Team Building: 8 Ways to Ensure Everybody Feels Included

Managing and motivating your team members is difficult in the best of times, but it's especially so when a large percentage of your workforce may be working remotely. However, if you want your business to thrive, finding ways to keep your co-workers engaged is necessary. Here are eight team-building tips to help you create a more inclusive atmosphere.

1.    Use the Right Communication Tools

There are many tools that make communicating with your team easy, including phone, text, email, direct messaging, video conferencing, and project management systems. Ensure each member of your team uses the same technology and knows how to use it well. They also need to be aware of any protocols involved, e.g., sending sensitive information over email without using end-to-end encryption is a big no-no.

2.    Allow Employees to Make Important Decisions

Delegating work trains your teammates to have the confidence to manage specific tasks without you. Letting employees make decisions impacting your company's culture and future will make them feel trusted and respected. For example, empowering an employee to decide which vendor to use can propel them to trust their own judgment and motivate them to take further initiatives. 

3.    Recognize Each Employee's Contribution

Don't just hand out an assignment to a team member; explain why they've been chosen. For example, Client X was extremely pleased with their website design, and you have another client who could benefit from the team member's unique skills. Share feedback not only from clients but also from co-workers, other team leaders, and higher-ranking executives. Passing along positive customer reviews and comments also helps with team building.

4.    Encourage Each Person to Contribute During Meetings

We've probably all been in meetings when we felt the urge to speak up, but we kept quiet. If this happens a lot, eventually you start to think that your voice isn't valued. As a team leader, prevent that from happening by encouraging each employee to share their thoughts and opinions. Assign your meeting attendees specific duties so they remain involved. Regularly ask for feedback, invite questions, and make meetings interactive and productive. Be an active and empathetic listener, and let people "own" their ideas. 

5.    Make Your Team Members Brand Ambassadors

If you plan to attend an upcoming industry event, have one of your team members participate in your place. This will make the chosen person feel valued and empowered as your company's brand representative. This is especially motivational for remote workers who risk feeling more isolated and less valued. You can also ask a team member to attend job fairs, speak at a school's career day, or sponsor their membership in a professional organization.

6.    Provide Professional Development Opportunities

A Gallup poll found that 87% of millennials want to be able to develop professionally. So, make sure all of your team members have opportunities to refine their existing skills and learn new ones. Provide a platform for them to share what they've learned with others. Also, allow your team to embark on a shared experience by attending classes or workshops together.

7.    Foster Workplace Friendships

Jobs provide more satisfaction when employees have opportunities to form friendships. So, an important part of team building is providing your team with time and ways to discuss non-work-related subjects, such as weekend plans or hobbies. Create shared activities that allow your team members to interact and bond - going on a retreat, working out together, having lunch or dinner, volunteering. Celebrating personal events, such as birthdays and the coming of a new baby, can also build camaraderie.

8.    Perk People Up

Everyone enjoys perks. Perks make employees feel as if they're part of a company family. Perks can be anything from gym memberships and free meals to unlimited vacations. It depends on what your employees would like, whether the perks fit your company culture, and what your budget allows.

Team Building: Final Thoughts

No business has succeeded without a solid team of people who feel involved. Ensuring that employees don't feel ignored, overlooked, or left out will foster motivation and help increase your bottom line. 

Shaping Development can help you with your team-building strategy. We can also show you how to develop organizational processes for your team so that all members work better together. Get in touch with us for more information.

Five Skills Of Healthy Teams

Recently, I was asked the question: what are the five components of healthy team behavior?

This question made me think about the teams I have been a member of, managed, and lead.  After much thought, I came up with these five skill sets: organizational skills, functional communication, social skills, problem solving skills, and emotional regulation.

1) Organizational Skills

Organizational skills are essential in teams to make sure key tasks are broken down and defined clearly.  Once this occurs, responsibilities of the team as a whole can be shared, delegated, and everyone is clear of their job and responsibility.  This is also where clearly defined job descriptions and performance expectations are outlined and communicated to all team members.  For assistance in organizing these tasks, see this blog post:  How a Task Analysis Can Transform Your Life.

2) Functional Communication Skills

If there is a want or a need from the team, this is expressed and carried out by leadership.  Leaders of teams should hold 1:1 meetings with team members to make sure their individual wants and needs are being met, but also as a collective whole, giving all team members a safe space to communicate their needs.  For more information on holding 1:1's see this blog post: Four Strategies When Holding 1:1s.

3) Social Skills

Key social skills that need to be displayed by all team members are the following interpersonal skills: eye contact when communicating, polite tone of voice, and making sure there is a safe space for transparency among team members.  Team members should be able to hold conversations with all members of the team, in a healthy team culture.  For more strategies on building a healthy team culture, see this blog post: Two Ways to Build Team Culture.  

4) Problem Solving Skills

Problem solving skills are essential to any team.  These behaviors include conflict resolution when there is discord with team members, but also includes those moments where there is an issue with a client or customer.  It is important to observe and measure how the team works together to problem solve, as opposed to relying on just one team member or a few of the team members to problem solve.  Once these data are collected, team performance goals in this skill set can be created and shaped.  David Marquet's book*,

Turn the Ship Around!: A True Story of Turning Followers into Leaders

is an amazing testament to this as he discussed how he turned his ship, the Santa Fe, into the worst performing ship in the US Navy to one of the best performing ships in the US Navy.  

5) Emotion Regulation Skills

Emotion regulation skills of a team can be defined as providing support to one another when a team member needs assistance in those moments of conflict or in those moments of frustration.  As team members, however; we should keep in mind the larger picture of the team's performance goals, so that in our assistance, or conflict with a fellow team member, we can avoid an escalation in conflict by displaying verbal outbursts or passive aggressive behavior.

Have additional skills to suggest as "healthy team behaviors?"  Leave a comment below!  

*Please Note: We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. 

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