Managing a team is not as easy as building a team. When people from diverse backgrounds come together, challenges are bound to crop up. If you have just started a small business or just begun managing a team, it’s important to be ready for what’s coming.
In this post, we look at the top 6 challenges of team building.
1) Trust Issues
A productive team is one where each member of the team trusts the other. Without trust, members may hesitate asking for help from other team members, which can affect productivity and efficiency of the team.
Trust comes in when the team members know each other. When team members know each other well, personally as well as professionally, they understand each other and engage with each other.
2) Communication Issues
This is one of those challenges of team building that can create a distance between team members. Communication suffers when a team member considers his role as separate from the team. When a team manager does not communicate well with the members in his team, the project flow takes a hit.
This can be mitigated by holding team meetings to discuss the project’s progress.
3) Conflict
Conflict is one of the biggest challenges of team building and sometimes, inevitable too.
The success of your team depends on how the members deal with conflict.
Take the time to train yourself and your team members in conflict resolution. When everyone in the team knows how to handle conflict and put the team above personal conflicts, the team stays on track to achieving its goals without the manager having to intervene constantly.
4) Over Dependence on the Manager
When members of a team depend on the leader excessively, building an effective team can be challenging. The manager must empower the entire team so they can remain independent and take responsibility for their actions.
5) Poor Work Environment
This is one of the most common challenges of team building. A team needs a congenial work environment to work effectively and productively. The workplace needs to be quiet and favourable for teamwork.
If the team is working virtually, the members should have access to a bunch of tools – file sharing, communication, task and project monitoring – to work together and complete their tasks.
Without a designated place or the right tools for virtual collaboration, building a team can be difficult.
6) Excessive Negative Feedback
We all know that feedback can do wonders to the growth of a person and organisation. However, too much of anything, especially the negative kind, can stifle productivity and performance.
Excessive negative feedback puts a lot of pressure on team members. Rather than improving the behaviour you want to eliminate, it only worsens things. When a person is corrected repeatedly, building new habits and behavioural patterns can become difficult. If anything, it leaves them despirited, demoralised and demotivated.
Conclusion
If you find yourself struggling with these challenges of team building, be sure to take a moment to identify the cause and work on improving things. Here at Evocatus, we offer team building services across the UK. Through fun, creative team building games, we can help your team to get to know each other better and learn the intricacies of teamwork. Talk to us today!