It is amazing what even the smallest business can achieve if they all pull together in the same direction. However, sometimes getting very different people to sing from the same hymn sheet can be anything but easy. Luckily, there are some tried and tested ways to improve teamwork in your business, just read the post below to find out what they are.
Space.
The actual environment and amount of space that you provide for your workers can have a significant effect on how they get on as a team. In fact, if everyone is space out across the country and working remotely, it can be beneficial to provide additional ways of instant communication such as messengers, email, and phone conferences to ensure that the team can work together cohesively as a whole.
However, it is also interesting to note that sometimes teams can spend too much time in each other space and this can be detrimental to the work dynamic. In particular, this may happen if everyone is too friendly and the focus shifts away from work to fun and acting up. Alternatively, if there are members of the team that work better in an isolated environment, they can find it incredibly distracting to have to interact with people all of the time.
Of course, this is something that needs to be addressed on a team by team basis. It can be incredibly useful to ask for feedback from the team members themselves on this, as there is no one better place to comment on how things can be improved than them.
Focus.
Next, the focus of a group can have a massive impact on how well your employees work as a team. They need to feel as if they are working towards an overall goal, and that the tasks they are focusing on are making a difference to this target, each, and every day.
This isn’t always something that is easy to achieve, however, and it can sometimes help to foster positive feedback from other team members concerning the contributions that particular individuals are making.
Yes, people may even complain about this out loud. However, secretly everyone likes to be appreciated and told they are doing something well, and it can help your team pull together in the long term.
Bonding.
Providing opportunities for your work team outside of the 9-5 is an excellent way of promoting teamwork. Most companies do this by organizing nights out, although often these can result in cliques that have already been defined ending up spending additional time together and alienating the rest of the group.
Instead, why not shake things up a bit and offer team building activities like escape rooms, assault courses, and raft building days? Then you can put those that are having trouble relating to one another together and hopefully they will gain some empathy and understanding for how the other person approaches things that can be used in the workplace in the future.
Identity.
Next, creating a strong corporate identity can be something that can help your workforce feel as if they are part of a team. To do this, it can be useful to outline a clear code of conduct and to make sure that this is consistently enforced across the board.
It can also be helpful to give people a uniform to wear during work hours. Something that can be easily created with the addition of simple embroidered patches, something you can see more on by clicking the link. You can even designate company colors, so people don’t have to wear a set uniform but still identify themselves as part of a particular company, or department by the shades that they are wearing.
Don’t forget the individual.
Sometimes running an effective company seems like it all about working out how to make the group pull together and work as one. However, it is also important to remember that a group is always made up of individuals and they all have separate needs, and preferences. OK, so it may not be possible to fulfill all of these, but it can certainly help to make things run smoother if some of these are addressed.
For example, some people will have excellent ideas but not want to contribute them because they are afraid of being laughed at or shouted down. This may be a problem with the management style of the team not fitting its members, or they may be particularly sensitive to this sort of criticism.
To solve such an issue and get the best out of the whole team it may be necessary to change the way that things are done. In particular, brainstorming sessions where there are no wrong answers can be helpful, as can the inclusive of an anonymous suggestion box so those with great ideas but less dominant personalities can also be heard.
It’s all about caring.
Lastly, to get your team to pull together as a whole it’s important that they care about three things. The first is that they care about the goal you are trying to achieve. That means your employees must be suitably motivated with economic rewards or other bonuses.
The second is that they must care, to a certain degree what their superior thinks of them. Yes, a manager or supervisor must command respect, otherwise motivating a team to work for them in incision will be almost impossible.
Lastly, they have to care about each other as well. Which of course can be a tall order, especially if you have people that aren’t getting along so well. However, It is possible for a team to work efficiently with mutual respect for each other rather than outright friendship. Luckily, there are many ways to foster this in the work environment including positive feedback and other methods that you can find more about here.
In summary, to get your team to all pull in the same direction can be tricky, but not impossible. It just takes a little investment in the individual as well as the whole and should result in a much more efficient and planet workplace for everyone involved.
Leave a Reply