As a team leader, you must understand how to define teamwork skills so that you can effectively encourage a workplace environment that is positive and productive. While it may sound obvious, teamwork skills largely define an employee's ability to work collaboratively and or cooperate with coworkers, managers, and clients. 

This article will present the most important and valuable teamwork skills and how you can integrate best practices based on these skills into your company culture.
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Teamwork skills: The essentials 

Even if most of your employees in your company or team don’t require teamwork to get their jobs done at the end of the day, being an active company member will show coworkers and team leaders that you are reliable and available should they need your help. Leaders need to find ways to integrate essential teamwork skills so their employees understand how to be more connected to their colleagues, which on the whole, contributes to happier workplaces.

Here are the basic teamwork skills that should be the foundation of your collaborative house. 

• Establish your company goals. Employees need to understand the message behind their work. Ideally, these goals are something you and your employees will be proud of, and in the case that your goals are still in progress, consider working alongside your team to establish goals that work for everybody with a hand in growing your company
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• Get to know your team. Get to know your employees, ensure the relationships you build with each member are considerate of their unique needs, and develop effective relationships with diverse personalities.
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• Create and maintain lines of communication between yourself and your team. Additionally, encourage your team to spend time together in third spaces or casual get-togethers, allowing them to create their own bonds, which will encourage communication. 
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• Offer additional training and skill building. Ask your employees what they need to be great at their jobs and find a way to provide these resources. Asking workers what they need creates trust and signals that leadership is considering their well-being
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• Motivate and encourage your team to achieve their goals, even outside work! Providing a budget for health and fitness or even flex hours is an effective way to show that leadership understands the importance of rest and relaxation as a means of boosting employee happiness and productivity
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Teamwork skills and why they are important

Now that you have a better sense of what basic teamwork skills entail and can begin to assess whether or not your team is on the right track or needs a push in the right direction, we can dive into some of the ways you can implement these skills, and why they are important. 
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1. Communication is king

Today, communication in the workplace is a major topic. Companies are stepping away from micromanaging teams and learning that communicating with their workers and thus trusting them to manage their time and be open about their needs leads to a higher functioning workplace. 

Here are some ways to enhance communication in the workplace

• Teambuilding nights
• Regular company retreats
• Employee reviews 
• Flexible schedules allow employees to feel like their personal needs are also met
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Prioritizing communication allows employees and managers to be more understanding and develop solutions. Team culture improves as communication improves, leading to more work/life balance, higher employee retention rates, and more productivity.
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2. Being a good listener

While listening is also a major part of being communicative, it deserves its own section due to how important it is to listen to employee needs. Managers and leaders need to understand that by the nature of their role, they possess a certain amount of power which can feel oppressive and unfair when overriding employee needs. In many ways, employees appreciate a good leader that helps guide them and supports their growth, but it becomes a problem when management micromanages teams and assumes their wants and needs. 

Ways that listening to your team can improve your team bond:

• More opportunities to receive honest and constructive feedback
• Less room for issues to occur
• Creating a more calm and stress-free working environment
• More attentive and intentional conversations
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If you remain open to hearing your employees out and designate time and space for regular reviews and teambuilding exercises where you learn more about your team and let them take the lead, you will find that teamwork skills will naturally fall into place.  
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3. Managing challenges

Challenges in the workplace are nothing to worry about when they are addressed in a timely manner. When issues arise, make it a priority to find out the root of the problem, and employ your communication and listening skills to hear employees out when necessary. 

Managing challenges can benefit the company in myriad ways: 

• Improved morale
• Less conflict
• More ability to define problems
• Increased empathy
• More flexibility 
• Better listening skills
• Better interpersonal relationships
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There’s no perfect workplace, but you can get close to it by addressing teamwork challenges and valuing employee well-being through enhanced team-building skills.
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4. Always be respectful 

You can’t control who you work with, but you can control how you treat your coworkers. As a leader, understanding that team members have differences is a great place to start, as you shouldn’t force anyone to be best friends but encourage your team to work together respectfully. 

Here are a few good rules to follow when establishing a safe and respectful workplace: 

• Let employees get to know one another organically and comfortably so they can feel at ease when together personally and professionally.
• Set ground rules on day one, ensuring employees know what behaviors aren’t tolerated, such as bullying and being offensive. Ensure each new hire gets training on this so ground rules are laid out from day one.
• Set up a time for team-building activities based on communication so employees can nurture a sense of connection. 
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As a team leader, it’s your responsibility to instill teamwork skills and environments where these skills can thrive. Ensure that your employees know they can always discuss how they feel in the workplace so any team-related issue will be addressed swiftly and appropriately. 
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5. Be consistent

As a leader, being consistent is incredibly important when facilitating team building in the workplace. If you decide to dedicate time and resources to teambuilding activities, which are proven to be a very effective way to boost morale in the workplace, then make sure you do so consistently. 

While it’s fun for teams to get together, the positive effects of these team outings take time to nurture. Schedule a regular team meet-up biweekly or monthly, depending on your time constraints. In addition to smaller, more informal meetups, company retreats are recommended at least twice a year.
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How to make sure your skills are top-notch

Whether your team is already communicative, respectful, or collaborative, there may be times when certain teamwork skills need tweaking or improvement. Not to worry, facing challenges is normal and a sign of progress. It’s important that management stays on top of team dynamics and offers dedicated time and space to improve these skills rather than doing nothing and being disappointed in team members. 

One of the most effective ways to unite people is setting aside dedicated time to do a team retreat. A company getaway should include teambuilding exercises and give employees time to relax and bond outside of work. As it can be a lot of work to organize a successful retreat, from travel to the itinerary, the Surf Office can help you organize your entire retreat from start to finish.