TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More) Part II

The four main stages of building a team
Forming
And that is the beginning of exploration between team members and one another. Exploring their communication style, their professional skills and what they consider as an acceptable behavior among the team.
Storming
The most challenging phase where conflicts and arguments come to the surface. However, it's the most essential stage of forming a team from my point of view, specially when conflicts are about the job at hand not the person. I consider it healthy for it enriches the team experience and give more quality to the outcome.
Norming
This is the stage where everyone starts to put aside the differences and develop a sense of support towards each other, and a sense of focus towards the common goals of the team. The beginning of actual team progress is achieved in this particular stage.
Conforming
Now the team is ONE. More importance is place on accomplishing goals and the team begins to take pride in the progress it makes.

Being familiar with these four stages can relief most of the anxiety caused by your feelings towards working within a team. Understanding these stages will keep you from overreacting towards common problems and prevent you and your teammates from setting unrealistic expectations.