Participating in a collaborative team

There may be no “I” in “team”, but teamwork can still benefit you on a personal level.

Unity is strength

Creativity thrives when people work together as a team. What you’ve learned from your individual experiences is different from what your colleagues may have learned. Thus, teamwork encourages shared knowledge in the workplace and helps you learn new skills that you can use for the rest of your career.

Working together lets you build on the talents of your teammates. While your strength may be creative thinking, your co-worker might shine in organisation and planning. Do not hesitate to share your abilities with the team.

Every time you see your co-workers use a different approach to a situation, you’ve a chance to adjust or improve your own methods.

Trust

Trusting one another allows you and your colleagues to open up and encourage each other. Open communication is key when working on a team and produces effective solutions in difficult group projects. By working together, you learn that wins and losses affect everyone on the team. Teamwork demands confidence in each other’s distinct abilities.

Conflict resolution

Conflicts inevitably happen when you put a group of unique people together. You and your team come from varied backgrounds and have different work styles and habits. While these unique viewpoints create the most successful work, they can also generate resentment that quickly turns into conflict. However, when conflict arises, you’re forced to resolve the conflicts yourselves instead of turning to management.

Sense of ownership

Teamwork allows you to engage with the company and add to the bigger picture. Working toward achieving company goals allows you to feel connected to the company. It builds loyalty, leading to a higher level of job satisfaction.

Healthy risk-taking

You’ll probably hesitate to stick your neck out for an off-the-wall idea when working on a project on your own because if the project fails, you’ll take the full brunt of the blame. While you may not get full credit for a successful team project, working with other people spreads out the responsibility for a failed assignment.

Working as a team allows team members to take more risks, as they have the support of the entire group to fall back on in case of failure. Conversely, sharing success as a team is a bonding experience. Once a team succeeds together, their brainstorming sessions will produce revolutionary ideas without hesitation. In many cases, the riskiest idea turns out to be the best idea. Teamwork allows employees the freedom to think outside the box.

Don’t allow competitive natures to get in the way of personal growth in the workplace. Instead, understand how to resolve conflicts and trust teammates to contribute their best ideas. Learn from your team members and build on each other’s skills to create impressive results in the workplace.

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