Teamwork
Working well in a team means:
Working with a group of people to achieve a shared goal or outcome in an effective way
Listening to other members of the team
Taking everyone’s ideas on board, not just your own
Working for the good of the group as a whole
Having a say and sharing responsibility
A successful team is one where everyone’s unique skills and strengths help the team achieve a shared goal in the most effective way.
If you have good people skills you’ll make a good team player, and skills like communication and having a positive attitude make a team great.
How you're developing your TEAMWork skills
You may not notice it, but you're probably already doing a lot of things that show you're a good team player. If you're not, then here are some suggestions of how and when you can develop your teamwork.
Always listening to other members of the team
Playing team sport and celebrating each team member's achievements
Taking responsibility for something as a group e.g. your behaviour as a class / a group project
Taking responsibility for the individual tasks assigned to you within a team
Completing a project with a team to the best possible standards and within the deadline
Completing your fair share of the work in any team project
Helping team mates out when needed
Always being on time and being a reliable person that team mates can trust
Contribute to decision making and encouraging others to contribute
Helping to resolve any conflict within a team
Reflecting on your team's progress and making suggestions for improvements
Offering to bring in any external expertise or resources that you have for your team's benefit
develop your Teamwork
By using online resources you can look further into how to develop your teamwork and read about other successful teams and get advice on what to do when things don't go to plan.
To develop your teamwork, take a look at the links below. You can keep track of anything you do to develop your employability skills on UNIFROG.
Build your evidence
You need to be able to prove to future employers or universities that you have the skills they want. Try preparing an example answer to the question: "Tell us about a time you've shown great Teamwork?" OR "What role do you typically play in a team, can you give us an example?"
Use the STARRS technique:
Situation
Explain the situation you were in.
Aim to answer the questions ‘what/where/when’, for example, “In the third year of my business studies degree” or “when I was working as a retail assistant in a shop last summer”.
Task
What did you do, and what did the task or role involve?
Explain your tasks and responsibilities briefly.
Action
What did YOU do to meet the objective of/complete the task?
You might want to cover what you did and how you did it, including what skills you used.
Result
What was the outcome?
Did you make a difference?
Can you quantify this?
Reflection
What did you do well?
What didn’t go as well as you’d hoped?
Strengthen
After reflection, what would you have done differently?
What could have been improved to achieve an even greater success?