Team Skills You Need to Thrive at Work This Year and Beyond

Sophia Belnap

If you want to thrive in your professional life, you need to figure out how to work well on a team. While improving as an individual can help you to a certain extent, it is critically important to know how to work with others. Even for jobs that function with a high level of autonomy and freedom, you need to be able to collaborate and build partnerships. If you want to thrive at work and boost your expertise as a team player this year and into the future, here are a few skills that you need to work on mastering.

Digital Competency

Today’s jobs require some level of digital skills regardless of what industry you are in. Whether you are responding to emails, using videoconferencing software, communicating on a chat system or operating management software systems, you need some level of competency. This will have a significant impact on how you work with your coworkers. Without this vital skill, you can become a hindrance to daily activities and essential operations. Continuing to invest time and energy into building your digital skills can help you stay afloat and thrive in a competitive labor market, on teams in any field and in your professional pursuits.

Active Listening

While many professionals understand the importance of listening, there are far too few who know how to do it well. Learning to listen attentively will help you become a better team member. If you can silence your mind and your words so that you truly hear the other person, you can better understand what is being conveyed to you, making you a more effective communication partner.

Communication

Although listening is an essential element of your professional skillset, so are other forms of communication. Learning how to become an effective communicator means mastering both receipt of the incoming messages and the conveyance of messages, in multiple formats. It is also the determining the right medium and format to communicate. These skills can help you boost your level of professionalism, increase your efficiency and improve the daily interactions on your team and beyond.

Enthusiasm

Enthusiasm may seem like a superfluous skill on a team; however, learning how to be a cheerleader and to celebrate others can have a positive impact. Employees are individual people who want to be seen and encouraged. This helps make work more bearable and it can also boost team morale. By contributing to better work culture, you can see boosted productivity, improved employee satisfaction and increased retention.

Respect

Although respect may seem like a fundamental and obvious element of any team, it is far too often overlooked. It is the foundation for healthy work culture, and you can play a pivotal part in developing this atmosphere. Showing mutual respect in daily tasks and collaborative efforts is crucial. While there are certainly influences from the top down, the interactions on teams and between coworkers have a stronger influence than you may realize.

Mission-Driven Thinking

Keeping your organization’s mission, vision and values top of mind will help you stay on track. Whether you are making choices about long-term projects or daily tasks, being mindful of the mission is a guiding light. Being able to bring that to a team can help you keep yourself and your whole on the right course. While you may not have a step-by-step directional map, mission-driven thinking can help guide you. If you can use this logic at work and on your teams, you can stand out as a true professional rockstar.

If you want to thrive as a professional, you need to figure out how to navigate teams. While you can hone your professional skills, you need these essential elements. Let yourself stand out as a stellar professional and exemplary team player, and you’ll flourish in your professional life.