Smells Like Team Spirit
“Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.” – Henry Ford
As the team at The Survey Initiative continues to grow along with the business itself, I wanted to revisit the benefits of having great team spirit and collaborative teamwork.
Despite there still being a ‘me-first’ culture where teamwork is seen as a hindrance to individual success, teamwork has been and will continue to be the key to growth and innovation for the future.
So here are just a few benefits of having a team that is working collaboratively and cohesively together.
- Improves performance:
Leaving people to deal with tasks that are beyond their capabilities can lead to a less productive workforce. Sharing tasks amongst team members and allowing individuals to concentrate on the skills they know they can do best will lead to work produced to a much higher quality and standard.
- Increases efficiency:
Every individual has specialties, and a collaborative environment allows each person to focus on what he or she does best. Although teams often need time to establish their working relationships before they reap any benefits, any group that perseveres through the early stages and finds a healthy team rhythm will achieve increased efficiency and productivity. With teamwork, tasks can be done at the same time by different people. By working together, you can achieve much more in the same time.
- Improves morale:
Teamwork allows employees to take greater responsibility for decision making and also allows team members to control more of working processes. This can lead to improved morale as employees gain more authority, autonomy and ownership over the projects they are working on. This extra responsibility can lead to a more rewarding work environment and lower turnover of staff. Working within a team also gives employees a greater sense of belonging and of recognition, which helps them take more pride in their work, and their company.
- Teamwork builds trust:
Every strong team needs a solid foundation of trust, otherwise, morale can suffer. A strong team cultivates trust from top to bottom. Trusting your teammates also provides a feeling of safety that allows ideas and creativity to emerge. It helps employees open up and encourage each other. Open communication is key when working within a team and produces effective solutions in difficult group projects.
- Teamwork reduces stress:
Trying to do everything yourself can have negative consequences on your productivity and performance levels, not to mention your mental and physical health. Most of us can endure some pressure over short periods of time, but it’s nice to have teammates who can take some of the load off when things get too intense. Teamwork will ultimately reduce stress down the line and prevent burnout so that you can move onto your next tasks with less difficulty and make unwinding at the nd of the day much easier.
- Teamwork leads to innovation:
We like to think that innovative ideas come in flashes of brilliance, but more often innovation comes from years of hard effort by a group of people rather than an individual. Most lasting innovations have multiple stages, starting with the creative process and moving through the development, refinement, execution, and revision phases. With more than one set of thinkers, you will have different people to help development, fine tune, and execute a project in the most innovative way possible.
- Teamwork impresses:
On a more personal level, setting aside selfishness is a smart way to invest in your future. Teamwork is one of the top criteria that hiring managers consider, and having a reputation for strong teamwork skills can earn you jobs and promotions.
- Teamwork improves service:
In any successful organisation a strong work ethic and team spirit comes across in interactions with its customers and supporters. A successful organisation will have a strong sense of teamwork and collaboration that works to improve service and meet the needs of their customers in the most effective and positive way possible. When there is a sense of positive collaboration, every individual in the company will have a positive attitude and a strong sense of advocacy in favour of the company, and this will make them want to represent the company in a positive way.
A good team spirit allows us to maintain a healthy and happy working life by working with others on a more personal level, after all, humans are naturally social creatures. Teamwork can make work fun, help us develop relationships, and contribute to our over-all wellbeing.
The Survey Initiative are experts in employee research, so if you are looking for ways to improve teamwork within your organisation, then why not give us a call on +44 (0)1255 850051 or contact us online.