The five Cs of effective teamwork
Complementarity
Each member masters and has the specific knowledge of a certain part of the project.
We are all very ignorant. It’s just that we are not all ignorant of the same things. Albert Einstein.
Absolutely no one is able to perfectly master all areas of a project. Sharing knowledge among team members is one of the most important aspects for professional development and for the general benefit of the project. If you are a person who is motivated to learn and evolve professionally, criticisms do not bother you (learning from them) and you ask for help, suggestions and alternatives in your work: This point will not be a problem for you.
You know how to complement yourself with the different members of the team. On the other hand, if you are an excessively proud person who does not admit your limits, you are bothered by the criticisms of your colleagues feeling offended, you do not like to ask for help or listen to other points of view and you believe that no member has anything to contribute to you: Probably your professional profile will not evolve, harming the good atmosphere and work in the team. Making your integration and adaptation difficult in it.
He who asks is a fool for five minutes, but he who does not ask remains a fool forever. Chinese Proverb.
Coordination
The group must act in an organized way to progress the project.
Cooperation is the full conviction that no one can reach the goal if everyone does not arrive. Virginia Burden.
Through a global vision, tasks are planned and prioritized, estimating the period of time determined for the progression of the project in the team. Planning in the team can be difficult to estimate and generate uncertainty.
Although it should be considered normal, considering that the future itself is.
Study the past if you want to predict the future. Confucius.
Once planned, they must know how to self-organize, taking into account the tasks that may positively or negatively influence other members of the team. Warning or informing of the changes through abundant communication…
Communication
Teamwork requires open communication between all its members, essential to be able to coordinate the different individual actions. Without communication there will be no coordination, nor complementarity.
Normally this point is directly proportional to the sociability of each member of the team. If you stick and you will work more stressed (due to the effort it takes to try to understand what you do not know).
If you are an empathetic, communicative person and you like to exchange opinions and points of view: You will benefit teamwork by generating a good working environment.
If I were offered wisdom on the condition of trust leads him to accept and put the success of the team before his own personal glory. Time is an important factor in this point.
No one trusts another without knowing what he is like, or how he works. Letting time pass naturally, adapting progressively, is essential.
Little by little your profile will fit and integrate. It should be others who give you their trust, never impose it. Naturally you will find your place. This is essential when entering a new work team.
The confidence and security in yourself, your skills to help, estimate your development times well and demonstrate in practice that in the vast majority of cases your theories are correct, is usually directly proportional to the confidence you will obtain over time.
Trust, like art, never comes from having all the answers, but from being open to all the questions. Earl Gray Stevens.
Commitment
Each member commits to contribute the best of themselves, to put all their effort into getting the job done. It is useless to work on something you do not believe in and in which you do not trust. Committing to your work is essential to generate trust and motivation.
Contributing your professional knowledge to the team for the satisfaction of seeing the entire project grow and evolve over time will lead you to commitment.
The character and way of being of each person greatly influences the professional behavior of each one. Personal incompatibilities, too much competitiveness, enmities or bad ways in communication, can damage some aspect of the work within the team.
Always trying to promote a good working environment and camaraderie is important to avoid it. Integration into a new work team usually takes time. Letting yourself go, contributing 100% of your knowledge gradually without insisting on demonstrating all your worth in the first contacts with the other members of the team, is essential for a good initial evolution in it.
Patience is usually a good ally. Sooner or later you will be able to demonstrate your worth.
The fuel of the team is the motivation of its members.
The degree of motivation in the team reflects the quality in the results. I have always believed that a small motivated team in a good working environment produces more than a large uncommitted team, without cause or motivation.