Within any organisation team building and teamwork skills are critical for the effectiveness of how your business is run. Understanding teamwork can make you a more effective manager and employee. Here are some team building tips to help.

The first crucial factor of a teamwork success is that all employees are working towards the same goals and have the same views on what they are trying to achieve. This relies on good communication within the team and that everyone gets on enough to work to their full capacity; harmony within the workplace is very important.

Here are some additional team building tips and ideas to help your business succeed:

• Make sure that the team goals are totally clear, completely understood and accepted by each team member.

• Make sure everyone within the company is aware of what they are responsible for and what their roles are. Do your best to avoid overlaps of authority. For example, if there is a risk that two team members will be competing for control in a certain area, try to divide that area into two distinct parts and give each person more control in one of those parts, according to those individual’s strengths.

• Try to involve the whole team in the decision making process. For example, use group sessions to discuss ideas and solutions to problems. What you want to achieve here is that each team member feels his or her ownership in the final decision, solution, or idea and that everyone’s views and opinions are heard. The more he or she feels this way, the more likely he or she is to agree with and commit to the decided line of action and will work harder to achieve it.

• Make sure there are no blocked lines of communications and you and your people stay fully informed.

• Build trust with your team members by spending one on one time in an atmosphere of openness and honesty. Be loyal to your employees if you expect the same back from them.

• Allow your office team members to build trust and openness between each other in team building activities and events. Give them some opportunities of extra social time with each other in an atmosphere that encourages open communication. For example, in a group lunch on Friday or a drink after work paid for by the company.

• Be careful with interpersonal issues. Recognise them early and deal with them until they are resolved.

• Never miss opportunities to empower your employees. Say thank you or show appreciation of an individual team player’s work. Always try to stay positive.

• Do not limit yourself to negative feedback. Be fair. Whenever there is an opportunity, give positive feedback.