How do we really achieve team cohesiveness?
How can I get my team to work together to reach our goals? This question may be asked by a CEO of a multi-million dollar corporation, a small business owner with a team of 5, a church leader, or the president of a university. There is much focus on leadership, but I love the research that discusses teams and how to maximize team efficiency and cooperation. More specifically, how does one achieve team cohesiveness and effectiveness?
Cohesiveness means the quality of forming a united whole, according to Merriam-Webster. Many challenges and situations can arise that splinter a team and really harm the potential for wholeness. Distrust, fear, lack of vision, emotionally unsafe spaces, limited diversity, and poor task management are just a few circumstances that can completely deplete a team of cohesiveness or reduce its chances of achieving cohesiveness.
In contrast to these negative environments. Study after study has shown that teams are more creative and productive when they can achieve high levels of participation, cooperation, and collaboration among members (Druskat & Wolff, 2018). What we know is that three conditions must be present to achieve team effectiveness: trust, identity, and efficacy (Druskat & Wolff, 2018).
One proven method to aid teams achieve cohesiveness, effectiveness, high productivity and high performance is to build your team’s emotional intelligence. That is to say group emotional intelligence is a necessary pillar as you work to create an environment with those three conditions. Building team EQ (emotional quotient) does not mean having a team run by unchecked emotions. On the contrary, it is important to acknowledge that all teams are made of members with varying emotions that drive what they do. That raises the question: How do you rein in all these emotions, but also honor them?
Here are some key areas business and organizations can do to establish team emotional intelligence. 1.) Introduce tools that help develop emotional management - such as training and wellness services. 2.) Establish a psychological safe culture for members to have new ideas and make mistakes - meaning rules and rewards around such things are fair, properly assess any harm, and consider the person(s) involved. 3.) Have a management team that has clear rules, expectations and mediums to communicate- that means components like team goals, objectives, outcomes, expectations, are always clear and shared in a timely manner with necessary support outlined.
It then becomes clear that a team that feels safe, can acknowledge and communicate their emotions to one-another and navigate emotionally challenging situations as a unit can be a game changer. A team operating with these three things in place would be able to excel in almost any environment - building a building, customer service, mergers and acquisitions; introduction of new products, or solving problems like childhood hunger or homelessness. Group emotional intelligence surpasses just navigating team emotions, but extends to other stakeholders. Thus, teams with high EQ can build bridges outside of the team that support long-term growth.
Reference:
Druskat, V. U., & Wolff, S. B. (2018, December 28). Building the emotional intelligence of groups. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved January 13, 2023, from https://hbr.org/2001/03/building-the-emotional-intelligence-of-groups
If you want to help build your team’s EQ. Consider our training and assessment services.
