10 Skills You Need for Team Building (And How To Develop Them)

Updated 4 September 2023

Team-building skills are the key proficiencies that allow professionals to function well when collaborating on group projects. These skills can help professional teams become more efficient and improve workplace culture. Because most professionals need to work together with their coworkers, it is important to develop team-building skills. In this article, we define team-building skills and share methods on how to develop them, plus provide a list of 10 examples.

How to develop team-building skills

Managers and other leaders within a company are usually responsible for helping their team develop their team-building skills. Here are some methods you can use to do so in the workplace:

1. Host meetings

Consider hosting a series of meetings with the team to ensure everyone on the team feels comfortable with each other. At these meetings, you can clarify each professional's role on the team and introduce everyone. Consider developing an icebreaker exercise to help start the meetings and allow the team to bond. It can be helpful to plan a series of meetings where you can use the time to socialise or share details on your work to develop closer and more effective relationships.

2. Hire external help

Companies can hire professional consultants to help improve the skills of you and your team members. These consultants can have a variety of approaches, including leading presentations on certain team-building skills, creating development exercises and providing counselling and mediation to teams. These practices help team remembers understand and respect each other while developing valuable skills.

While there are many external consultants who can offer these services, you can also ask a human resources professional to help build the skills of a team. This may be a good option for teams who want to minimise their spending but still benefit from an outside perspective of their professional group.

3. Participate in group activities

There are many team-building activities you and your team members can participate in to strengthen your relationships. These activities can range from completing professional tasks together to hosting social events. Team-building exercises often can create bonds within a group and encourage team members to support and trust each other. These activities can also help each professional feel like a valued member of the team, as they get the chance to take part and share their opinions.

4. Complete training together

Another way to develop team-building skills is to complete a training course regarding a specific skill together. This helps ensure each team member expands their skill set and provides a support system for each professional as they learn. To decide which training programs to enrol in, evaluate the performance of the team to determine which skill they would benefit the most from learning. Consider also sending out a survey in which your team can vote on the skill they want to develop. This can help ensure that each team member feels invested in training.

10 examples of team building

It is helpful to consider examples of team-building skills to help you decide which abilities to develop. Here are some examples of the skills you might want to develop with a professional team:

1. Empathy

Empathy is important because it allows you to understand the feelings and motives of your fellow team members. By taking the time to understand others, you can gain insight into their needs and struggles, allowing you to work and communicate with them more effectively. Consider other professionals' points of view when working together and act accordingly. This can help you bond with your teammates and promote a healthier workplace culture.

2. Reliability

When building a team, the members need to be able to trust that you are there to guide them. When others have faith in you, they are more likely to reciprocate this level of respect and reliability. Building a team in which each member trusts the abilities of others can help improve the workplace culture, productivity and the development of other professional skills, such as delegation.

To exercise your reliability skills, try to help your coworkers when they need it and establish set periods of the day in which you are available to communicate with others. It is also important to participate in group activities to establish your desire to be on the team.

3. Delegation

Delegation makes projects more efficient, ensuring that the team can accomplish its goals in a timely manner. In order to be a great team builder, you have to be able to assign each team member with their individual responsibilities in a way that is clear and concise. Delegation skills allow you to clarify team goals and assign tasks to professionals with the most applicable expertise. Because mastering this skill allows you to express clear expectations of the project's schedule and deadline with your coworkers, delegation also helps you build time-management skills. This helps you meet project deadlines and increase productivity.

4. Communication

When uniting a team, possessing strong communication skills is essential because these skills allow you to express important concepts in a way that is clear and concise so that everyone can understand. To be an effective communicator, you have to be as specific and clear as possible when communicating, but it is equally important to be an excellent listener.

Active listening refers to the ability to focus on the speaker, pay attention to their nonverbal cues and respond appropriately. Listening to your coworkers' concerns, suggestions and questions can help you ensure that everyone on the team understands their assignments and feels like a valued member of the group.

5. Motivation

Motivational skills include the ability to encourage others to complete their work and building the drive to complete your own daily tasks. Having motivation skills can also help you and your team members feel more prepared and eager to complete a project. When team members are excited about and invested in a project, they are typically more engaged with the process. This encourages you and your coworkers to improve the quantity and quality of their production, which is why it is such an important aspect of team building.

6. Collaboration

Collaboration is a crucial team-building skill to develop because it allows you to interact and work well with others. This skill includes sharing and discussing creative ideas and trading feedback with your coworkers. Collaborative processes can depend on the type of project on which you are working. For example, you might need to collaborate with a team member during every step of the project or complete one stage of an assignment independently so your coworker can complete the next stage of the process.

Collaboration skills often require emotional intelligence, strong communication skills and a willingness to share ideas and tools with others.

7. Leadership

As a team builder, you often have to take on a leadership role within the group, which means that you establish the team's goals, counsel members that are having difficulties and make decisions when issues arise. To become a better leader, identify your leadership style and pay attention to the needs of your group. This can help you provide effective guidance and maintain peace within the team. Good leaders can often positively influence workplace culture and motivate others to remain productive.

8. Problem-solving

Solving problems is often a key aspect of team building. A variety of issues can arise throughout a project, including interpersonal conflicts and problems related to the team's goals. As a team builder, you should be able to address both types of issues in a way that enables the group to continue to work well together and accomplish its objectives.

9. Positivity

Being positive at work can often help boost the morale of your coworkers and maintain a healthy workplace culture. Positivity skills help build teams by motivating others and expressing gratitude for others' work. Other professionals also might be more inclined to collaborate with you if you maintain a positive attitude. This skill can ensure that you reduce stress in problem-solving situations and help improve the teamwork experience for others.

10. Accountability

Accountability means you accept responsibility for your actions and tasks and recognise when your behaviour might have affected a project. Being an accountable team member can help build your reliability skills and promote others to do the same. Teams with accountable professionals can often remain more productive because team members accept responsibility for their tasks.

Accountability skills also help professionals acknowledge their mistakes and communicate them to others, which helps increase the efficiency of the problem-solving process because the team can address the issue sooner. This also allows others to understand what the mistake is and how they can learn from it with you.