How to Develop Your Team Building Skills
What is Facilitating Teamwork?
Facilitating Teamwork is the ability to promote teamwork, cooperation, and identification with the work group.
The Importance of Facilitating Teamwork
Aggregate data from SIGMA’s consulting engagements has shown that out of all 50 competencies in SIGMA’s Leadership Competency Framework, “facilitating teamwork” is among the top five most sought after. What that means is that when organizations hire or promote new leaders, the ability to facilitate teamwork is one of the key strengths they look for in potential candidates.
Practice Facilitating Teamwork On-the-Job
Would you like to get better at facilitating teamwork? Below are eight on-the-job activities you can use to help you get started. We strongly recommend that you do not try all of these at once; start by picking one activity and pace yourself from there. Depending on your schedule it might only be feasible to do one activity per week. Note that some activities will also need to be repeated in order to help strategic thinking become a habit.
- Volunteer to lead a new team.
- Shadow an effective team lead in your organization to see how they communicate, facilitate meetings, and build relationships.
- Observe how teamwork is encouraged in the work that you do with others. What works well? What would you adapt or do differently?
- Consider tasks or projects that you are involved in that could be done better with a group. Alternatively, consider group work that you are involved in that could be done better by individual contributors.
- Practice discerning when team structures or systems are slowing down progress, such as too many people, too frequent meetings, or not meeting frequently enough.
- Practice giving feedback. Schedule regular meetings and create a structured form or set of guiding questions you can use to give consistent and timely feedback.
- Practice setting goals, priorities, and roles with your team. If these things have not yet been established, do some planning, then hold a meeting to clarify each.
- Pay attention to group dynamics and think of ways that you can actively build the team beyond simply holding them accountable to accomplish tasks.
Download the Guide
These tips are a part of SIGMA’s Competency Development Guide for Facilitating Teamwork. Download the free PDF below for a complete list of tips and tricks for developing this critical leadership skill.
SIGMA Can Help
Since 1967, SIGMA consultants have helped thousands of organizations across North America develop their people potential and increase organizational effectiveness. Explore our assessments, coaching, and consulting services below, and contact us if you would like to speak about creating a custom plan for your organization. Develop your team building skills with SIGMA today.
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Looking for More?
If you would like to speak with a consultant about what facilitating teamwork looks like at your organization, contact us today. We are happy to share what we’ve learned from client experience and talk about the specific needs of your organization and your team.
Glen Harrison is an organizational transformation consultant and succession planning expert. Over the course of his career, Glen has worked with one-third of the Fortune 500 list and with every level of government in Canada and the United States. Having worked with numerous clients to build robust succession plans from the ground up, Glen has extensive experience in the application of SIGMA’s products and services to help organizations realize their people potential.