Everyone knows that for a business to run properly, there has to be good communication and there has to be a level of friendliness and banter. People need to feel wanted and needed in the workplace and given that you spend upward of seven hours a day in the same place, it can really help when you get along with your teams. You know that teamwork is crucial for business success, but what are you doing about it?
Whether you are running a company in the Fortune 500 list, or you’re running a small corner store, you need everyone in your business on the same wavelength. One way to do this is to figure out all of the ways that you can bring your team together. Working as a team is based completely on trust; your staff members have to trust one another if they are going to work together effectively, and you have to be a part of cultivating that working relationship. So many managers out there are just completely unaware of what’s necessary to make teamwork happen. The reality is that teamwork in the workplace is a useful thing to have – but only if a leader knows how to do it well!
Once you know why teamwork is so important, you’ll be able to take the right steps to bring your team together. The biggest question? How can it be improved in the workplace? What could you be doing? Let’s take a look at some of the best tips you could need to bring your team together as one.
- Make sure that everyone knows where they stand. Is there ever going to be harmony in your business if people don’t know where they stand with you? Having clearly defined roles is one of the best things that you can do to ensure that your staff have an idea of what is expected of them. Everyone needs to work together but it’s easier to do this when they all know what they should be doing in their day to day. If the workload is distributed unfairly, you are going to see animosity among the troops. Cut that out with letting everyone know their specific roles.
- Encourage meetups outside of work. We all know what it’s like to have a work-spouse. Someone who has your back, and you have their back, and you are there for each other in the workplace. It’s not intimate; it’s friendship and support. You need to start encouraging everyone to have relationships outside of the office. Encourage weekly dinners and drinks and you can budget for these activities so that people get to know each other beyond ‘Stacy in accounts’.
- Make sure that you are asking for help. You are going to need the help of your teammates as much as they will need you. The business that you own can’t run without the people you have hired, and you want the people working for you to feel valued. If you can get people together and work as a team on a project, you’re halfway there. Fostering teamwork is important, and you can do that if you get everyone working together on one thing at a time.
- Communicate. Are you paying attention to your staff and how they feel? If you’re not, you better get started. Communication is key so make sure that you are opening all lines of communication for your staff. Keep online chat boxes open, host a weekly ‘air it out’ meeting and make sure that you use collaboration tools to your advantage.
- Don’t forget to ask for feedback. The only way you’re going to know if you’re doing a good job as a manager is to ask your team how you’re doing. You’d be shocked to hear it if you’re doing a rubbish job as a manager. This way, you can learn how you can be better for the people working for you, which will mean everything for them!
- Choose your team wisely. One of the best ways to guarantee that the people will work well for you is when they work well together. Choosing a team-oriented group of people to work in your business will help you to bring people together very easily. Hiring wisely will also ensure that you get people who will stick with you and want to learn and grow with your business.
- Have fun! Whether you make Friday the day that your employees wear custom t-shirts with your brand and a silly slogan on them, or you choose Monday to be the day you have chair races in the office, you need to be the boss that has a little fun. Is there anything worse than a stuffy boss? Definitely not! You need to be that person you might have wanted to have when you were working for other people. Things like matching hats and t-shirts are fun and ridiculous and that’s what makes them an exceptional way to bring everyone together.
- Develop a shared bigger picture. If you all have the same goals in mind, you’re going to be able to bring everyone together this way. If you all know what you’re working towards, you’re going to be able to enjoy the rewards that come with achieving that shared goal.
- Always celebrate together. When things DO go well in your business, celebrate together as one! You don’t need to have just one person doing well in your business being celebrated. Sure, make sure to give the kudos to those who work hard, but you should also ensure that you remember to bring everyone together as you do it.
- Always share the load. Bringing your team together is not easy but when you make sure that you are all sharing the workload that comes through, you are going to find it far simpler to manage. Sharing the load helps your team to do its best, and if everyone is getting through tasks together and accomplishing goals, you’re going to have a much better time of things as a business. It’s not that you should all do each other’s work, but a shared load is one that you can all cope with together and that makes it easier.
- Stop hovering. Do you want to be that helicopter manager or do you want to trust the fact that the qualified people YOU choose know how to do their jobs? The answer is the latter. You want to show people that you trust their judgement and your employees are all grown adults that should be treated as such. People will always resent you if you’re the sort of manager who can’t just let people do the job you’re paying them for. Keep people a team for good reasons and not because they’ve banded together against you!
- Always have some ground rules. As a business leader, you can be a friend to people, but you are still a boss. You need to have some ground rules for work. The best one that any boss can give is that you don’t care HOW they work, as long as deadlines are met. So if this means people prefer to work outside or at home, so be it. Be as flexible for the people working for you as you would like them to be for you if you needed it.
- Be willing to host brainstorming sessions. If you want your team to contribute to the table, you need to host that table meeting! Give them a platform to speak and make sure that you get everyone involved in the conversation. Keep to the topic, though, as you want to know that everyone is on point with the conversation and it doesn’t go off track too much! You have to be willing to lead these moments if you want to be seen as a great leader who brings the team together.
- Make sure that your business is transparent. It’s very easy to guard all your employees from things that are going on because you’re nervous about how they will respond to things happening day to day. The thing is, the more you guard and protect, the worse off your business will be because people will see you as secretive and sneaky. Working on your transparency in your business will be enough to bring your team together as a solid unit.
- Always work with your people. People will bring their outside problems into the business from time to time. This isn’t an interruption to your company – this is something you need to be paying attention to if you want people to respond well to you as a business leader.
Teamwork may be underrated for some businesses, but it doesn’t have to be for yours. Don’t allow the pull of competition in business to pull your business apart. You need to create an environment that encourages teamwork and that takes time and effort on your part to get it right! Now you know how to bring a team together, what’ll you do next?
