Being the leader of your team is a big responsibility. Whether you are leading as the founder of the business or as a department head, you need to be able to foster teamwork amongst your team. For business owners, the challenge lies in fostering teamwork amongst all departments of your business.
Teamwork in the workplace is when a group of individuals work together towards a common goal in an efficient and quick manner. Teamwork helps your business flourish and creates collaboration among your employees.
As the leader of your business, you need to understand the importance of teamwork and collaboration amongst your employees. This will not only make your business run smoothly but will ensure that your employees are equipped with resources (each other) to solve problems quickly.
In this article, we look at how you can support teamwork within your business.
Importance of Teamwork in the Workplace
There are many things that signify the importance of teamwork in the workplace. Some of the elements which underline its importance include:
- Teamwork increases efficiency.
- It builds trust amongst employees.
- Facilitates conflict resolution.
- It motivates healthy risk-taking.
- It helps to build community within the company.
- Better communication within the company.
- Teamwork promotes innovation and creativity.
- Increases productivity.
- Helps with stress management.
- Promotes diversity within the different departments and the company overall.
- These points highlight the importance of teamwork within your business.
How to Foster Teamwork in the Workplace
Below are some tips you can use to create or improve teamwork in the workplace as a leader.
1. Communicate Expectations
You need to communicate clearly to your employees what your expectations are. This can be done by defining roles and responsibilities that relate to them. This must also be done for new projects that require collaboration between different departments.
You can also leverage platforms such as Slack to help with internal communication. This makes it easier for them to communicate in real-time and not rely on e-mails alone.
2. Set Goals for Your Team
One of the best things you can do to foster teamwork is to set team goals. You can set team goals for small groups (e.g. IT team) or set goals for big groups (sales department). The goals must be measurable so that they can be checked continuously.
Having set goals improves collaboration amongst the team and also allows for creativity to flow within the team.
3. Create an Open and Creative Environment
The environment you set is vital to your team’s teamwork and collaboration. By fostering an open and creative environment, you encourage your team to see any issues as a challenge they can conquer together. If need be, you can also provide additional resources and training to help overcome any challenges.
4. Get to Know Your Team
You need to know your team beyond just what their role is. You can do this by giving them tasks that align with their skill sets and experiences. Also, encourage them to complete quizzes that reveal a little bit of their personality. The easiest way is to talk to them and find out who they are to gain insights into who they are.
5. Promote Diversity in Your Team
If your workforce is diverse, it will thrive. Diversity means having team members from different backgrounds, races, cultures, ages etc. By creating a diverse environment you can gain insights into how others think and get creative solutions from your team.
Additionally, diversity promotes healthy competition within your team which can benefit your business.
6. Provide Feedback Regularly
Regularly providing feedback to your team lets them see how you are evaluating them and build trust within the workplace. It also gives them an opportunity to make changes in their work and behaviour which will ultimately make them more successful.
Feedback needs to be guidance instead of prosecution. It will help you and your team identify any gaps or opportunities that can improve the business.
7. Team Building Activities
Fostering teamwork doesn’t have to be in-office activities only. Team building helps with collaboration amongst employees and will increase the problem-solving within the team. It can also help you identify leaders within your team and who can execute instructions the best.
8. Skills Development Opportunities
As we know, there is a huge skills gap in South Africa. Offer employees skills development opportunities so that they can better themselves and the company. You can encourage them to nurture existing skills or branch out a bit more to new areas.
Note that skills development opportunities show your employees that you trust them and want them to succeed.
9. Celebrate Your Team
Always celebrate your team and their achievements. This not only encourages hard work but promotes friendly competition. If other employees see that hard work is rewarded or celebrated, they will also want to work hard for the same recognition.
Additionally, rewards give your employees the validation they need. It shows them that they are doing a great job, they are included in the bigger picture of the business and maintain positive morale in the workplace.
Use these nine points to create a work environment that promotes teamwork and success within your company. And remember, teamwork is not just for your employees but also for you. You need to connect with your team to build trust within the company.
For more information on employee success and benefits, read our Employee Benefits for Small Businesses article.
