The purpose of building great teamwork within a corporation is to achieve better business results. Period. There is no other reason to invest the time, talent, energy and financial resources necessary to achieve great teamwork. Consequences such as enhanced self-esteem or feeling better about the people we work with are nice, but they are not the purpose of building stronger teamwork within a business. The desired end result is better business outcomes.

From this perspective, building great teamwork is as important to a corporation's short-term and long-term profit as enhancing a certain aspect of operations, implementing a successful marketing initiative, or reducing costs through eliminating waste. Outcome-based teamwork generates greater profit in a variety of ways. Here are a few:

DEVELOP BREAKTHROUGH IDEAS

One of the characteristics of a great team is the collaborative atmosphere. Not only does each of the players bring their best ideas forward, these individuals listen to the other ideas being presented and then formulate even more powerful ones. This constant exchanging, refining and combining of ideas leads to far more profitable ways of doing business. Rather than being captured in a department silo, ideas have the opportunity to travel across departments and be immediately improved before hitting the marketplace. One successful breakthrough idea can produce a dramatic impact on an organization's bottom-line.

ATTRACT, DEVELOP AND RETAIN TOP PERFORMERS

In today's wide open market place, one of the greatest challenges is getting and keeping great talent. With so many options available, why would anyone stay in an organization where they feel stifled by politics, bureaucracy, and top down management? It's too easy to get a different job. Given the chance to be a part of a great team environment that is truly making a difference and have extraordinary opportunities to apply our unique skills in a meaningful way can be the impetus for staying at an organization.

For ten years I was a high school math teacher. On several occasions I went to the principal of the high school and offered to teach a one-semester course on leadership, communication and time management. My offer was refused each time because it didn't fit the established curriculum. Eventually I left to go teach these topics in corporations across the United States.

The long-term financial impact of attracting, developing and retaining top performers is staggering. The cost of continually recruiting and training new employees combined with the loss in productivity and innovations due to losing top performers can significantly reduce a corporation's P & L.

STRENGTHEN LONG-TERM CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIPS

The effect on profits through retaining our best customers versus constantly having to replace them is tremendous. There is a direct correlation between the companies who have high employee retention and those who have high customer retention. While there are many reasons for this, one of the most obvious is that people like familiarity. They want to work with people they trust and know well. Customers enjoy working with people who are enthusiastic about what they do and where they work. Consequently, building great teamwork within a corporation leads to building great teamwork between the company and their customers. The organizations that build employee loyalty tend to build customer loyalty as well.

The members of great teams have six common characteristics. Their members:

1. enjoy the environment
2. feel they belong
3. feel they are significant
4. trust the other members in the group
5. believe in the purpose of the group
6. believe that being part of this team will enhance their future

One of the key responsibilities of the leader of the group is to ensure that these six characteristics are continually strengthened throughout the team. Here is a brief description of each of them with some suggestions for creating them.

INDIVIDUALS ENJOY THE ENVIRONMENT

Create an atmosphere where people are excited to come to work and can have fun working. Fun is not created by standing around the coffee pot complaining about five other people. It is created when people are working on meaningful projects, their ideas are listened to and respected, and there is an absence of backstabbing and whining. Fun happens when people can laugh and exchange their input on a concept without feeling they will be reprimanded later. People have fun when they can run with an idea that fits within the overall strategy and are allowed to be autonomous. It is up to the leader of the group to ensure that this atmosphere is attained and maintained.

INDIVIDUALS FEEL THEY BELONG

When individuals sense they are really part of the group's collective effort, then their willingness to commit their time, talent and energy to the bigger cause is greatly enhanced. If they feel like an outsider, then they are less likely to do anything more than what is necessary. This sense of camaraderie can be enhanced through orientation, internal mentoring programs, participation on focus groups and committees, project assignments, role reversals and social events. The key is for the individual to be able to look at the other team members and feel that they really fit in with them and want to be with them.

