We’re all pretty clued up these days when it comes to the importance of building teams that work together to drive a business forward. No one is questioning the benefits, but there is a great deal of confusion around what it actually means to develop a team that operates at its full potential.
There are some common misconceptions that are still holding leaders back, and it could be the case that the information that you believe to be correct is stopping you from making progress.
You don’t have to spend a fortune on events
There are many companies out there who will organise an elaborate and carefully executed event for your employees. From outdoor pursuits to cocktail making classes, there’s an option for pretty much everyone. And often, these solutions are very good. They’re planned and managed by seasoned professionals, and plenty of businesses have used such options with great results.
Of course though, the price tag can be extremely high. However, before writing off your team building goals as an expense you can’t afford, take the time to look at what you actually want to achieve. A different approach could save you a huge amount of money, and could lead to much better results. Real team building often happens in the office – not off-site.
Using real work tasks as an exercise, for example, creating a strategy clarifying their roles and accountability with each other, allows the team to bond and understand each other, whilst ensuring real work gets done.
It’s not about making everyone like each other
Too many leaders think that team building is all about promoting friendships in the workplace. Forcing your employees to socialise with people they see as colleagues can create hostility. When you employ a diverse workforce, not everyone is going to feel compelled to share their weekends together, or meet for dinner and drinks on an evening. But that’s not what you should be aiming for.
It’s about encouraging people to develop the skills required to work together towards a common goal. It’s about creating focus in the benefits of working alongside each other. These things should always be the aim of any exercises and techniques that are put into practice.
Leaders don’t hold all the responsibility
Yes, you and your senior leadership team must lead by example and demonstrate the benefits of working together. But if your efforts are all about encouraging managers to take all of the responsibility and have everyone else fall into whatever they’re told, you’re going to miss the mark.
The best work is achieved when individual team members take responsibility themselves. Do they have the skills to have the necessary conversations? Can they step up when the manager is out of the office? If not, what can you do to help them to get to this stage?
Hopefully, reading through this guide has challenged what you think you know about team building, and has given you plenty of inspiration surrounding where you might be missing the mark, and where you can make improvements.
If you want to improve the way your staff work together, and you want some help from someone who has been there before and developed proven solutions that can be tailored for any business, get in touch. We’d love to discuss how we could help you to overcome your challenges and help you and your business move forward.