In the business world, there is always a lot of talk about being part of a successful team. Management consulting firms tout the benefits of strong teamwork and motivational speakers spend hours talking about the strength of a good office team. But is team building really that important to the success of a business?
It is important to remember that good team building does not necessarily mean that everyone likes each other. In a successful corporate setting, good team building means that each staff member respects each other and they also respect what everyone brings to the team. Team building does work for business and there are several strong benefits that go along with building a strong team.
A Good Team Utilizes Strengths To Compensate For Weaknesses
Bob is not very good at customer service, but Jean is not very adept at utilizing a computer spreadsheet. However, when Jean and Bob work together, Jean uses her customer service skills to take care of customer issues and Bob uses computer spreadsheets to generate helpful customer service reports based on Jean’s successes.
A good team learns how to identify its weaknesses and then use its strengths to compensate. In this way, good team members become complimentary parts of a system that works together for the success of the company. When you look at it this way, team building is a critical element to the success of any company.
Strong Teams Are Not Affected By Occasional Losses
What happens if Bob is out sick one day and Jean needs to fill in those spreadsheet reports? It is no problem because Nancy is also a whiz with computer spreadsheets and she can help cover for Bob for the day.
Teams are essentially made up of individual working parts that want to satisfy the goals of the group. A team with strong individual bonds will always find ways to compensate for losses and allow the team to move forward.
Good Teams Can Assimilate New Members Easier
Greg just got hired as a customer service associate in Jean’s group. Without even being asked, Jean takes Greg under her wing and shows him how to do his job. Nancy and Bob also chime in on how to get information into those spreadsheets that the company considers to be so important.
When a good team gets a new member, that new member is taken in and trained to help continue the success of a team. Poorly constructed teams are the ones that alienate new members and break off into factions that make it impossible to get anything done.
Team Building Create Motivation
According to Houston Training Solutions, when team building is done properly, each teammate wants to see the other succeed. They said, “The entire group is completely vested in its success and the individual members will work hard to achieve that success. That means supporting each other at all times.”
A supportive team helps teammates who are having difficulties with getting used to the new computer system or teammates who are on a call with a particularly angry customer. Good teammates cover for each other and make it their personal goal to insure that the entire team is always in a position to succeed.
Team building in the workplace is essential for a company’s long-term success. Without good team building, a company will experience the kind of toxic work environment that results in low productivity and high turnover.
Company owners and managers need to remember that good team building starts from the top. When the rest of the staff sees that management takes team building seriously, then it is much easier to get all personnel vested into the success of the company and each other.
