Positive work environment = Key to achieve success & profit
You may have heard the term “team spirit” or “good culture” in regards to your school’s sports teams, or any chapters or clubs you may be a part of. But, what does team spirit mean in a professional setting?
Great companies have leadership that understands the importance of quality of life for every member of the organization. A company can show this through respectful and fair communication with clear work tasks and job descriptions. When all the team members are aligned to reach excellence, then everyone pushes for their teammates to be excellent.
Great companies know that human capital is one of the most valuable assets that create collaboration, innovation, productivity, and efficiency. All leadership members must understand how important this is to the company to obtain great success. This is what makes up team spirit and a good leader makes it a priority to nurture that positive environment daily.
As the founder of Cazarin Interactive, a creative marketing agency that has been serving clients for over 20 years and gone through many changes during that time, I have learned that a great company needs to have team spirit and that great employees need to foster that spirit. We prioritize clear communication, which forges great comradery and team collaboration. It has taken years to truly learn how to implement it effectively, nurture it and sustain it daily.
In this blog post, I will show you what great companies have in common and how to foster that team spirit.
How is a great team spirit achieved?
Company culture starts with its leadership. It is ultimately up to a company’s leaders to make team spirit a priority and maintain and nurture it. Effective leaders understand that when team spirit is achieved, everyone can accomplish a lot more very efficiently.
Fostering team spirit, however, is not an easy undertaking. Decisions must be inclusive and compromise might have to be part of daily decision making. It’s up to the leader of the company to instill open communication with the leadership team that is inclusive of all the leaders opinions. For example, a leader will say I am thinking of implementing X into the company. Before we set this X effort, I want to hear your thoughts on the matter, both positive and negative. After listening to the logic provided by the leadership team the leader will now have a better understanding on why implementing X would work with the overall team or if a different option should be considered. If option X is not supported by all members of the leadership team then it can come across as a push and meet with a combative outcome. Any new decisions need to be made by the whole leadership team. Making sure that the entire leadership team is on the same page with the new directive X will ensure that the objective is embraced rather than seen as a hurdle.
Team leaders cannot realistically achieve doing everything exactly the way all team members desire. But, they can make an effort to take everyone’s opinion into account. In today’s world, one of the biggest topics leaders deal with is the decision to return to the office after the pandemic, or not. Each employee will have different feelings about this and each employee’s thoughts will need to be taken into account. When faced with a difficult decision such as this, a good leader will use everyone’s feedback to make a decision. Especially if such a decision affects everyone in the company.
Here are seven core ways that business leaders can nurture a strong team spirit within their company.
The 7 keys in achieving “Team Spirit”
- Develop Core Mission and Values
The mission of the company must be clear and understood by everyone. The values must be available everywhere, as they shape the behavior of the employees.
- Have Empathy and Communication Skills from Leadership
Understand that there are different points of view to every situation. Use humility, gratefulness, and empathy in your communication with other members of the team. Obtain feedback from peers. This takes time, but once understood by your team, everyone works quickly to achieve it.
- Inspire through your Branding
Develop an inspiring and inclusive brand that everyone can feel part of. Inspiration from the leadership and communication of the brand’s meaning will be key to achieve this important objective. People in general will respond to an emotional connection. Feeling a part of something that is great, something that will give them a sense of belonging. A company that will take care of them not only financially, but listen and make them feel important. Not everyone is wired to be empathetic and to listen. Make sure in your HR department there is a person who meets these characteristics. It will be well worth it. The benefits are great retention, efficiency, productivity and innovation.
- Communicate Clearly
Develop processes and procedures that are clear for every position. Document them and create internal meetings to communicate the important goals for the week. Create systems that hold your team accountable with valid data and objectives. Companies use Traction – EOS but there are several systems in the market.
- Care
Both your customers and employees need to genuinely understand that they are cared for in order for team spirit to truly develop. Be authentic, try to think about what you would like your employer to do if you were in their shoes.
- Collaborate
Nurture collaboration among employees by sharing your knowledge as a leader. This concept is often misunderstood by leaders, but sharing your wisdom encourages your team to feel confident in doing the same. It is ok to become vulnerable in the process. This would make you more authentic. Empowering employees to learn from each other will also be a key element to nurture collaboration.
- Understand your Employees’ Talents and Skills
A great book by Jim Collins called From Good to Great emphasizes the importance of putting the right employees in the right seat of the bus. Putting the employees in the right seat was just as important as having the right employees. This analogy made the assumption that leaders understood their employees well and that they had the necessary tools to understand their employees’ strengths and weaknesses. A team is diverse, consisting of both introverts and extroverts and learners and defenders. At Cazarin Interactive, we use the free 16 Personalities test to assess a person’s strengths and weaknesses. We are then able to put our employees in positions that will bring up their strengths and personal gratification.
The more you understand and practice these 7 keys to a great professional life, your vision of a great company will become clearer. There are a few key fundamentals that companies with great team spirit and camaraderie uphold.
Qualities of a Great Company
- Include Others: Include employees in decisions when possible. When employees feel included in the decision-making process, they embrace the change and help to make the transition to acceptance smoothly.
- Be Positive: Always look at the positive side of any issue.
- Strong Leadership: These leaders understand the importance of team spirit. All managers at a great company understand and forge team spirit by having respect, listening skills, and proper communication. We can’t control how a person reacts in a stressful situation. However, we can control how we react in stressful situations.
- Resiliency: Resilient teams consistently deliver superior results. You can see this in companies that retain employees and that have built a positive reputation in the marketplace.
- Quality of Life: Everyone in the company understands the quality of life. Yes, there are times you will have to work late, but there will be times when you can leave early. The key is to have balance and make sure the company sets the pace.
Final Takeaways
After years of working for companies, and now over 20 years leading my own marketing agency, I have truly learned the importance for leaders to know and nurture great working environments. These are some of the details I have observed in every environment that has true team spirit:
- Employees refer to each other as their “team members” or a similar word.
- Leadership provides free lunches or other rewards to celebrate achievements and create comradery.
- Leadership respects every single employee, regardless of their position in the company.
- Leadership celebrates employee achievements like certificates in learning something, birthdays, and work anniversaries. Showing your employees that you are proud of their achievements helps boost their morale and inspires others to achieve more as well
- Employees that receive help from the team are more apt to help out when other employees are overwhelmed.
- Vacations are respected by everyone.
- Employees volunteer to help anyone as needed.
When someone chooses Cazarin Interactive as their marketing partner, our team becomes a part of their company as an extension of the marketing and sales department. We understand team spirit. We help to develop brand identity, messaging, and implement an ongoing marketing strategy that will help businesses grow in a healthy manner. By fully understanding and embracing these 7 key tips to infuse team spirit Cazarin has excelled and even surpassed my expectations.
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