For some people, just the words ‘team project’ are enough to induce tension headaches. It’s hard enough to organise yourself without throwing a group of other people into the mix who have their own work styles, dispositions and expectations. So how can you be a good team player at work and ensure success without letting it stress you out?
Here are some key skills and strategies you can use to help the process go smoothly.
Foster a supportive environment
It’s important to remember that you’re working for the success of the team, not just yourself. It can be tempting to allocate yourself tasks and power through them, leaving everyone else to sort themselves out. But no matter how good your contribution is, if the project is poorly organised, it’ll reflect badly on the whole team.
Create a supportive environment from the start, and everyone will feel more confident in contributing their ideas, asking questions, or asking for help. Weaknesses in the plan will be voiced sooner, and any miscommunications ironed out before the major work is completed.
Flexibility and openness
If you’ve found a method of working that’s best for you, this will definitely help you to organise yourself. But this doesn’t mean it’s the best way of working for everyone. For example, you might come up with your best ideas in groups, where you can bounce thoughts off other people. But others might come up with their best ideas alone.
As well as this, people of different ages, in different departments, and even those in the same team with different job roles may approach tasks differently. Make sure that everyone is able to perform at their best by being aware of different working styles. Allow space for each person to contribute in their own way. Not only will this help you to be a good team player at work, but it’ll improve the quality of the work produced by the team, and without a load of stress in the process!
Time management
Try to be realistic about how much work you can complete within the time frame. You don’t want to break a promise unless you have to, or you risk being seen as unreliable in the future. You also don’t want to be rushing to get everything done at the end.
If you take on too much work, you might have to break a commitment you made to the rest of the team. It’ll slow the process down as other team members will have to rearrange their own work to accommodate your tasks.
You’ll also need to finish certain tasks before others can get started. Make sure to only take on work that you know you can do in time. Then if you find that it didn’t take as long as expected, or you see that someone else is struggling, you’ll be in a position to help out.
Healthy communication and self-awareness
So that everyone starts on the same page, make sure you understand the goals and objectives of the project before you complete any work. The last thing you want is to spend hours or days on a piece of work, only to find out it’s not exactly the angle the rest of the team expected.
You need good communication skills so that you can describe your ideas in a way that everyone can understand. You might need to explain specialist terminology depending on who you’re working on the project with.
It’s also important to keep the team up to date with how your part of the work is going. This way, everyone will be able to plan ahead and make sure the project stays on track. If you’re struggling with deadlines, or if you don’t understand something, it’s best to be honest about this and ask for help. The sooner you communicate it, the more that can be done about it.
Can you take feedback on board without taking it personally? An increased self-awareness will help with this. It’ll also help you to understand your own strengths and weaknesses. Then you’ll be able to give specific and accurate suggestions of what you can contribute to the team.
The skills needed to be a good team player at work aren’t too dissimilar from the skills needed to be a good worker in general. Even in your everyday work, you still have to collaborate with your colleagues to achieve the aims and visions of your charity.
Teamwork doesn’t have to be stressful. If you work on strengthening these key skills, you’ll feel the benefits in every interaction you have.
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