Blog Post #3

How to Build a Successful Team 

    The article titled, "How to Build a Successful Team", on the New York Times' Business website, indicates a comprehensive guide on how to build and manage a successful team in the workplace. It delivers practical tips and advice on how build a strong team based culture, by communicating effectively, providing feedback, addressing internal and external conflict within the team and setting clear goals and expectations. The article also goes over the importance of fostering a sense of responsibility among your teammates and the importance of promoting accountability.

    First you must make a plan, by having a clear and measurable goal it makes it easy for you to understand and accomplish whatever you want to do. Managing a team isn't simple, leaders have to play a hands-on role to make sure the group flows well together and maintains focus throughout. Two examples you could do start making a plan is creating a clear map. By clear map meaning, get your teammates to question you and start listing out those priorities, next is listing them in order and how you want them to be measured because if they aren't in the right order even a slight error could throw your whole team off balance. The second example would be having a shared scoreboard, meaning that there may be different roles everyone is assigned to but showing progress while work is being done to others that work in different fields makes it more inspiring for others and motivates others to drive that greater sense in them.

    The second topic they cover is called, "Rules of The Road". Setting team values, cultural guardrails and behaviors are very important because it sets the stage on how everyone would work together. The examples of "families" are brought up, and are compared to teams and how they aren't really that different, which does make sense. It may take time to get used to these rules and values but the most important thing is to stick to them and make sure those rules are clear and concise.

    Thirdly would be, showing respect. Many people have experienced a bad boss before over the course of their careers, having bad traits to them such as not listening or trusting their fellow employees. This kind of treatment puts employees in a state where they feel defensive and have to always check themselves whether they're in the right or wrong, therefore its important for good leaders to set the tone. By having a clear yet respectful way of speaking to others while also guiding them will let them respect you more in the long run.

    Lastly, is to have conversations. Sounds simple enough, but sometimes it isn't, difficult discussions aren't that fun to endure but they end up being essential for having a successful team. An example could be letting someone know if they've been late too often or not through email or in person could be an annoying task to do but it would notify the person that what they're doing is bothering the team and it could help you later down the line.

    This article can be applied to workplaces in ways such as relating to leaders of the workplace. It guides them step by step on how to have a more successful team while also letting them know the dangers of what they could be doing wrong and preventing them from being a "bad boss". I personally could relate to this topic when I find myself being forced into the role of the "leader". When no one speaks up and I feel the need to break the ice, I try to make myself sound more confident yet open to encourage others to speak up. I find later down the line that these tips such as making a map and listing priorities are essential when put into group environments.

Bryant, A. (n.d.). How to Build a Successful Team. The New York Times Business. Retrieved March 23, 2023, from https://www.nytimes.com/guides/business/manage-a-successful-team