Bad Teamwork Habits to Ditch This Year (adidas – In Practice)

Chances are, you’ll find yourself working with people at some point in your life. It isn’t always easy, but if well-executed, your team can accomplish way more than the sum of its parts. Whether on the football field or in the office, you’ll want your crew running like a well-oiled machine. To get your squad in tip-top shape, cut these four toxic habits that prevent teamwork from making the dream work:

1. Vague Deliverables

• The worst kinds of tasks are ones that aren’t specific. Wishy-washy items that can’t be immediately dealt with by one person and checked off a list provide room for error and miscommunication. When breaking down roles and deliverables, be sure to be clear on what the specific action is, when it needs to be completed by, and who will be responsible for it. For example, instead of assigning “Content Creation this month” to “the Marketing Department”, assign a blog article to Jessica to be published on April 4^th, a daily tweet from April 1^st to 30^st to Stanley, and responding to social media audience engagement within 24 hours to Jordan. This prevents any confusion on what was supposed to get done or who was supposed to do it.

2. Poor Accountability

• Life gets busy and things can slip through the cracks. It happens to the best of us. To ensure your team is getting things done, build in a culture of nagging. Team check-ins are helpful reminders that there are other people counting on you to stay on track with your tasks (and avoiding being nagged is incentive enough to stay on top of your work!). Don’t be afraid to remind your mates about things you need them to do in order to do your job, and watch as your team productivity soars.

3. Sugarcoating

• Quality feedback is crucial to a constantly improving team, and sugarcoating it detracts from its value. While it’s important to be respectful when delivering feedback, it’s just as important to ensure your teammate is getting the full impact of your critique. Being fully honest and giving context to your constructive criticism allows your teammate to truly unlock the next level of their potential. It is, however, also helpful to provide points on what they’re doing well so they can share those skills with others. This way, your team can improve on all fronts to achieve your goals.

4. Stagnant Communication

• Poor communication is the greatest barrier to a functional team, and one of the core causes of the above bad habits. Make sure each member of your team is both on the same page and feels comfortable speaking up by regularly checking in on both a team and individual level. Ask direct follow-up questions to get down to the nitty-gritty, and encourage contribution and collaboration. When team members are empowered to share their questions or concerns, you can address them right away instead of letting them fester, potentially derailing your goals too late down the line or letting false assumptions inform critical mistakes.

Apply these top tips whenever you think your teamwork can be improved (hint: this means almost always), and watch your team productivity and morale go from 0 to 100 real quick. With a solid team behind you, impossible is nothing.

—

This article is a sample of my writing for the adidas “In Practice” blog