When people work as a team, they build relationships. Strong relationships allow for more productive and meaningful teamwork and collaboration. This cycle highlights the importance of relationships in teamwork. Relationships are developed through teamwork, and relationships allow people to work together in meaningful ways.
Given the importance of building strong relationships, it is essential to consider what skills and behaviors lead to building strong and fulfilling relationships. By helping children develop these skills and behaviors, you are giving them tools to build a successful future that will inevitably require, and be enriched by, building relationships and working with others.
self disclosure
Self-disclosure is an act of revealing your thoughts and perspective on a current situation, or other relevant and significant information, to another person. Sharing personal thoughts is crucial when building relationships in teams. Self-disclosure allows team members to get to know each other better, identify common goals and overlapping values, and once common goals have been identified, allows them to work together to achieve these goals. Just as strong relationships and teams are built through proper self-disclosure, a lack of self-disclosure among team members can result in deteriorating relationships and influence the strength of a team. If one person is silent about her needs, wants, and goals, other team members are likely to do the same; people in relationships tend to match the amount of disclosure that comes from others. A breakdown in communication can lead to a team where members do not work together or do not recognize or value each other’s needs and wants.
Trust
It is well known that trust is the foundation for building and maintaining meaningful and productive relationships. This is certainly true in building relationships within a team, and when trust is established, team members are much more likely to take risks, communicate important information, and share personal thoughts and feelings through self-disclosure. Similar to the concept of self-disclosure, trust levels are matched in relationships, and if an individual takes a risk and trusts others in the group, other team members are more likely to do the same. Feeling that someone else trusts you makes it easier for you to trust that person in return.
Self-disclosure and trust are necessary to build relationships in many different contexts, including sports teams, the workplace, peer groups, and families. If adults can model these skills and behaviors, they will not only have more fulfilling and meaningful relationships, but they will begin to teach their children how to build fulfilling and meaningful relationships in all areas of life.
