Effective teamwork is critical for every successful organisation. To reap the benefits of teamwork, leaders must not only lead, but they must be able to work well with the management cadre and the rest of the team. Also, they must be able to set examples for others to follow.
Once the vision, values, and corporate mission are defined, leadership must speak with a common voice to promote consistency, maintain standards, and achieve corporate goals with the greatest efficiency.
Effective workplace communication involves cooperation at every level: within and across divisions, and in support of senior leadership. Supporting senior leadership implies challenging questionable decisions in the appropriate forum when you do not agree or understand, or, your full support when final decisions are made.
Every junior leader eventually faces this challenge sooner or later. They may not agree with a decision, neither do they challenge that decision, nor do they provide a better alternative. And when the time comes to support senior management, it seems easier to give it half-hearted effort or claim it was not your choice.
When you give a half-hearted effort or attribute less popular decisions to your seniors, people see through your actions and they become a basis for their response when they do not agree with the decisions made.
Effective teamwork also requires support and trust between peers. When supervisors do not get along or never seem to be able to present a united front, they become easy targets for a disruptive employee to manipulate in order to achieve other aims.
Supervisors should communicate and instil co-operation to meet corporate objectives. If we cannot work well with our colleagues, it usually means we haven't taken the time to communicate.
When we start to communicate and work together, we find that we have more in common than we realised. Leaders need to collaborate closely so that they work together and present a united front. If the management team is not committed to the corporate values, there will be a breakdown in teamwork and communication.
Leadership means learning to work together and keeping everyone focused on the corporate objectives. To lead includes supporting senior leadership and your peers, while setting the example for your team in every way.
Good leaders look beyond their immediate team in order to promote effective teamwork to exist throughout the organisation. Thus, it is important that those working at the same institution try to see each other as brothers and sisters working towards the well-being or common good of that institution rather than its down fall.
Finally, they should not in anyway try to bring each other down only for one to rise to where one is positioned.
