Oneupmanship, grandstanding, excessive individualism, and lack of willingness to help others can all be signs that your business is lacking in team spirit. A lack of team spirit can lead to excessive conflict, staff pulling in different directions and demotivation, and can undermine your company efforts. But, a team working together in harmony can: achieve great things, boost profits, put your business ahead of the competition and take it to the next level.
1. Hire team players.
Look for team players when hiring people; that is people who can show they value teamwork and who can perhaps show that they have been contributing members of a team that has achieved something.
2. Write it into your constitution.
If you really value team spirit, then write it into your company’s constitution. Make sure that a commitment to teamwork has a prominent place in your code of conduct.
3. Define what teamwork means.
Different people may have different interpretations of what being a team player is. So, to avoid confusion, define teamwork in your business and describe the kind of behaviours that a good team player should exhibit.
4. Reward teamwork
Make sure that staff are appraised on their teamwork against defined behaviours, have awards for the best team player each month, and always explain the team behaviours that led to them receiving the award. This will help to reinforce the value of teamwork.
5. Show how you fair against the competition.
Teams will always unite in the face of the enemy or your fiercest competitors. Find out what targets and performance levels your competitors are achieving and challenge your teams to beat the competition. Make the competition the enemy and unite your teams.
6. Unite in the face of the enemy.
Arrange team sports or activities where you can compete as a team against other companies to build camaraderie in the team. Try to have activities which can include as many people as possible, such as football competitions, pub quizzes, bowling teams etc.. and encourage as many people to participate as possible. These are all great team-building activities.
7. Corporate team building activities.
Tread with care here as mismanaged team building activities have developed a reputation for dividing teams, reinforcing barriers and cliques and so I’d recommend working quite closely with a consultant to make sure you achieve your goals.
8. Let employees play to their personal strengths.
We all have strengths or weaknesses and try to give individuals roles within teams which play to their strengths. Make everyone feel they are making a valued contribution to the team. This can help to eliminate outliers who can become disconnected and eventually become disruptive.
9. Identify disruptive elements and deal with them.
A non-team player can become a disruptive influence, spreading negative vibes and dragging the team down. Identify these disruptive elements quickly and get them performing as team members or move them somewhere else.
10. Celebrate success.
One of the best ways to validate and reinforce your team is to celebrate successes. At the end of each project or team endeavour takes the time to recognize and celebrate how teamwork has helped you reach your goal. Team dinners or lunches are great for this.
