Important Teamwork Skills and How to Improve Yours

Teamwork skills are the skills you draw upon when you are working with others, like communication, collaboration, and negotiation. These skills can be helpful in any type of partnership, whether it's in your personal or professional life. Plus, employers are particularly keen to hire job candidates with strong teamwork skills.

According to a survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE), teamwork skills are among the top attributes employers seek on resumes [1]. Additionally, the ability to work with others is a common theme across several of the top skills of 2023 identified in the World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report [2].

Explore impactful teamwork skills and offer tips for enhancing yours and those of your teammates.

What are teamwork skills?

You can show that you’re a team player in many ways, all of which relate to your ability and willingness to effectively work with others. Teamwork skills are often considered workplace skills—or soft skills. These skills are more about the way you work and less about the actual work you do.

Teamwork is essential in the workplace, but it’s equally important outside of work. Sharing the load can increase emotional support and reduce burnout in your professional and personal life.

Let's take a closer look at some examples of teamwork skills. Keep in mind that although you may use some of these skills individually, a strong collaborator will likely employ several of these skills simultaneously.

Communication

Communication skills have to do with conveying thoughts and information in a clear way, both verbally and nonverbally. In order to work well with others, it's important to be able to communicate effectively, whether you're ideating, planning, or presenting your team's work.

Learn more: What Is Effective Communication? Skills for Work, School, and Life

Communication is necessary for good teamwork!

Communication is a crucial component of teamwork because you need to communicate your common goals with others and determine how you will achieve those goals as a team. Good communication can help you make good decisions about how to proceed, help keep everyone on the team engaged, keep project stress low, and deliver on your goals.

Listening

Listening skills go hand-in-hand with communication skills. In order to build rapport with your teammates, you need to be able to both receive insights from others and offer your own thoughts. Active listening is the ability to focus on what other people are saying, hone in on their message and tone, and react with empathy.

Watch this video from the University of Pennsylvania to learn how to strengthen your active listening skills:

Time management

Time management skills are about remaining organized, prioritizing, and delegating tasks to reach your goals in a timely fashion. With strong time management skills, you can show that you are a reliable teammate while also reducing your own stress around deadlines.

Learn more: What Is Time Management? 6 Strategies to Better Manage Your Time

Problem-solving

Problem-solving skills involve using critical thinking or creativity to deal with challenges and navigate risks that may arise as you work toward your team goals. To be an effective problem-solver, you typically need to be able to analyze a situation, assess potential solutions, and determine your best path forward.

Negotiation

Negotiation skills are about finding common ground in disagreement and working toward a satisfying solution. When you're working on a team, the ability to balance different perspectives can help maintain a peaceful work environment, empower your teammates to bring their ideas forward and enable everyone to discover the best possible solutions for your goals.

Collaboration

Collaboration skills have to do with your ability to use all of your teamwork skills at the same time. Some ways to be a good collaborator are to contribute productively, communicate, listen, and show that you are a reliable and fair teammate. With collaboration, you can build strong relationships, work through conflicts, develop trust, and effectively work toward your common goal.

Why is it important to improve your teamwork skills?

You will inevitably have to work as part of a team at some point in your life. At work, you may collaborate with others to complete projects. At home, you might work with family or friends to accomplish specific goals. Collaboration is a fundamental part of the human experience and a driving force in your ability to successfully meet your goals and objectives. Honing your teamwork skills can also help you build rapport and deeper relationships with others, add to your resume, and uncover new opportunities.

How does improving teamwork in the workplace help you?

Even if you work independently and complete most of your duties on your own, keeping the organization's goals, objectives, and needs is critical. You must also communicate with leaders and others working in the company to ensure they are aware of your accomplishments and progress. That's a form of teamwork all on its own.

No matter your role, working well with other people is vital to success in the workplace. Improving your teamwork abilities can help set you apart while helping you move the company closer to its goals.

How to improve teamwork skills

Teamwork is among the skills employers often seek in candidates. It’s a skill that can benefit you outside the office. It can take time to improve your teamwork skills and teamwork in the workplace as a whole. These steps can help get you moving in the right direction.

Clearly state the team’s purpose and goals.

Having goals keeps everything moving forward. Set personal goals to create your own achievable objectives and timelines for achieving them. The team at large should also have goals to keep everyone working toward common objectives. Everyone involved must understand what those goals are, why working together is essential to meeting them, and how each team member can help the team achieve its purpose.

Define team member roles clearly.

The team's structure and size are essential, and everyone should be clear about the structure, their roles, and why they have those tasks. Everyone brings unique strengths to the table, which can create a strong, effective team. Understanding your role helps you use your strengths and motivation for the good of the group. Remember, having defined roles is critical, but so is operating with a team mentality where you and everyone else work toward your shared purpose and goals.

Communicate.

Communication is critical. Both written and oral communication skills facilitate collaboration by allowing you to talk about expectations and progress, write reports and overviews, and talk openly about the team's objectives. Given the recent uptick in remote work and virtual communications, this skill has become even more critical for successful teamwork.

Promote positive mindsets.

Staying positive allows you to adapt to changes and tackle challenges more readily, while helping others remain more engaged too. Positive outlooks typically yield positive output. Conversely, complaining can destroy morale and upset those around you, with productivity often suffering along with your team’s mindset.

Use collaboration tools.

Given the number of people working remotely or adopting hybrid (partially in-office and partially remote) work schedules, collaboration tools are arguably more important than ever for keeping teams working cohesively no matter where they are. Tools like instant messaging facilitate quick chats, Microsoft Teams and Zoom help with meetings, and Slack provides a platform with messaging, file transfers, and other features.

Mediate conflict right away.

Left unresolved, small arguments and conflicts can become significant issues that erode trust and team spirit. Effective teamwork relies on prompt conflict management. Remain empathetic and keep the team's shared goals in mind as you navigate the way forward. Avoid placing blame on others or allowing other team members to blame each other in favor of fostering a learning-based team culture.

Be flexible.

Very few things go precisely according to plan. When you work as part of a team, you’ll need to effectively adapt to changes and resolve conflicts. Remaining flexible will mitigate any harm to a harmonious group dynamic. This can also help strengthen your relationships while remaining steadfast despite possible obstacles.

Avoid micromanaging.

Leadership helps foster effective teamwork. It's also a skill you can cultivate while working within a team. However, micromanaging, or trying to control all aspects of the process and your team, can damage relationships and hinder productivity. Micromanaging can also cause mistrust and limit the team's ability to grow. Reflect on your own behavior to remain aware, but also ask for feedback from your team members to get a handle on the type of team member you are.

Celebrate wins.

Instead of focusing on the negatives, celebrating wins builds a positive dynamic and a cohesive team spirit. In addition to rewarding successes and providing recognition for positive performance, sharing others’ victories and giving pep talks as needed to keep morale and motivation high is vital.

Explore how to develop teamwork skills on Coursera

Build your effectiveness at working in groups with Teamwork Skills: Communicating Effectively in Groups from the University of Colorado Boulder on Coursera. Learn to make better decisions, manage conflict, negotiate, and improve communication in virtual environments. Do you lead a team? Enhance your leadership abilities with High Performance Collaboration: Leadership, Teamwork, and Negotiation from Northwestern.