Knowing how to work well as a team and being able to collaborate is a vital part of any work environment. As such, effective teamwork is one of the many soft skills that can help you to succeed in your career.  

For some, these important teamwork skills come naturally. For others, being an effective team player can be challenging. Whatever level your collaboration skills may be at, or your level of experience, there’s always room to improve.  

Take a look at our five top tips for improving your teamwork skills.  

Why are teamwork and collaboration skills so important?  

Working well as a team and cooperating with one another allows individuals to contribute to a common goal. The ability to work well together remains a priority for employers, even if you take on mainly remote work.  

Collaboration tools such as Slack, Asana and Microsoft Teams are enabling teams to break out of their silos, even when working remotely, and come together to brainstorm ideas and work on projects.  

What does effective collaboration entail?  

Collaboration is an important interpersonal skill in itself, but it also includes many other skills too, such as: 

Strong communication skills Active listening Emotional intelligence Conflict resolution  

To truly hone your teamwork skills, consider how effective you are at each of these parts in isolation. Could you take time to improve your people skills across the board?  

Our five top tips for improving collaboration skills: 

1. Build your emotional intelligence  

Emotional intelligence (or EQ) is your ability to identify and manage your emotions. With good emotional intelligence, you’ll be more understanding of your colleagues. In turn, you can better respond to your colleagues’ needs in a productive manner. Emotional intelligence is helpful when trying to resolve conflicts or bridging the gap between different communicative styles.  

To build a better understanding of your triggers, feelings and reactions, try naming your emotions. By practising mindfulness you can take time out to reflect on how different events made you feel.  

Employers look for emotional intelligence as this soft skill helps promote cooperation within the workplace.  

2. Set clear common goals and objectives  

Working as a team to prepare a clear goal for your project allows everyone involved to have a clear stake in the outcome. Once everyone agrees on their objectives, delegating tasks that each team member is accountable for encourages ownership. 

3. Recognise the efforts of other team members 

Most people love receiving recognition for a job well done. So when collaborating with others, make sure to praise your colleagues either privately or in front of the whole team. 

Recognition is a key part of creating a positive work environment. If you give credit where it’s due, you’ll be more enjoyable to work with. You will also be helping to create a healthy culture of collaboration.  

4. Seek out different perspectives and keep an open mind 

Being able to work with a wide range of people is a key part of having good collaboration skills. You need to be willing to seek out new perspectives at work. In doing so, you’ll be able to see all sides of an issue and find the best solution.  

Other members of your team will have skills, experience and insight that you may not. As such, it’s good to talk to people who are experts in certain areas, or come from an industry or background you’re less familiar with. 

By demonstrating an inclusive attitude and effective teamwork mentality, you’ll only improve the outcome of your projects and increase the chances of their success. 

5. Be an active listener 

As Marc Burrage, Managing Director for Hays Asia, discusses in his blog on improving your communication skills: “Success in the workplace is about collaboration, which is extremely difficult to achieve when one colleague refuses to listen to another’s point of view”. 

Active listening involves more than just paying attention to a speaker. By giving the speaker your full attention and minimising distractions you can better interpret their tone, word choice and body language. This will help you to better understand your team members’ thoughts and avoid conflict with those around you.

If you’re not in the same physical workspace as your team members, it’s easier to do this through regular calls, rather than via written message or email. Add milestone meetings into your diaries to ensure that everybody’s voice is heard and stay on track with the tasks that have been delegated.

Want to learn more about building your teamwork skills and other essential soft skills? 

How to improve communication skills in 10 steps What are people skills and why are they important? What are soft skills that will help you find a job? 

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