6 Secrets to Building a Successful Team

Achieving great success is critical to the team that we work with. It, therefore, becomes very important that we invest in building a strong team for the accomplishment of our goals and objectives.

1. Having a Clear Vision and Mission

A vision is a mental picture of a preferred future. It is what you see as the end result of your work. The mission is what you will do to achieve the vision that you have. It is steps and strategies to accomplish your vision. Every team member should be able to understand what it the goal they are working towards. They should know their role and contribution to the success of the vision.

2. Setting Goals and Plans

Goals are action steps that help in realizing the vision. You should set both long-term and short-term goals. Long-term goals can be termed as strategic plans. These can be set for a period of 5 years, 3 years or even 1 year depending on the team’s skill and knowledge. These goals must be evaluated and monitored periodically to keep track of the progress.

3. Hire the Right People

People are the greatest resource that you can have. Therefore this is a very critical step to having a successful team. When hiring it is not only important to look for people with academic qualifications but people with social skills too. Having a blend of different personalities brings out the complexity of the team, hence success.

4. Clear Communication

After setting the vision and the mission, and the right people, it is critical that you are able to communicate this vision to the team members. Information is useless if not passed to the team in clear and understandable words. It has to be given to everyone in the team and it should be given correctly and without misunderstanding. Therefore there should be clear communication strategies in order to avoid misinterpretation. It is also important to let everyone has a voice and speak out as it does not bring discrimination and keeps each member of the team involved in the process. This can be enhanced by having consistent meetings with the team.

5. Focusing on Roles

Having the right people who are not performing can be very frustrating and hence lead to an unsuccessful team. As a team leader it is critical that you are able to keep the team in check in order to keep them focused on the vision and the mission of the organization. As much as there should be a time to relax and have fun, keeping the vision in mind is always very important. Every team member’s contribution is very important and therefore it is important to value every person’s role in the team.

6. Celebrate Achievements and Failures

People enjoy celebrating success and it plays a huge role in bringing the people together. Often recognizing the efforts of others in front of the team brings a sense of achievement and hard work among the other team members. This can be done outside the offices in a social place in order to make the team relax. It is important to celebrate success, but at the same point it is also important to point out the weaknesses and shortfalls of the team.

Building teams involves hard work and commitment. Therefore as a team leader it is important to put into consideration these factors and you will have a successful team.