What Drives a Successful Team?

Culture

Your company culture is made up of different components including; mission, values, business performance, respect and diversity. Each company has a different culture of people depending on the type of business and what the business leaders’ values are for the business. Your culture has a huge impact on how your business operates and therefore the success of your team depends on this.

Mission

A mission will define and reflect what you are trying to achieve, it is usually action-orientated and is a great way to inspire and transform your business. A common way to find the right mission statement is to take a look at why you are doing what you are doing and go from there. Your mission is something for everybody in your business to work towards, not just yourself. So, establishing this will give you and your employees a purpose for what they are doing. This mission statement should drive your employees to do their best and continue to inspire them to do their best each day. 

Values 

Your values also make up your culture, these could be personal to you or both you and your wider team. For example; respect, loyalty and passion are examples of both personal values, and values linked to your business. You should make these values clear to ensure each employee is working alongside them to ensure that your team is tight-knit and working in unity.

Performance

The structure of your business and how teams perform is based on your employees understanding of what they are there to do, but also the process of achieving those things. If employees don’t understand how to achieve these goals set out, the goals will feel unachievable which could cause negativity in the workplace.

Finding the right fit

Once you have established your culture through mission, values and expected performance, you should then find people who will respect this. Hiring for culture should be a priority in as one bad hire can impact your business and the dynamics of your team.

Diversity

Diversity is important and although you need people who work well together, you could fall into the trap of having a very restricted and non-diverse team if you only hire the same kind of person. This can lead to shortfalls in knowledge, cultural understanding and could lead to your business not being as successful as it could be.

Relationship Building 

As a leader, it is part of your responsibility to make sure that your team enjoys working with you, your employees and in the business itself. Building a strong team takes time and dedication. This is essential for your team to become strong and productive and contribute to your company’s success. 

Trust

If you trust the people you work with, you can be open and honest in your thoughts and actions. Trust is the foundation of every good relationship, both in and outside of work. When you trust your team and employees, it can help you to work and communicate more effectively within the workplace. You should be able to trust your employees to complete their tasks, and they should be able to trust you. Whether that be with their work or the running of your business and your decisions. 

Mutual respect

When you respect the people you work with, you value their input and ideas, and they value yours. Using your joint knowledge and creativity you can resolve problems in ways you may not have been able to resolve on your own. In turn, this will reduce workplace stress, conflict and problems. An increase in workplace respect will help to improve communication, increase teamwork and reduce stress in the workplace, whilst increasing productivity, knowledge and understanding of the work. A once competitive environment can change to focus on the business goals as a whole.

Communication

We communicate frequently but often we don’t communicate in the best way. As a leader, you must find a way for your team to work and communicate as effectively as possible and making this communication effective must be a priority for you. The better you communicate with your work colleagues or employees, the better your relationships will be. All good relationships depend on open and honest communication. 

Communication and Clarity 

This is essential between you and your team members as much as it is between the team. Teams that fail to communicate effectively end up wasting time and energy doing work that is not required because of a lack of understanding of what needs to be prioritised and completed. Therefore, communication within a team will ensure you complete projects quicker and more efficiently. This will also ensure there is more accuracy in the work. Effective communication will allow team members to understand their roles and the roles of everyone else on the team, giving room for understanding among the team members.

Clarity of roles and responsibilities

Miscommunications are the cause of many problems in work environments. If a team member is unsure of exactly what is required of them, they are likely to struggle and not complete the task correctly. You must ensure that each team member is clear on their roles and responsibilities to set the tone for the communications within your team. As a leader, this is your responsibility and will encourage better communication in the workplace overall. You must also ensure they feel comfortable asking for extra support on tasks and healthy communication will help them do so. 

Team Building

If the team gets on well, they will automatically communicate better. Building good team morale and atmosphere not only allows everyone to get to know each other better but helps to create an environment where everyone feels they have an investment in the outcome.

Traditional team building improves communication, whether it is a team-building weekend or just building a team spirit within the office in a simple way such as situations where you can meet up in an informal social atmosphere. Meeting together socially gives the team a chance to relax together without the boundaries of the work environment, even if that is a lunch or after-work activity.

Training 

When it comes to communication, you should never overlook the value of training as a team which communicates well works better together. Therefore, providing training to people who are not as good with communication is a fantastic way to improve team dynamics. Training does take time and can come at a cost. However, the benefits from improving communication and interactions within your team will be worth the investment, as training surrounding communication can help improve the quality of work overall. Whether your employees need help with written, face-to-face communication or building relationships there are training courses available for many different types.