Importance of good teamwork skills

Leadership is one of the most important skills of entrepreneurs.  Leadership includes teamwork skills. In fact without them, leadership will not be effective. Usually teamwork is often ignored and not valued. So the question is, would the business fail without teamwork skills?

When teamwork skills fail, people will mind their own business and not work together for the betterment of the business. They will stick to their own ideas, they will tend to push what they think is right without checking others’ ideas. The productivity of the team will also dip as they will want to do everything their own way and have a different goal.

Now we will see why teamwork is crucial for a successful entrepreneur:

The main goals of teamwork are to improve productivity and motivation.  Teamwork is a bonding agent and a lubrication of sorts. Teamwork brings people together and motivates them to rely on one another to get things done. Teamwork also makes progress easier and allows the group to overcome obstacles that would have stymied an individual. Here are the benefits of teamwork:

• A support infrastructure:

Enhanced cooperation leads to greater workplace synergy by providing a greater sense of belonging that encourages the development of an ecosystem over a standalone person or team.

• Retention and motivation:

A culture that fosters collaboration, mutual respect and empathy serves to motivate its team members, while retaining them as well.

• Increased ownership:

A shared vision is important as it creates a sense of responsibility towards a larger goal. It encourages people to work cohesively and feel a sense of achievement when milestones are accomplished as a team. It is imperative that management focuses on aligned teams to the organization’s goals.

• Fuels trust:

Developing a culture of open and honest communication, predicated on increased collaboration and transparency, is key to developing trust among team members.

• Alternative viewpoints:

As teams get more diverse in their composition, it is important to create a culture that accepts a variety of viewpoints. This will help stimulate innovation and enhance creative across all tasks! 

• Defines roles and responsibilities:

A clear understanding of the roles and responsibilities is key to ensuring effective collaboration by leveraging the skills sets of various team members and enabling prioritizing of tasks. This will also contribute to increased accountability and shared responsibility.

• Encourages individual development:

Working closely as a team creates an environment of shared learning, mentorship and guidance. Team members can learn from each other’s mistakes, get different perspectives on tasks, and build better workplace relationships.

(Source: risepreneur.com, entrepreneur.com)

Disability Entrepreneurship and Leadership (DEAL) Foundation works across the districts of Gadag and Bengaluru to provide livelihood opportunities for households of people with disabilities. To do this, we have been working on setting up a training and incubation center to encourage people with disabilities to become entrepreneurs which would further enable them to build sustainable livelihoods and improve their socio-economic status.