Team work is not a skill, it is a philosophy that you develop and it becomes part of who you become. Depending on how you decide to bring your team player mentality to work, you will either be a great benefit to your colleagues, engendering a situation where both you and others can perform to their best and create a positive and productive work place, or you will be a myopic, probably narcissistic, ego-centric person lacking the self-awareness to make a positive difference. You are on this imaginary scale of extremes, every single day, if you work with other people.
Self-awareness is of utmost importance when engendering a collaborative team environment. No matter how many books you read, courses you study, or self- help videos you watch, you will still never be any good at what you do if you do not learn to develop your own personality and look within to see how you really affect others around you.
And, while you may think team work and that mentality is over rated when applied to your situation, then you should be aware of what results when organisations neglect team collaboration.
- Increased conflict – Always fun!
- Higher staff turn-over.
- Reduced job satisfaction.
- Stifled creativity and efficiency.
- Resentful co-workers less willing to give potentially valuable feedback.
- Reduced conversation, and those awkward “avert your eyes” water-cooler moments.
- Lack of trust and respect.
Many of these problems stem from today’s business doctrine where the self-made millionaire is worshipped as a demi-god by the semi-intelligent. It’s easy to think of teamwork as a needless roadblock to one’s own success when framed in
this context. It is all about my own fame, and sharing is giving away a competitive advantage, only a fool would do that. In many fields, people have been conditioned to keep information secret, refuse to help others, and even sabotage colleagues and coworkers to get ahead. This is great, it makes for fantastic TV series like The Office, and some nice days off work “team building” with a log, or a boat, or some pretend trust “catch me when I fall backwards” exercises.
But this is probably not how you want to live your life. This self-absorbed hyper-competitive approach is based on the false belief that success is possible without teamwork. The truth is that even the most successful individuals couldn’t have done it without their unheralded associates, co-workers, assistants, or family members helping them along the way. Even the statistics back up this fact, with an overwhelming majority of workers ranking personal development higher than career development.
Teamwork has been the driving force behind innovation since time immemorial. Collaboration, whether you’re talking about a small business, major corporation, non-profit, city, or country, is the key to growth and innovation.
The benefits of team work are immense. Not only does it help to negate most of the above issues, but it brings its own “multiplier effect” into your organization, and not in the Keynesian print and pretend manner. It helps you get the most out of every day you spend with your colleagues. The following are some of the benefits, and I am sure there are some others I haven’t thought of.
Improved Morale
Working in a good team allows employees to take greater responsibility for decision making and to control more of the work process. This leads to improved morale and personal responsibility towards projects, and develops a more rewarding work environment with lower staff turnover.
Job Satisfaction
Working together whilst sharing skills and experiences improves each individuals performance. This constant personal development and the improved performance increases job satisfaction, enhancing an employee’s confidence and the joy that they find in their work.
Better Ideas
A good team is made up of diverse members. When these members apply different skills to the same problem, they come up with a more effective solution than one person working on it alone.
Learning Environment
Individual team members serve as educational resources to others meaning questions are answered faster and concepts more rapidly explained. In addition, teams tends to avoid clumsy mistakes, which improves the efficiency and reputation of the organisation and lets employees focus less on work negatives and more on work outcomes.
Improved performance
When you’re able to focus on what you do best and don’t have to deal with tasks that are beyond your skills or capabilities, you produce higher-quality work.
Increased Trust
Every strong team needs a solid foundation of trust, otherwise, morale can suffer. A strong team cultivates trust from top to bottom, maintains open lines of communication between all team members, and operates with transparency.
Increased Innovation
Teams are proven to be more innovative and excel at creativity. Many companies base their corporate structure entirely around teamwork. Usually deploying teams with a multi-disciplinary, project-based focus. Employees are hired and
once their skills are truly ascertained then are moved to projects that best match their skills and interests. Leaders are appointed, and there is no chain of command or leadership hierarchy. Employees are also free to start new teams
as new ideas come to them. This is called a flat lattice teamwork-based corporate structure, and is used by companies wishing to be leaders in innovation. And, once again this is backed up by a study done at the
University of Graz.
Conclusion
With all these benefits it is clear that operating in a good team should be one of your priorities. This stems from making an effort yourself, and “paying it forward” to get the good vibes flowing.
If you are happily surrounded by good people with a quality team disposition then you know the benefits already. But, if you are in a situation where your blood occasionally boils and you are stymied from developing to your full potential, then you have to take action and make your life better.
Move if you can and manoeuvre yourself into a better place, or become a leader and build the team you want to be part of. Sometimes though, like in House of Cards, you need to remove intransigent dead weight for the greater good. This can be difficult, but try reading some Machiavelli for inspiration. Everything is possible, just get a team behind you, and when you get things running smoothly, don’t forget that building a good team never stops.