When building a new team, an obstacle you, as the team leader, will face is expectations and behaviors not conducive to team work – especially if your team is diverse or competitive. You can overcome these challenges by establishing guidelines for team conduct early on in the team-building stage. This will improve your chances of building a unified team. When everyone is following the same guidelines, competitive tendencies tend to dissipate and team members get along better, focusing their efforts and ambitions on achieving team goals.Establishing a code of conduct that all team members agree to and commit to offers several team benefits:

• it outlines expected behavior
• it promotes shared responsibility for team accomplishments
• it decreases misunderstandings, and
• it increases productivity

You can write effective guidelines by applying three basic criteria: write guidelines using one clear, concise sentence; state guidelines in a positive way; and make sure guidelines are actionable.Guidelines for team conductAll team interactions should be guided by what's best for the team. A code of conduct can help guide acceptable behaviors and actions, helping to create a high-performance team. Team success depends largely on the code of conduct being followed. So, as team leader, it's important that you set a good example by following guidelines yourself. Leading by example will help to establish the credibility of the guidelines and demonstrate the expectation that everyone must follow them.There are several other types of guidelines that every team should develop to address areas of team behavior:

• etiquette for team meetings – Establishing guidelines for meeting etiquette helps you manage meetings so they remain as productive as possible. Meeting etiquette guidelines involve attendance, interruptions, confidentiality, and action orientation.
• open approach to communication – As team leader, you need to create a team atmosphere where team members feel comfortable contributing and sharing. Because team members must work closely to achieve team goals, they must be able to work harmoniously while being productive. Work to make sure your team is free from critical and damaging communication, such as sarcasm, ridicule, and any other counterproductive behavior.
• handling conflict – Some team leaders hope they can avoid conflict on their teams, but this isn't realistic. Conflicts over schedules, priorities, resources, and different approaches to work are common and you need to be prepared to handle them. When your team is locked in a conflict, you can use three approaches to handling conflict: compromising, collaborating, and confronting.
• decision making – Because decision making is done by the team, not a higher authority, it tends to be more complex than in nonteam situations. As team leader, you must work with your team to establish a decision-making process. Part of this is deciding who'll make decisions and who'll be accountable for them. It's important to establish a decision-making process early on to avoid conflict. Conflict within a team impacts productivity and can potentially lead to the failure to meet team objectives.

Set the stage for team success by establishing guidelines for expected and acceptable team behavior as soon as possible during team development. Effective guidelines are written using one clear, concise sentence; are stated in a positive way; and are actionable. Because all teams are unique, the codes of conduct that guide their behavior and actions are also unique. As you develop a code of conduct, make sure you create guidelines to cover these four areas: etiquette for team meetings, an open approach to communication, handling conflict, and decision making.