Teamwork Starts With The Boss
A happy team is a healthy team. Sadly, colleagues don’t always see eye to eye. Instead of working together for the good of the company, they play politics and bicker with one another. Is there anything as frustrating as watching talent slip away because of an unhealthy relationship?
If there is, then the person in charge has to take responsibility. It’s your job to ensure they have a business relationship which suits the firm so you’re not doing your job properly. As harsh as it sounds, it’s one-hundred percent true because teamwork starts with the big cheese.
Here are the ways a manager can help themselves by helping their employees.
Build A Community
There are more than fifty people working in close quarters with varying personalities. The odds are everyone won’t get along and you shouldn’t expect any different. What you need to try and do is encourage the majority of the people working in the office to be friends. When there is a community, it smoothes out the entire process. Something as simple as going for after-work-drinks can have the desired effect. If not, you can organize a guided retreat so people have time to bond. Just make sure it’s fun or else the boredom will negate the whole point of the getaway.
Limit the Damage
When colleagues fall out, it’s tricky to get them to work together again. They’ll do it to a degree, yet their hearts won’t be it in entirely. There are lost causes, but the rest of the team is still within your grasp. Fallouts tend to involve the office as a whole, poisoning people against one another and causing splits. By stopping the conflict as soon as possible, you limit the spread of the argument to other areas of the business. This limits the damage to a handful of employees rather than the entire company.
Say “Well Done”
Teamwork is fine in principle. In practice, people don’t want to give their peers the upper hand. After all, their hard work might result in someone else getting a promotion. Why would they help when they don’t get any recognition for their part? Everyone wants a moment in the limelight, which is why saying well done is useful. Firstly, it rewards everyone for their contributions to the team. Secondly, it encourages them to work together to get more recognition in the future. It’s like a drug, and your staff wants a daily hit.
Make People Accountable
If some people want to cut off their nose to spite their face, then call them out. Not publicly by name, but subtly by mentioning which link in the chain broke. Everyone will be able to work it out, and that will lead the accused to be embarrassed. Now, there is nothing nice about this so you shouldn’t do it lightly. However, it can act as a motivation to work harder and be apart of the team.
After all, would you want to the office to blame you for not pulling your weight?