INDIVIDUALS FEEL THEY ARE SIGNIFICANT

On great teams, each individual feels that the team would somehow be worse off if they left the group. One of the main reasons people leave an organization is they do not feel significant. They receive the impression from other members that it really doesn't matter whether they stay or not. When a person feels significant, they believe that they must give their best effort or the team will suffer and not succeed. If the person feels insignificant, then they can justify being late or calling in sick or giving a poor performance because they don't think their efforts really matter anyway. It is critical for the leader of the group to identify what specific value each team member brings to the group and then publicly and privately recognize and reward that value. The other key is for the leader to continually provide meaningful opportunities for each individual to step forward and provide greater value.

INDIVIDUALS TRUST THE OTHER MEMBERS OF THE GROUP

The quickest possible way to ruin a great team is to break the trust that people have with one another. This can easily be accomplished by breaking our promises or tearing another person down behind their back. Trust is the glue that maintains the cohesiveness of a great team. Without trust, talented individuals focus their attention inward, create silos with their departments and dramatically reduce the creative energy they give toward accomplishing the team objectives. Building trust is the responsibility of every team member. It simply comes down to consistency and candor. Trust is built on doing what we say we will do, saving constructive criticism for times when the other person is present and preferably in private, and being honest and straightforward. Even if the other person doesn't want to hear our point of view at least they know they can trust us to be honest.

INDIVIDUALS BELIEVE IN THE PURPOSE OF THE GROUP

There are times when volunteers at an event will give far greater effort than full-time employees. This is because the volunteers may believe in the purpose of the group to a far greater extent than the employees. When we strongly believe in the reason why our group exists, we are driven to give our very best effort. This goes beyond profit and salaries and recognition. If we connect with the purpose of what the group is trying to achieve, then our creative juices start flowing and we simply find a way to succeed. Without a clear sense of purpose, team members will likely be doing things that are not aligned with their co-workers and the end result reflects this lack of a coordinated effort.

Another key role of the leader is to continually find the answer to the question, "Why does this group exist?" As leaders, we must periodically pull our team away from their daily activities and simply have them answer these questions: why does our team exist, what are we trying to accomplish, and why will these achievements have value? By clarifying our team's purpose through open discussion, we can enhance the commitment level of the members. We don't even have to identify a definitive answer. The purpose may be different for different people. That's all right as long as these various reasons for the group's existence motivate the individuals to achieve greater results and there is a connection between these reasons that fits within the higher purpose of the organization.

INDIVIDUALS FEEL THAT BEING PART OF THE TEAM ENHANCES THEIR FUTURE

This isn't communism. Top performers still want to achieve great results over the long-term. They never want to feel stuck on a team. Therefore, it is important that they believe that being part of this current team increases their chances for greater success in the future. When they start to feel that the team is dragging their future opportunities down, they will look for ways to leave and go somewhere else. Consequently, the leader needs to clarify a connection between each team member's present activities and their future opportunities. These opportunities could be at the same organization or other ones. Unless top performers have a clear understanding of how being a part of the team today enhances their future, there is a good chance they will soon be gone.

Here's a quick summary. Great teamwork within corporations drives better business results. It is as valuable as any other business initiative. In order to get there, there are six key characteristics for every member of the team to acquire. Without those, an organization can easily fall prey to Corporate America's version of the old television show "Talent Search."

About Dan Coughlin

Visit Dan Coughlin's Free Resource Center on Business Acceleration

Dan Coughlin teaches practical ideas on how to improve business performance. He is a business keynote speaker, management consultant, executive coach, and author of four books on leadership, sales, branding, and innovation. His books including Accelerate, Corporate Catalysts, The Management 500, and Find a Way to Win. His clients include GE Capital, McDonald's, Coca-Cola, Marriott, Boeing, Abbott, Toyota, Subway, Kiewit, Prudential, Denny's, and the St. Louis Cardinals.

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Phone 636.825.6611 Fax 636.825.9831
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