimentary things that need to be followed.

• Set well defined and agile goals: Goal setting is the foremost thing you need to start with. Employees need a well-defined layout of the path they need to follow while moving towards the organization’s objective. Each and every individual in the team should clearly understand his/her role. Moreover, make sure that the goals introduced are agile. Along with the team, set goals for each quarter and reduce the workload by breaking tasks into chunks that the employees can self- assign and manage. 

• Get every member involved: There will be some employees who need a push for them to share their views. Make sure you provide it at the right time. Collaborative-decision making is quite imperative from a team leader point of view. Ensure that every employee has a say in this process for him/her not feel left out and to inculcate a sense of belongingness for the team. 

• Organize various team building exercises: Being the boss, it is your responsibility to introduce various exercises and organize outings for the employees to know each other better. Take the team out for lunches and organize get-togethers. Make sure that each employee is able to recognize himself/herself with the team at an equal level.

• Provide necessary recognition and appraisal: There will be employees who’ll give in extra efforts and perform impeccably well. Make it a point to get him/her recognized in front of the team and appraise the employee accordingly. This will not only make him/her earn the respect which he/she deserves but will also motivate other workers to perform and work hard.

• Provide necessary support: Before assigning tasks, it is quite significant to put yourself in the employee’s shoes and then have a look at the situation. Make sure the team has every resource that it needs at its disposal. Remove the roadblocks that hinder the team’s progress and motivate every individual to seek help from his/her co-workers. This will work as an efficient learning and interaction technique amongst your team members. 

• Try to maintain a proper flow of information: Apt communication is the most essential thing in building and managing a team. Assure a timely flow of information (upward and downward) within the team. Set clear expectations regarding communication to avoid any chance of misunderstanding between the workers. 

• Set a competitive spirit amongst the team members: Make sure that employees have a sense of competition while working to enhance their productivity and performance. But at the same time, ensure that no personal grudges are created in this process. Competition has its own motive of letting the workers have an idea about their strengths & weaknesses and help each other out accordingly. Ensure that this motive is achieved.

Having gone through the points mentioned above, you might have gained an insight regarding various techniques that’ll help you build your team into a single and strong productive unit. All you need to keep in mind is the importance of team efforts. It’s your team, build it, nurture it and guide it through the right path.