From the course: Teamwork Foundations

Ten ways to start improving

From the course: Teamwork Foundations

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Ten ways to start improving

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- I want to leave you with my top 10 of team working. Practice and become great at these 10 things, and you'll make a more effective contribution, which will benefit you, your team and your organization. First, be a great listener. Ask people about themselves and really listen. Don't talk about yourself at all, unless they ask you probably twice. Next, trust people more, give them the initial benefit of the doubt. Then help the quiet wants to participate. Ask them for their views, they might be deep thinkers. Next, reveal a bit more about yourself than you normally would. So you reduce your facade and therefore your blind spot, as others open up to you in return. Then, ask for feedback and really take it on board. Next is to think about your weaknesses and get others to cover those for you. And then deliberately use your second or third preferred team role rather than always your top one. So don't always be the organizer, or the critic, or the carer. And then suggest that someone, maybe you sometimes, wears the black hat. This is the person whose job it is to think about what might go wrong. Otherwise, groups and teams are prone to overoptimism. Next is to appreciate difference. The people who annoy you are great for doing the things that you don't want to do, for example, the detail, the questioning, the worrying, the pushing for time, etc. And finally, eat with the others more often than you would have done. The best team bonding happens over food. So there we are. That's the end of this course on how to be a great team player. I hope you've enjoyed it. And if you'd like to keep in contact with me, I'd be delighted to hear about how you get on. Please do connect with me on LinkedIn, and add yourself to my free monthly email tips at chriscroft.com. Bye for now.

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