5 Reasons Why Teamwork Is Crucial to Workplace Success

What are the benefits of teamwork?

There are many benefits to having a well-performing staff that prioritizes solid teamwork. Here are five of the biggest reasons you need teamwork in the workplace.

1. Better communication

Teamwork involves the active sharing and discussion of information and ideas and includes many points of view. Team members all learn from each other and discover new ways of thinking through projects. An environment with clear and open communication can quickly lead to successful results, no matter the industry.

Here are some tips for achieving better group communication.

• Give everyone a chance to speak. Build trust with your employees and gain insight through team meetings and breakout sessions. Interact with team members regularly and uplift their voices and ideas on projects. 
• Make sure what you say and what you do have the same message. In other words, keep your verbal and nonverbal language on the same page. This limits confusion.
• Validate others’ contributions. Compliment team members on good ideas and suggestions. This makes them feel a part of the team and encourages future participation.
• Focus on the behavior or problem, not on the person. People become defensive when criticized personally. Keep the discussion focused on the task and the issues.

2. Lean structure over hierarchy

A natural organizational benefit of teamwork is the lean structure it produces, cutting down on middle management and leading to greater freedom, innovation and progress. This is not to say middle managers are useless, but flat organizations have their advantages. A team that is given the freedom to create and operate is likely to succeed, and a team with relatively equal voices is a crucial element of successful business practices.

Here are some benefits your team can reap from lean methods.

• More efficiency: The lean mindset aims to eliminate wasteful procedures, allowing workers to boost productivity and increase customer satisfaction. Value-stream mapping is a technique many teams use to track every step of the product development process, from starting point to delivery. This helps them visualize what may or may not provide value. 
• Fewer bottlenecks: Bottlenecks are hindrances to any organization’s overall workflow, preventing the achievement of deadlines and any sense of productivity. Lean methods, however, mean teams share their work equally, ensuring tasks are completed in a timely manner. Brainstorming and problem-solving can prepare for or prevent any business disruptions.
• Lower costs: With lean practices, a company can save money and add value by eliminating waste caused by overproduction, overhiring or the accumulation of bottlenecks in the production process.
• A mindset of continuous improvement: Lean methodology promotes the constant improvement of teamwork and business practices within large or small organizations. Workers should offer and receive feedback from top to bottom so they can improve products and accelerate innovation.

3. Emotional support 

A workplace centered around teamwork is ripe to provide emotional support, as the dynamic involves many colleagues working together. This could be physically alongside one another or online, with constant communication. Providing emotional support can mean avoiding overly harsh critiques when discussing one’s work or checking in to see how a fellow team member is coping.

Emotional and psychological support can even go beyond the workplace, which may have a reciprocal effect. For example, sending a card is a simple and office-appropriate way to provide quick support to a fellow employee. Team-related emotional support leads to much deeper workplace happiness and success.

4. Healthy competition

Though you might assume employee competition leads to infighting, credit-hogging and blaming, the opposite is true when a workplace encourages healthy competition. Teamwork can rapidly increase a positive form of competitiveness in the following ways.

• It improves overall productivity.
• It boosts the quality of work and subsequently encourages innovation.
• It raises employee motivation and commitment. 
• It provides recognition for improved work.

Here are some tips for setting up friendly workplace competitions. 

1. Set realistic goals. The whole point is to motivate your employees, not overwhelm them. You don’t want to set goals too low, either, as this probably won’t inspire your workers to improve. Effective goals are attainable for team members who work hard and drive them to achieve success. [Follow these tips for setting better business goals.]
2. Make the objectives clear. All participants should know the goals they want to reach and the objectives of the competition. Checking in throughout the process allows you to gauge your employees’ interest levels and offer encouragement.
3. Center competitions around obvious advantages. Inform your team how they can benefit from the competition — both personally and professionally — to motivate them to do their best. 
4. Offer prizes and incentives. People often say, “What’s in it for me?” Prizes and potential rewards can inspire teams to strive for their best. For example, you could offer extra vacation time, free lunches, later or earlier start times at work and bonus cash prizes.

