Why is it important to work as a team? Keep reading to learn more about the importance of teamwork in the workplace.
What Is Teamwork?
Teamwork is when people work together toward a common goal, professional or personal. It is one of the most desirable skills an employer can seek in its potential employees. Teamwork builds mutual trust in the workplace, increases the productivity of employees, and leads to higher job satisfaction.
Understanding the definition of teamwork may differ. What a good team means for you may not be the same as in the perception of your co-workers. It may take time to build effective teams. Organizing good teamwork in the workplace requires practice and the desire of all the individual members to create an effective team with employees working to complete common goals.
Why Is Teamwork Important in Business?
Statistics show that most successful businesses actively promote teamwork and engage individual employees to work together and become a part of a team. The great teamwork of Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak is an excellent example of how a good team can create something essential and unique. Why is working as a team important in business? Latoria Williams, the CEO of 1F Cash Advance, a loan company with a strong team of financial experts, has prepared a list of the main benefits of being a team member instead of working alone. See the main advantages of teamwork below.
#1. A High Standard of Workplace Synergy
Synergy is a collaboration of two or more individuals, teams, departments, or organizations that combine their efforts to achieve their common goals, make a greater impact than they would separately, or produce something of value. Synergy promotes reducing conflicts, better communication, higher job satisfaction, etc. Building teamwork positively affects workplace synergy and promotes its high standards. It allows every team member to feel a greater sense of accomplishment and do their best to achieve a common goal as soon as possible.
#2. Healthy Competition
Creating a sense of healthy competition among employees is one of the best ways to implement new and innovative ideas in a business. The competitive nature of humans makes teamwork important, as every team member wants to feel valued and not be worse than others.
It is about a competition without any bad feelings. When all the team members consider themselves a part of the team, they can create new ideas without jealousy and rivalry. The successes of their co-workers will motivate them even if they encounter challenges and lead to higher employee engagement.
#3. Great Development Opportunities
One of the main examples of the importance of teamwork is that it helps employees learn new things from each other. All the team members can see other people’s successes and failures and avoid their mistakes in the future. They can also expand their professional skill sets and discover fresh ideas from their co-workers that can be helpful in solving different tasks. This will help employees work more efficiently and productively.
#4. Improved Efficiency and Productivity
One of the best ways to increase efficiency and productivity in your business is to enhance teamwork and develop communication skills between your team members. Solving difficult tasks is much easier when your team works together and splits them into smaller and more manageable parts. It allows employees to complete their tasks faster and have time for new projects.
#5. More Productive Conflict Management
Employees need to listen to each other to achieve successful teamwork. Their communication skills and conflict management play an essential role when they are working on completing a common goal. Improved communication is one of the keys to conflict resolution.
Every team member has their own vision and sees another solution. This allows them to see the situation from multiple perspectives. Although many employees can come to a better solution than one team member, it may often be difficult to compromise.
Furthermore, teamwork helps all the team members see more problem-solving approaches and different perspectives. After analyzing all the options, employees can choose the most suitable one for their case.
#6. Bigger Goals
A successful team does not stop at completing only basic goals. One of the main benefits of encouraging teamwork in the workplace is that many team members can add much more value than one employee. They complete their job faster and motivate each other to complete bigger goals. Multiple people feel confident in their skills when they work together and have a strong sense of shared responsibility with other employees. This allows them not to be afraid of risking, implementing new ideas, and realizing them.
#7. Less Managerial Interference
The importance of teamwork is visible not only for managers but also for employees. Working in teams minimizes the control of company leaders and makes the process more pleasant. The team can evaluate the work of new employees and do their best for the well-being of the company.
What Are the Drawbacks of Teamwork in the Workplace?
Being a part of a team has numerous advantages and often can lead to a faster and better performance. However, teamwork also has several cons you should know.
#1. Difficulties with Reaching Consensus
Even if a team has a strong sense of group cohesion, it is often problematic to compromise when all the team members have different visions of a situation. It is crucial to discuss all the issues with respect to other employees and listen to each other carefully. One of the best ways to improve the decision-making process is to choose a person whose opinion counts for more.
#2. Personality Conflicts
Even if the company does its best to create a friendly and cohesive team, personality clashes can happen anyway. Unfortunately, they can make teamwork uncomfortable and stressful. Many employees working in teams leave their jobs due to the toxic environments they work in.
#3. Longer Completing Projects
Although working with a team usually leads to better results, it is often too long. Teamwork allows all the employees to divide their tasks, but setting individual goals and scheduling regular meetings makes the work process longer. You need to put more effort into communication even when it is a task you could complete faster alone.
What Does Successful Teamwork Look Like?
Successful teams can be understood in different ways. However, there are several common characteristics of a good team:
Good communication
Open communication among employees has a positive impact on a team’s performance. It helps workers share and receive information in a clear way and understand deadlines, job expectations, updates, and other essential data well.
Respectful environment
Having respect for each other is one of the most crucial things for a good team. Every member should understand the uniqueness of their co-workers and accept it. Everyone in a team should feel accepted for their age, ethnicity, cultural background, job title, etc.
Safety
Everyone in a team should feel secure and valued. The work will not be effective without a safe environment. It should be free of discrimination, aggression, and inappropriate language.
Shared values
Sharing the same values is one of the keys to success for a team. All the employees need to work together to achieve common goals. Shared values help them feel supported and connected.
Collaboration
Mixing personalities and ideas leads to generating fresh ideas, finding better solutions for problems, and improving processes. Good teamwork is about collaboration and effective brainstorming among all the members.
Feedback
Feedback helps teams learn and grow. A competitive environment where all the team members communicate with each other, and leaders express their impressions about the work is crucial for any team.
Unique talents
Every team consists of different people with various hobbies and talents. This is a big benefit of working together, as every team member can bring their own experience, skills, and ambitions.
Clear hierarchy
Understanding the company’s structure is essential for effective teamwork. Its role is especially visible when it comes to conflict resolution and decision-making.
The Bottom Line: Why Is Teamwork Important in the Workplace?
As you can see, teamwork should be an essential part of any organization. It is a skill set that can improve the productivity levels of all the workers in a team. Teamwork allows employees to communicate, learn new things from each other, and get many other benefits from spending working hours with different people instead of working independently without new emotions and making new friends.
The importance of teamwork in the workplace is large, as it impacts the efficiency, productivity, and the general atmosphere in the company. When teamwork works, employees are motivated, want to complete the common goal and have harmony in their interpersonal relations. Therefore, many companies actively work on improving teamwork to reach better results.
FAQ
What skills do I need for effective teamwork?
For good teamwork, you need such soft skills as active listening, critical thinking, adaptability, communication skills, empathy, and others.
What are examples of teamwork?
The most common examples of teamwork include team rituals and routines, brainstorming sessions for the whole team, giving regular feedback and asking team members about their opinions, organizing casual conversations with jokes to build camaraderie, etc.
What should be the leadership style of a good team?
To improve and promote teamwork in a business, a leader should motivate the team, work along with them, and create a sense of belonging for team members.
