Roles and responsibilities are essential for your team for smooth functioning and task completion. It helps to clarify the work among the team members. Ultimately, it improves the productivity of the team members and aligns their focus upon a single task assigned to them.
In this blog, we will discuss the roles and responsibilities of a team, why these roles are important, and how to define them to the team members in order to achieve a goal.
- What are roles and responsibilities?
- Advantages of defining roles and responsibilities
- How to define your team’s roles and responsibilities?
- Responsibilities as a Team Member
- Conclusion
What are roles and responsibilities?
Roles and responsibilities are both necessary for the company’s growth and success. But, how to achieve it? When employees know their responsibilities are suitable to their job role, they are more likely and determined to finish their work on time. The role determines a person’s profile in a team, which indicates the areas of specialization of that person in certain tasks and job roles. In a team, we usually have members that specialize in different roles. Based on those roles, we define the responsibilities that are functions related to their particular role.
Hence, it becomes essential that the team leader should know the team members well to assign them responsibilities that suit their position or roles. For example, What are each employee’s specialty and role? What experience have they related to a specific work? How much time might a particular employee take based upon his or her skill set to complete a specified task? All these questions help a leader to define the roles and responsibilities of the team members.
You might be wondering how to define these roles and responsibilities to the team members and the best way to do that?
Before moving on to these questions, we will discuss their advantages. While defining the roles and responsibilities, one should keep the following points into consideration.
Advantages of defining roles and responsibilities
Roles and responsibilities boost team performance and provide several other benefits that could help your team as a whole. Following are the benefits and advantages that a company would experience by defining their team’s roles and responsibilities.
1. High Performance and Productivity
When each team member knows their duty or job properly, they work with more dedication and fewer distractions. This helps to increase the overall productivity and performance of the team. Everyone in a team should know what is expected from them and what they need to accomplish the team’s goal.
2. Clear and Honest Communication
Communication is necessary to share and discuss your thoughts for the team’s growth. It allows each member to know what has been done till now by the other employees in a team and what part is still left. In a team, communication is essential to develop a sense of fellowship between members. Communication defines how easily and frequently team members interact with each other. In simple words, the more freely you communicate with your fellow team members, the more comfortable you are in sharing insights and views.
3. Having differing Ideas and Opinions
When each team member has their defined roles and responsibilities, it is more likely that they have different opinions and ideas. A wider range of influences and opinions are needed to think outside the box for the company’s growth. This is especially true for tasks that involve creative problem solving, innovation and collaboration. When each team involves members with different experience levels, areas of expertise, and backgrounds, there are incomparably more origins of ideas and opinions. Differing ideas are obtained as team members feel that their opinions and views are meaningful.
4. Increases Collaboration
Collaboration builds a circle of knowledge and learning. It encourages each team member to understand their role. Team members working in collaboration with each other will always have an opportunity to learn from each other. They will have an organizational approach towards learning things and will have a helping environment where each member encourages the other member and optimizes problem-solving.
5. Improves morale and discipline
Team members who are seen as contributors and have their responsibilities defined in a team feel more appreciated. As a result, team members increase their morale and discipline. They feel more confident and motivated towards their work in a team. It will help them to reduce stress while keeping their momentum for work.
6. Straight Task Focus
Each team member should know what his/her roles and responsibilities are. Otherwise, confusion can result and lead to the extra time required for organizing and delegating work. When each employee in a team focuses on one task, it results in greater productivity, lowers stress levels, and hence helps a team to achieve a common goal. In short, dividing tasks helps each employee to stay focused and motivated towards their responsibility instead of taking care of multiple tasks and responsibilities. Single task focus by each employee in a team helps to achieve goals faster.
7. Team Progress
By efficiently delegating necessary tasks and having defined responsibilities, we can progress as a whole team. Employees with clear duties and deadlines have all the tools they require to get the work done and attain success.
Also Read: SMART Goals – Examples of SMART Goals
How to define your team’s roles and responsibilities?
When employees know what they should be working on, they’re more focused and can produce higher-quality content. Following are the points on how to define the roles and responsibilities in your team:
1. Identify what needs to be completed
First of all, as a leader, try to make a plan for all the tasks that need to get completed. It allows you to have a clear idea of all the tasks that you want to get done as a team. Now, delegate the tasks according to the expertise and skill set of the team members. You can do this by making a list of the projects that your team is currently working on or has worked on previously.
2. Recognizing strengths and weaknesses of team members
Knowing the strengths and weaknesses of your team members, you can assign them a task that relates to their strengths. Assign tasks to employees related to their field knowledge or expertise, or interest. This will not create boredom and always keeps an employee motivated towards his or her job. If a particular field is a weakness for any other employee, consider assigning that task to another team member who can perform that task more successfully. This will help your team to work more easily and help them win confidence in knowing they can do what was asked of them.
Also Read: How To Answer “What Are Your Strengths”?
3. Knowing the employee job profile
Have a note of each team member’s job description when you are planning their duties. An employee should be given tasks that adhere to what they were hired for in the first place. It’s also important to take into consideration their interests and past successes. A combination of their job description and their personality will help you better delegate your team’s roles and responsibilities.
4. Get feedback from your team members
Feedback from your team members can help you in many ways. It will help you to encounter the problems that an employee has faced or is facing in your team. So that from next time you would be having a clearer knowledge and idea about your team members and their previous experiences. It will further help you to assign them tasks in a better way than earlier. So, it is always good to take feedback from time to time. Employees put their thoughts and can see their opinions matter, and they feel less pressure and work productively.
5. Communicate the roles and responsibilities to the employees
There is no point in defining the roles and responsibilities of the employees who are not made aware of them. As a leader, make sure each team member should be made aware of what is expected from him or her. You can do this in several ways. You can hold meetings, workshops and can even send a formal email mentioning their responsibilities.
Let’s discuss the responsibilities of a team member for the proper functioning of a team.
Responsibilities as a Team Member
Along with these points, on the other hand, as team members, we should respect our leader’s delegated tasks and should participate actively when we are assigned our work. At the same time, if you feel that you can do the other work perfectly, then ask for it and give your reason why you are best for this work. For the overall team’s success, it is important to communicate your ideas with other team members. Convey your thoughts, collaborate as much as you can, and frequently participate in teamwork. It will ensure that you are in a healthy environment where each member is learning, helping, and growing together.
Conclusion
This brings us to the end of this blog, where we’ve discussed the roles and responsibilities, their advantages, and how to define these roles and responsibilities to your team members to achieve the overall success of your team. I hope it will help you define the roles and responsibilities of your team. Great learning academy provides you with an opportunity to up-skill your knowledge with free online courses & certificates. Head over to Great Learning Academy and upskill today.