5. Synergy

Synergy is the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their parts. Synergy can look like many things in the workplace, but it typically involves the benefits of teams sharing their competencies and capacities. 

When colleagues don’t work together, it’s easy to see the devastating effect a lack of synergy can have on an organization. But when synergy is present, productivity will be high. Responses from workers are more clear-cut, business goals are better understood, collaboration increases and problems are solved because everyone feels motivated as they put their heads together to tackle shared objectives and challenges. 

Your business can benefit from synergy when your team members have diverse skills and backgrounds as well. When developing a product, you don’t just need marketers — you need additional professionals like copywriters, analysts, and specialty research and development workers.  When everyone brings their own special skills and perspectives to the table, the result is improved workflow, an increase of transformative ideas and a more refined product thanks to the minds and hands of numerous critical thinkers. 

How to encourage teamwork among remote employees 

It’s fair to say enthusiasm for working from home has probably never been higher. Not only is the flexibility of remote work a plus, but home workers are also seeing they’re able to get more work done than they previously thought possible. In fact, Airtasker found that remote workers only lose 27 minutes of work each day due to distractions, compared to office workers’ 37 minutes lost.

A remote company may not lend itself to teamwork at first glance, but there are plenty of ways to still reap the benefits of collaboration if you have a distributed workforce. Here’s how to encourage teamwork among your remote employees.

Personalize work structures for remote employees.

Some workers strictly adhere to a routine, while others are more laid back. Instead of treating all your remote employees the same way as your in-office workers, personalize work structures, objectives and outcomes to fit each person. Then, encourage colleagues to find commonalities and ways they can work together instead of in silos.

Be clear about availability and expectations for remote work. 

Set windows for meetings and general hours to talk, email and submit work for deadlines. Be careful not to blur the lines between productively working at home and overworking past a normal workday schedule. Be just as fair to remote workers as you are to in-office workers. [Read more about flextime and flexible work schedules.]

Supply your team with communication tools.

If you want your remote team to never skip a beat, supply them with all the communication apps they’ll need to be successful. Technology can facilitate progress by connecting them with customers, retailers and colleagues despite their remote location. Teach your team video conferencing etiquette and set up online chat programs for those who prefer a less intimidating way to connect. 

Set up check-ins and meetings. 

By checking in every day with your remote team through video calls and meetings, you’ll maintain a virtual environment built on collaboration and support. This time can forge a sense of togetherness and enhance team camaraderie, especially if you allow time for people to catch up with one another personally. As team members continually get to know one another better, they’ll be more apt to work together despite a physical divide.

How to encourage teamwork for those who prefer independent work

Some workers prefer independent work, and that’s OK. There are strategies you can use to encourage teamwork while still respecting employee preferences.

Hand out clear assignments.

When you clearly designate roles and responsibilities to each of your team members, you can avoid confusion and the risk of one person trying to take full control. When dealing with new projects, give both seasoned and new professionals a chance to work on something fresh and demonstrate their strengths.

Stick to simple objectives.

When assigning special projects or work to be completed, make sure the goals of these assignments aren’t ambiguous. Ambiguity can cause some team members to doubt themselves and question their work. Instead, set short- and long-term goals to motivate the whole team to work together toward a shared victory. 

Give opportunities to make big decisions.

Give everyone on the team a chance to involve themselves in projects that demand thinking outside the box and collaboration. Let everyone pitch their ideas, let them know you’re taking them into consideration and integrate the concepts into your final plans. This will lead team members to feel more invested and motivated as they come together to create solutions. 

Reward workers for their performance.

Never hesitate to reward your employees for a job well done. When workers complete a project to high standards or go above and beyond expectations, bring that to the attention of the company as a whole. Congratulate your team members formally by letting everyone in the office know the results their exceptional teamwork produced. 

You should also cheer your team on informally through messaging channels where you can use emojis in your tribute, especially if you’re recognizing remote workers who can’t be celebrated in person. This will encourage and reinforce the importance of teamwork in the workplace. It may even convince independent workers to switch their approach to work more closely with others to achieve better results.

Skye Schooley and Shlomo Wiesen contributed to this article.