Most employers attach great importance to the fact that employees work well with one another and get along not only professionally, but also personally. Teamwork is more than just being good at sharing projects and sitting in meetings, as it has many different forms and shows that a team can be more than the number of its members.
In the professional context, the different skills of each employee are used and ideally combined to form a productive unit. Mutual respect also includes basics such as punctuality, preparing for meetings and keeping deadlines. These principles of successful teamwork must also be accepted by the individualists in order not to slow the work of the group. The goal is to work with each other instead of against each other and, even if you don’t really like someone personally, you have to deal with each other professionally. It should be clear to every team member what goal they are working towards – and where work begins. Which approach is being followed to achieve the common goal, which methods and measures are used?
A big difference between needed cooperation and real teamwork is the sense of togetherness. When those involved actually feel a sense of belonging and togetherness, colleagues become a functioning team. Teamwork means support and complementation. The strengths of each employee should be used in a targeted manner and actively brought in – at the same time the team can compensate for individual weaknesses.
There are some professional fields in which teamwork is particularly dependent:
- Sales – the sales target is always team performance.
- Personnel – if you don’t understand what kind of people the individual departments need, you will have difficulties finding someone who fits.
- Logistics – many small cogs interlock so that everything runs like clockwork. Cooperation is the key.
- Trade – you always have to deal with people. Even if you’re in a leadership role here, it’s important to understand the needs of your colleagues in the store.
- Consulting – as a consultant, you are usually part of the team with your colleagues on site. You can only convince if you complement each other and appear harmoniously.
- Marketing – collaboration is required – both with one another and with other departments such as back office or IT in order to present a company or a brand in the best manner.
With the team effect, productivity can be increased by 10 to 20 percent, because a higher work speed is achieved, fewer interruptions are made and the combination of strengths improves the overall result.
Celebrating successes is also important, but at the level of the entire team: Celebrating milestones or special achievements is a good team building measure. It promotes the personal bond between the team members, welds them together and makes them realize how meaningful their work is!
“Individual commitment to a group effort–that is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” – Vince Lombardi