Stellar Speakers represent leadership and teamwork speakers who help teams collaborate and work together more effectively. In this article, you will find stats and quotes as well as tips for bringing your team closer together and building a strong culture.
What is teamwork?
Teamwork is when a group of people work together to achieve a shared vision, goal, task or project. Members of the team bring different knowledge, skills and ideas and support each other to achieve the outcome. when people work together as a group to complete a task.
In effective teams, the job gets done in a more complete way, in a faster timescale than any individual can achieve alone.
In order for a team to work effectively, team members need to feel valued and understand their role and the role and talents of the people they are supporting. An effective and professional leader will assemble, educate and empower their team and help them bring out the best in each other to achieve the outcome.
Why is teamwork important?
In a business environment goals have dates and projects have deadlines. Teams, therefore need to deliver on time and on budget. One team may even be a link in the chain, with their work impacting other departments, so delays or disfunction in one team can impact a whole business.
A team working well together will communicate well while focussing on their goals. Every team member will be expected to contribute their share towards the goal or project, but also be willing to help colleagues when they need support.
The professional team leader will work with the team to get them organised and on track. They will encourage the team to explore solutions and encourage team interaction to get the tasks done and provide resources the team needs, like additional training, coaching.
A successful team will enjoy the feeling of being part of a winning culture. They’ll understand that there will be a healthy tension at times, as they all stretch and grow. The effective leader will support this culture by encouraging fun and celebration as the team achieves breakthroughs and completion.
Like a rising tide, lifting all boats, a successful leader, exceptional team member and team will impact everything around them.
What are the qualities of a successful team?
A professional leader looking to assemble a great team will be searching for certain qualities in the team. A great team member will:
Contribute – They’ll have a positive outlook towards tasks and discussions and be willing to support other team members and bring out their best.
Respect – is paramount to the success of the team. A team member who disrespects others with turning up late for meetings, or turning in their part of the project behind schedule will have a negative impact on the team – as will not being accountable and blaming others…
Listen – Ineffective teams don’t listen to each other and value opinions. While it’s true some people are more creative and offer better ideas, it’s important to listen to ideas and opinions and build on them before ruling them out. Feedback then is based on open minds and encourages input from everyone throughout the project.
Question – Sometimes a brief or an idea is unclear and it’s important that the team members feel they can ask questions without being made to feel silly. An effective leader will notice the team members who may have the least confidence or who are naturally quieter and help encourage that person to contribute.
Motivate – in addition to the overall leader, a successful team with more than three people will likely benefit from another personality who can help encourage the team and help them stay focussed and motivated. This reinforces the overall attitude and culture of the team. According to Business2Community, 2021, motivated workers outperform those with low engagement by 202%.
Adapt – it’s important that team members have a flexible mindset rather than a rigid one because it’s not unusual for something to happen to change priorities or the route to the goal.
Diversity – a leader looking for different insights will build a diverse team that brings different insights from different demographics. This may bring different ideas, skills, knowledge or processes.
Overall happiness in a team is key and the above components help build a happy team. A survey by Bonusly, 2019 found that happiness raises business productivity by 31%.
Meanwhile, Gallup, 2018 that highly engaged teams enjoy a 41 percent reduction in absenteeism and achieve 59% less employee turnover.
What are the effects of a leader on teamwork?
Nobody should ever discount the task of leading a team to the desired outcome. A leader that can set a vision and lead a team to success after success is a leader you want to have in your organisation.
Leaders must be able to prioritise goals and workflow as well as delegate, manage and lead. They also need to be able to motivate and encourage.
Today, there are many changing priorities for a leader. These include the call for great diversity, inclusion and equality, shifting values in the workforce, flexible working, more care for employees’ mental health and well-being.
According to Gallup, 2018 leaders are responsible for 70% of deviations in team engagement. What the successful team leader needs to understand is that change is inevitable, but it’s how they rise to meet those changes and deviations that defines the future of the team and the organisation.
How does flexible working affect teamwork?
Workers in the UK now have the right to request flexible working from an employer. This can mean that a team member works mainly or entirely from home or starts and finishes at different times to your others in the team. In one sense this is very positive in that it can increase productivity and the well-being of the individual, but can it be harmful to the team?
It can be difficult to form meaningful relationships with colleagues you rarely see or speak to and the person working from home can miss out on the casual discussions that happen over the desk or in the kitchen area while grabbing a coffee. This can mean that those working flexibly can become distanced not just from hearing ideas, but contributing to them.
The person working from home may also be challenged by distractions of others in their home and there is then the consideration of how the home team affects the work team…
Caspar Craven is an expert leadership and teamwork speaker. He says, “We all have two teams – a work team and a home team. Neglect either one at your peril. Think of them as two teams and you quickly realise its exactly the same skills and tools needed to thrive both at work and home”
One option for a team working with a flexible arrangement is to arrange regular meetings and actively seek some kind of teambuilding that keeps them in the spirit of working together as a team while working towards the goal or project outcome.
So how can you fix this? One option is to have regular training and teambuilding sessions. You don’t have to force teamwork, but you should at least make sure your employees interact with each other from time to time.
At Stellar Speakers we advocate working with one of our leadership and teamwork speakers at the outset of a project. This gives the team some new, inspiring learning that will help them work together. Leadership and teamwork speakers can help by giving the teams a phrase or mantra to rally behind that keeps the team on track or supports them in tough moments. Leadership and teamwork speakers can also supply additional training or workshops that support the team through the project.
Two key areas of discussion on the topic of flexible working for teams is the impact of the environment individual members of a team work in and the impact of remote working.
In this video, one of our leadership and teamwork speakers, Caspar Craven talks about work environments and the impacts on teams as people work from home.
Another of our leadership and teamwork speakers, Penny Power discusses the impact of remote working and productivity.
Finding Leadership and teamwork speakers
Stellar speakers are a unique speaker agency representing leadership and teamwork speakers and other change-making keynote speakers. We provide expertise to help you manage your budgetary expectations and provide realistic options. We provide a preferred partner’s service base, so that partner clients get everything they need, lowering your risk as a booker of speakers, so you can make your choice about your next speaker with confidence.
For more information about booking a keynote speaker contact us here:
https://stellarspeakers.com/contact-us/
