The importance of good team dynamics

Every team has a unique dynamic that will lead to success or failure. Examining the relationships between team members is important because it will show you how they work together and what can be done to produce better results.

The key to a successful team is one that is able to cooperate to achieve the same goal while knowing its own role. Note, however, that this is not the same as a homogeneous team, where all players share the same background. Teams made up of introverted and extroverted players, creative and analytical, detail oriented and big picture oriented are beneficial because they lead to new perspectives and innovative thinking.

To understand how much team dynamics affect performance, let’s take Team 1. In this team, we have four members who have come together to complete projects as they come in by department.

When you watch this team from afar, you may see a team that consistently produces high-quality work in a timely manner. But what happens when you analyze each player individually?

• Jeff is a hard-working person who likes to get work done the moment it arrives instead of waiting until the last minute.
• Mike has just been transferred to this team and is not as comfortable with his colleagues.
• Kathy sees working on this team as an opportunity to prove her worth and continue moving up in the company.
• Julie is not that passionate about the work that is being done and does things at her own pace.

You notice that Jeff and Kathy are doing most of the work and trying to push the team forward. The underperforming team members, Mike and Julie, are not as engaged and because the work is getting done regardless, they don’t try as hard. Because of this, Jeff and Kathy begin to feel overworked and stressed. They don’t want poor performance to reflect negatively on them, so they continue to pick up the slack.

An undynamic team, like Team 1, will result in mounting frustration and, ultimately, subpar work. It is the job of team leaders to identify problems in a malfunctioning team and take action to fix them. To keep all your employees’ morale high, stress levels low, and projects successful, make sure your team is able to function well together.