Teamwork has become essential in difficult times

GROUP STRATEGY: Work together to tide over the slowdown in corporate performance

The effort of the old man to see them live together in harmony was in vain. Determined to convince them of their folly, he asked each of his sons to fetch a stick and tie them together. Then he invited them in turn to break the bundle across their knees. Each one tried and failed.

He then untied the bundle and handed out the sticks one by one, and then they had no difficulty at all in breaking the sticks individually.

“There, my sons,” he said, “united you will be more powerful, but if you quarrel and separate you will be weak.”The moral of it the story is: the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

As we all know men have never been individually self-sufficient. The strength of the team is each individual member and the strength of each member is the team. Team work and team building are popular topics in today’s organisations. Successful teams fuel the accomplishment of strategic goals.

Individual talent helped
Effective teams magnify the accomplishments of individual employees, thus enabling to better the organisational position. Fostering teamwork is nothing but creating a work culture that values collaboration.

In an environment of teamwork, people understand and believe that thinking, planning, decisions and actions are better when done cooperatively. People recognise, and even assimilate, the belief that “none of us is as good as all of us.”

Paradoxically, team spirit is the catalyst to achieve outstanding performance in an organisation.

Strategic planning, marketing, technology and capital investment are important as well, but emotional commitment of the people using the tools and executing the plans is what determines whether an organisation will sink or soar.

Need of the day
In fact, working as a team is more relevant now  than ever. With more news coming in every day about organisations doing badly as a result of the global recession, it is going to be a pretty bumpy ride for the next few months, if not years.

As a result, many of the people are overreacting to the disturbance in economical setback. And some of the most ‘recession-tested’ and experienced hands are being tempted to call it a day just when the organisations need them the most.

It is just a psychology of fear which plays a major part, in addition to feelings of threat and uncertainty.

People may get confused and experience apathy, resentment and worries about inadequacy.

Organisations are apprehensive over such a concept that the economy is never going to get better. This is nothing but “fatalism”. When people feel they have no control over their future, they stop investing in developing themselves and their organisation.

They stop trying to innovate and create more value for the organisation.

This insecurity and dearth of opportunities disproportionately drive away the best, brightest and the most ambitious workers who might otherwise hope to grow and advance.

These are the very employees who are the foundation for the organisation’s future.

Let us not forget that in today’s global economy, a company’s long-term success is determined by the ability of its employees to lead effectively through the periods of economic uncertainties.

Adopt a new strategy
Inculcate a strong sense of self-awareness among the team members of how to behave in stressful situations of this kind. Besides, under the most difficult conditions, leaders who are able to manage stress, rather than allow the stress to manage them, are more successful leaders, and in turn produce more efficient and productive teams.

They focus on the task at hand, not the stress they are under. Team members may recognise this ability to control stress and follow suit.

On the other hand, if you allow yourself to be controlled by stress, your chaotic behavior may negatively influence the team, causing them to behave more emotionally and erratically.

Keep excitement alive
The most successful and extraordinary leaders do owe something to parentage and patronage.

It is the hidden advantages and  opportunities and cultural legacies that allow them to learn and work hard and make sense of the world in ways others cannot.

Leadership is not just the reward system it once use to be, or the Maslow hierarchy, or even team management.

Now it involves breaking down the walls, mixing executives and employees, an empowering of the worker. This new style of leadership is symbolised by secure and comfortable environment. We know from experience that there is a lot of truth to Einstein’s insightful observation. We are the happiest when we are doing something truly exciting or deeply meaningful.

It follows that if you want to lead a happier work-life for yourself and for those working under your leadership; you need to create the condition where people become excited about working.

It’s important to recognise that a happier work-life is not just better for employees, but for the organisation as well, as it means higher productivity and morale. 

In a team, mutual respect and trust must be developed so that team members and management could establish a balancing act and work towards the fulfillment of end goals.

The purpose of a successful team building is to generate values that can helps in  developing strategies that can helps in making common plans to achieve the targets in shortest possible time.

Effective team building planning instigates necessary discipline within the team so that each member can fully concentrate on what needs to be achieved. Good co-ordination and sense of understating helps improve the maturity level of employees and they start helping each other to grow in their respective field.

The challenges faced by the leaders and the team members are alike. Leaders have to communicate honestly the current position and future prospects for their organisation and make sure to support both the people who are made redundant and those who are left behind. Teams should be proactive in keeping their skills updated, networking inside and outside of their organisation, and looking for ways to demonstrate their value to their leader.

There are numerous ways for the leaders to increase the togetherness and understanding within a team. As the old man in the story adapts to educate his sons. However, before acting upon any particular method to get the goals fulfilled, a team builder must try to know his team to the fullest.  

More demanding
If an organisation is only as good as its people, organisations today have much to worry about. The reason is that the associates are under unprecedented strain. In an economic environment that demands increased productivity, leaders are tightening control over their organisations, creating smaller environments that ask the associates to do more work in less time.

At the same time, employers are paying less attention to their associates’ individuality and more to their ability to work within team environments. Preparing to engage an effective strike upon environ requires effective team building maneuvers.

These maneuvers or disciplines of confronting the existing scenario must suggest that leaders at all levels can cope with a situation by employing two specific tactics:

fearlessness and business competitiveness.  When leaders learn to integrate these two tactics as their strategic disciplines across and within a team building stratum that is driven by quality and the values of the people, great actions will follow. It is the faith of every one and a strong belief that a very few organisations have the ability to lift themselves above the short-term fray to get this message, but those who do are the very few needed to lead us into the future.