11 Ways to Encourage Team Effectiveness [+ Free Template]

It’s any leadership team’s goal to have an effective team so the organization is meeting their business objectives in the most productive way possible. When a team works more effectively together, this collaboration improves problem-solving, decision making, trust, well-being, and clarity among employees. Work effectiveness comes down to the output of tasks being completed and the quality of these tasks. Team effectiveness is related to work culture, differing work environments, and different styles of management. Any leader should want to improve team efficacy because it will boost productivity and ensure that the team is hitting goals in the most effective way possible. 

• What is team effectiveness? 
• Why is team effectiveness important? 
• 11 ways to encourage team effectiveness 
• Free team meeting agenda templates

What is team effectiveness? 

Team effectiveness is how successful your team is at attaining organizational goals while also considering the quality of the work being completed. In this way, team effectiveness relates directly to productivity, performance, collaboration between team members, quality of communication, and the clarity that each employee has regarding the tasks they take on. If your team is effective, you know with confidence that you’ll be on track and on time with the completion of tasks and projects. Moreover, you’ll feel confident about the quality of the work being completed. 

Why is team effectiveness important? 

Team effectiveness is important because it dictates the productivity of the team and your ability to attain important objectives, goals, and milestones. It’s also important because it boosts trust, clarity, and the ability to collaborate. These are all essential skills of an effective team and of an effective business, and they should be taught, practiced, and demonstrated by any leadership team. Essentially, if you have an effective team you’ll hit goals more quickly, more effectively, and with less obstacles along the way. When your team is effective, it means that you can give more responsibility and more ambiguity to your team members, trusting that the outcome will be more than satisfactory. This trust in your employees’ work will motivate and encourage them even further. 

11 ways to encourage team effectiveness 

• Give and receive regular feedback 
• Foster a psychologically safe environment
• Give your team autonomy
• Communicate clear expectations 
• Set and track OKRs  
• Encourage teamwork 
• Promote accountability 
• Be transparent 
• Run team bonding activities 
• Host team meetings
• Reward team members 

1Give and receive regular feedback 

Ensure that you’re giving regular feedback to your employees, while also making it known that you would like to hear their feedback on your management. Giving and receiving regular feedback will foster better alignment and improve communications, allowing you and your team to be more effective in finding success. Foster a culture of continuous feedback so you can promote open, honest, and productive professional relationships. With Fellow, you can both give and receive feedback in meetings and on projects that you can track over time. 

2Foster a psychologically safe environment

Ensuring that your work environment is psychologically safe is essential for your team to be effective. For individuals to operate as their highest selves, they need to feel safe at work giving feedback, being honest, giving suggestions, and coming to leadership with any questions or concerns they have. If someone doesn’t feel comfortable doing these things, it’s very difficult to be effective because they’re holding back. Instead, if someone feels comfortable being themself and speaking their mind without feeling like they’ll be put down or ridiculed, they’ll be able to work more effectively since their well-being isn’t being compromised if they’re working in a supportive, safe environment. 

3Give your team autonomy

Giving your team more autonomy may boost team effectiveness because it shows your team members that you trust them and that you believe in their skills and abilities. When you give more autonomy to your team, your team members are able to take initiative, practice new skills, problem solve independently, and grow their confidence in themselves. If you have a team of individuals who work as self-starters, believe in themselves, and can tackle issues before coming to you or another team member, you’re also going to have a more productive and more effective team. 

4Communicate clear expectations 

It’s important to communicate clear expectations from the get-go with your team members. Ensure that every time you’re assigning a new task or responsibility, or starting a new project, you clearly communicate what needs to be done, why it needs to be done, how it needs to be done, and by when it needs to be completed. Providing these clear expectations improves team effectiveness because when everyone is on the same page, you can push forward with completing tasks, therefore getting more done. Because there will be a lesser need for employees to clarify instructions or ask questions, work will be completed in a much more timely manner. 

5Set and track OKRs  

Another great way of boosting team effectiveness is to set and track your team’s objectives and key results (OKRs). Setting and tracking OKRs is a great way to ensure that you’re updated on your team’s progress at every stage so you can ensure that you’re on track to achieve your organizational goals. Because the entire team has access to and is aware of the OKRs, they can boost collaboration amongst your team as team members seek to support one another in achieving the team’s goals. When you set and track OKRs, you improve team effectiveness because your team is more aligned and has great clarity regarding what needs to be achieved.

6Encourage teamwork 

Encourage employees to work together. Collaboration will make your team more effective because when you consider and integrate the ideas, suggestions, concerns, views, and opinions of several individuals, you’re able to think outside of the box and be creative and innovative in your decision-making process. Not only does teamwork improve communication between team members, but it also improves trust and employees’ ability to effectively work with others. Frequent collaboration will make attaining your goals more timely and will make you more productive as you support one another in achieving success. 

7Promote accountability 

Team effectiveness is improved when you promote accountability and instill this value as a part of your company culture. Holding others accountable ensures that each team member is on top of their workload, their responsibilities, and their respective due dates. A great way to promote accountability is by assigning action items to team members at the end of every meeting. Begin with identifying a task that needs to be completed, then assign a specific person or a few people to own the task. Next, assign a specific due date so everyone understands how to manage their time. At the beginning of each subsequent meeting, go over the action items from the previous week so you hold each person accountable for their responsibilities. 

8Be transparent 

If you’re in a management or leadership position, it’s extremely important for you to be transparent with your team. The more knowledge your team has, the more they use it to help them in their work and thus, the more effective they can be. Moreover, being transparent shows that you’re open, honest, and authentic, which sets an important example for the rest of the team. Transparency also boosts trust between you and your teammates, so you can work even more effectively together. 

9Run team bonding activities 

Team bonding activities can be especially effective if you feel like you’re in a place with your team where you’ve hit a roadblock and need to use something a little more non-traditional to reignite your team’s effectiveness. Doing these activities is a way of building even stronger relationships with your team so you feel more comfortable with them and can therefore be more effective as you collaborate, problem solve, brainstorm, and continue to work towards goals together. Even though team bonding activities can feel a little awkward at first, they truly are great for getting the conversation going and allowing everyone to feel like they know their coworkers on more of a personal level. 

10Host team meetings

Host team meetings on a regular basis. Doing so will ensure that everyone is on the same page and feels aligned to work towards achieving the goals that have been set. Team meetings provide a great opportunity to find better alignment across the team and foster a space where employees can ask questions, voice concerns, or give their suggestions. Team meetings will also create more cohesion between team members, making them more effective as they collaborate on tasks and projects.

11Reward team members 

Recognition and rewards are another way of boosting team effectiveness because they motivate and encourage team members to continue meeting a particular standard. Consider incorporating a reward or a recognition plan for your organization so there’s a model to follow for every employee that is fair for everyone. When team members are rewarded for a job well done, they’ll seek to be as effective as they were the last time they were congratulated for their work.

Free team meeting agenda templates

Check out these three team meeting agenda templates that we’ve put together for you to help you boost your team’s effectiveness. Each one is tailored to make your team more effective and more productive so you can hit your goals with confidence and ease! 

Parting advice

Team effectiveness is essential to meeting your organizational goals and ensuring that you’re continuously on track and on time with your deliverables. If you want your team to be more effective, it’s important to give and receive regular feedback, foster a psychologically safe environment, give your team autonomy, communicate clear expectations, set and track your team’s OKRs, promote accountability while being transparent, run team bonding activities, host regular team meetings, and reward employees for a job well done.