Successful teams are responsible for many of the world’s innovations from the iPhone to Modern Medicine. And, successful teams reap major rewards for team members and their organizations. But, not every team is successful.
Failed teams report higher stress, higher conflict, and lower commitment. Fortunately, building a successful team is achievable, which means that the benefits are available to everyone. Let’s dive into 5 important tools for successful teams.
Management Determine Team Success
Occasionally great teams build themselves spontaneously. But, a study by Harvard Business Review (HBR) found that managers greatly determine the quality and success of a team. Teams usually report lower stress, higher commitment to the organization, and higher creativity.
But, teams that report higher stress, lower commitment, and lower success often report similar management styles to each other. The biggest difference in the success of the team is the manager.
HBR found that when managers push team members too hard, the team performance drops, loyalty declines, and individual stress skyrockets. When managers give teams the ability to define their goals, set deadlines, and provide individuals with the tools and support they need, the teams thrive.
In these cases, teams outperform non-team work, see higher levels of loyalty and commitment, increased satisfaction, heightened creativity, and expanded risk tolerance. In short, the team far outperforms in every measure what the same group of individuals can do outside of the team.
Managers can make or break the success of a team, but they aren’t the only factor that helps to make a great team.
Use Ideas For Greater Creativity and Problem Solving
Teams foster increased creativity and problem-solving abilities. Teams are more creative than individuals. Even when individuals are credited with a creative idea, they usually had a team backing them.
Albert Einstein relied on crucial conversations with friends and colleagues to develop his ideas around the Theory of Relativity. The Wright Brothers worked as a team to invent the airplane. And Steve Jobs credited teams for the diverse and continued innovations at Apple.
Some teams are officially organized teams and some teams self-organize based on shared goals and passions. Ideas, inside of the Thanks platform, encourages team members to brainstorm and develop creative ideas, regardless of whether they work remotely or in the office with other colleagues.
Employees can post an idea or concept they are considering. Other employees can add input, expand the idea, and post feedback. Ideas encourage collaboration which is not limited to those in the same office or with the same schedules. It allows team members to self-organize into teams to expand and explore their creativity.
And, it requires managers who support the creative process and encourage it. Managers who set the example by brainstorming on Ideas will encourage employees by eliminating the fear of being alone in creativity. As colleagues see increased participation in Ideas, their confidence grows and greater ideas are added, which improve product lines and boost processes.
Team Recognition Increases Employee Happiness
Employees who receive recognition from their team and peers are much more likely to stay in a job and report higher happiness than employees who work in silos or receive no peer recognition. This entails two components. First, successful teams create happier employees. And second, peer recognition, as an individual metric, fuels employee engagement and happiness levels. Peer recognition also helps to create a successful team.
Research from Edith Cowan University in Australia found that successful teams required both interpersonal skills and feedback to be successful. Interpersonal skills allowed team members to give even negative feedback honestly, but tactfully without harming personal relationships.
Honest communication and feedback provided encouragement, support, recognition, and shared celebration when individuals or the team saw success.
In the workplace, this is called peer recognition. It’s the ability for team members to celebrate together, to express gratitude for other’s contributions, and to encourage a discouraged colleague. But, there are many other reasons that team recognition helps to build a successful team. To find out more, check out this article on why peer recognition drives employee satisfaction.
Managers can also help to build a sense of team celebration and recognition by recognizing teams for success- see these ideas.
Team Recognition Increases Employee Happiness
Employees who receive recognition from their team and peers are much more likely to stay in a job and report higher happiness than employees who work in silos or receive no peer recognition. This entails two components. First, successful teams create happier employees. And second, peer recognition, as an individual metric, fuels employee engagement and happiness levels. Peer recognition also helps to create a successful team.
Research from Edith Cowan University in Australia found that successful teams required both interpersonal skills and feedback to be successful. Interpersonal skills allowed team members to give even negative feedback honestly, but tactfully without harming personal relationships.
Honest communication and feedback provided encouragement, support, recognition, and shared celebration when individuals or the team saw success.
In the workplace, this is called peer recognition. It’s the ability for team members to celebrate together, to express gratitude for other’s contributions, and to encourage a discouraged colleague. But, there are many other reasons that team recognition helps to build a successful team. To find out more, check out this article on why peer recognition drives employee satisfaction.
Managers can also help to build a sense of team celebration and recognition by recognizing teams for success- see these ideas.
Team Vision Glues a Team Together
When a team has a shared vision, shared goals, and shared success, employee satisfaction skyrockets. But, unfortunately, that doesn’t always happen naturally and it seldom occurs without encouragement. When team members are committed to the success of the team, magical things happen.
Unfortunately, in the last 2 years, team unity has suffered across the workforce. Off-and-on-again remote working and split teams have affected the unity that many teams feel. Since the onset of Covid-19, individuals have reported feeling more isolated and more stressed than workplaces have seen in decades.
It’s more important than ever that managers and teams take time and make the effort to bind the team together in shared experiences, goals, and celebrations. If some, or all, of your team members, work remotely, consider using these tips to building a sense of team among remote employees. Even remotely, managers can coordinate brainstorming meetings, team activities, and help team members get to know and respect each other.
Celebrate success at a team. Check out these team celebration ideas. And, if your team is entirely remote, don’t forget these ideas for celebrating together remotely.
Conclusion
Successful teams provide immeasurable benefits for their organizations and by ensuring that your teams have these tools, you place them on the road to success. Eliminate a single critical tool and the team success will suffer.
About Thanks
Thanks is a leading provider of a recognition-based platform that increases communication, builds teamwork, and makes recognition a part of company culture. Fast, easy and simple Thanks makes it easy to bring data-driven employee recognition to your entire organization. O.C. Tanner purchased the Thanks platform in 2019 to fulfill the recognition needs of smaller businesses.
Thanks customers benefit from the same decades of research in employee motivation and company culture that O.C. Tanner enterprise clients enjoy, but in a product that is geared for fast, easy and simple deployment. Whether you’re starting a recognition program or improving and expanding on what you already have, Thanks has everything you need to engage your people with effective, scalable recognition.