In 2016, teamwork has become of paramount importance to the success of a company. The problem is, this isn’t always an easy task. The increased use of technology has led more and more employees to work remotely and in multiple teams. And when a company doesn’t have collaboration and teamwork, it often ends up with a collection of silos that can lead to inconsistencies, narrow viewpoints, and competition between groups. This inevitably ends up in lost opportunities—and lost money.
To help you stay ahead of your competition and create the company culture you’ve always wanted, we wanted to share some of our favorite advice we’ve heard. Enjoy, and let us know what worked in your company!
By offering training or providing learning opportunities on an ongoing basis, you can strengthen team members’ skills and capabilities for consistent growth and development. Also, you can assign mentors or hire an external professional coach to develop specific skills and competencies within the team as well as individuals.
Lei Han, @bemycareercoach
It’s only natural for teams to be cohesive. In fact, those teams are usually the best ones as they bring in a pool of talent and fresh ideas, which when combined help a business thrive. However, you need to be very careful while managing team dynamics as relationships are not always harmonious, regardless of how small the team is.
Sébastien Boyer, @BoyerSebastien
This clear direction and agreement on mission and purpose is essential for effective teamwork. Team members must have an overall mission that is agreed upon and that provides the umbrella for all that the team tries to do. This team clarity is reinforced when the organization has clear expectations for the team’s work, goals, accountability, and outcomes.
Susan Heathfield, @SusanHeathfield
Make sure your team knows exactly where they are needed and what is required of them. This will exterminate the possibilities of excuses such as “I didn’t know it was my job” and “That ISN’T my job.” Having clear cut roles leads your team to be more productive.
Josiah Motley, @Josiah_Motley
Moods are infectious. If you feel passionate about a project, initiative, or idea, go to the mountain top!
This will rally your team members and get them excited about what they’re doing (or, push them to do work they really care about).
Tatyana Sussex, @TatyanaSussex
What’s one of the easiest ways to make team members lose their faith in teamwork? By restricting their autonomy and level of power to make decisions that allow them to accomplish their tasks.
When it comes to decision-making, you often rely on the knowledge of your team members, which is why collaboration is becoming an essential ingredient for success. Collaborative leadership is about skillful management of relationships that enable the team members to succeed individually while also accomplishing a mutual objective. Giving the team the power to make decisions is a great motivation for effective teamwork and to bring about radical change.
Külli Koort, @KylliKoort
When employees are properly trained, motivated and coached, clearly understand what is expected of them, have the information they need to perform effectively and are rewarded in appropriate ways, they will perform better and be more productive.
Decisions need to be made at the lowest level by empowering people, the organization’s greatest asset. Leaders need to coach, challenge and confront inappropriate behavior while providing continual feedback on performance in addition to setting a good example. They also need to connect with their people and help them identify areas in which to improve.
Jerry S. Siege, @JASBManagement
If the receptionist doesn’t request the correct insurance information from the patient at check-in, it will make the medical biller’s job a lot more difficult when processing the bills. If everyone values each other’s roles, they will work better as a team.
Listen and encourage employees to have new ideas on how to function better as a team. Encourage open communication among the team to improve processes. Make sure to incorporate feedback from employees on the front lines since they usually can identify better ways to operate.
Nancy Mobley, @InsightPerf
Competition is a great way of improving performance, but it needs to be done in the right way.
We don’t want to set individuals or teams competing against each other as ultimately that’s not good for overall morale. We want to have them competing against themselves, against last year’s performance or benchmarks set by other companies.
That way we can get everyone pulling in the same direction, and if we do that, correctly it will also help to boost both collaboration and competition.
The best way to achieve that is to have team and company bonuses aligned around the same goals. In this case, the team gets its first bonus when they hit their team’s contribution towards the overall goal, and then they receive a second bonus, ideally a bigger bonus, when the company or department achieve its goal.
Gordon Tredgold, @gordontredgold
Once a business starts building a team, it can be difficult to find the right work environment for each employee. Some of your employees will need isolation to fully focus, while others will thrive off the collaborative environment of the modern open office. Create a space that combines standing desks with comfortable couches and enclaves for individual work, then encourage employees to move around throughout the day as their work needs change.
Drew Hendricks, @DrewAHendricks