Your team performs well some days and struggles on others. Or maybe you feel overwhelmed because they won’t stop complaining about each other, and you’re tired of playing referee and wishing they’d just get along. So you consider team-building activities, or bringing in a team-building expert. And if you’ve tried those — my guess is they worked for a while, and then you found yourself right back where you started. So what can you actually do?
This might sound like I’m anti team building, so let me be clear: I’m all for it. It’s one of the most important investments a manager can make. What I want to share in this blog are the aspects of team building that usually don’t get discussed when managers plan for it — and, in my view, these are the ones that make a fundamental difference.
1. Team building means building team skills
Effective teamwork rests on some basic team skills. Helping your people develop the knowledge and skills to work in teams is what makes them more effective — they can learn tools and frameworks, then practise applying them to real situations. Like any new skill, it’s bumpy at first, and people improve with practice and feedback. So if there’s no skill-building happening during your team building, you’re unlikely to see any lasting impact. This is where structured team building activities for work earn their keep — not as one-off events, but as practice grounds for real skills.
2. Create psychological safety
One of your essential skills as a leader is creating psychological safety for your team. That means building an environment where honest conversations are possible — without judgment, ridicule, or threat. People feel hurt or insecure when the atmosphere is full of finger-pointing and blame. They feel unappreciated in feedback sessions, or worry that admitting a mistake or asking for help just exposes their incompetence. In an unsafe team, people won’t take responsibility or share ideas.
That’s why psychological safety at work is critical to building teams. As a manager, learn how to create it, and encourage your people to have open dialogue with each other without any fear of retribution.
3. Use self-accountable communication
Self-accountable communication is about taking charge of your deliverables and holding yourself accountable for the actions that help the team reach its goals. When each member communicates this way, they learn how they personally contribute to the organization’s success. It helps people see what’s within their control and how they can influence others toward meaningful collaboration — and it orients the whole team toward solutions rather than blame.
4. Be specific with your communication
This is about expressing yourself in a way that compels people to listen and act in ways that help the team get results. A reliable tool here is the STATE model — used well, it reduces negativity in the team and builds personal accountability.
5. Make team building part of your routine
Find a way to keep the concepts and practices of team building top of mind — because team building isn’t an activity, it’s a journey. And you can’t do it alone; it’s a partnership with your team members. One of the best ways to make it routine is to get mentored and coached on it, and to have your team coached as well.
Coaching is an increasingly popular form of on-the-job learning, precisely because building teams and changing behaviour aren’t event-driven — they’re journeys of personal growth. Coaching grows self-awareness, which puts each person in the driver’s seat of how they show up. If you’re serious about how to build a strong team, this is what turns a one-time effort into lasting change.
If you’d like support with a team-building initiative, or training on this subject to improve your team’s performance and bonding, write to me — team building coaching is one of the areas I work in most.
