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“Teamwork makes the dream work.”

-Bang Gae

How do you measure yourself as a leader? Is it your decision-making skills? Your ability to quickly assess a problem and come up with strategies to solve it? Or how about being able to positively influence the people around you? All of those are good measures of how good of a leader you are, but your team’s performance is also a good reflection of your leadership skills.

You hired the best people in the business to work together towards a common goal. If you are not influencing them with a teamwork mindset, then what is the point of having a team? Team members are supposed to collaborate, support each other and cover each other’s weaknesses. This reduces individual stress if they know that their teammates will always have their back. How is this good for you as the business owner? For one, it reduces burnout which can negatively affect productivity. Great things can only be accomplished with a teamwork mindset. When everyone in the team, including you, has this mindset, everything moves faster, everyone becomes more innovative, and eventually succeeds.

An Interdependent Mindset Is Key To A Teamwork Mindset

Putting different individuals in the same group does not automatically make them a team. Yes, you might have hired high-performing individuals but if you don’t influence them to work together, they’re just a group of people doing their own thing. A team is all about having an interdependent mindset. Egos and only being concerned with one’s own success has no place in a real team. Team members with this kind of mindset know that they cannot do everything. They don’t pressure themselves into tackling a problem on their own. They have the courage to acknowledge their own weaknesses and ask for assistance from a more capable teammate. What’s awesome about this is there is a sense of psychological safety which encourages them to take more risks. So if you want your staff to take more risks, encourage them to work as a team.

Celebrate As A Team

You worked together, you might as well celebrate together. One of the easiest ways to encourage a teamwork mindset is to celebrate as a team. Celebrating as a team drives home the fact that what you have accomplished would not have been possible without everyone’s efforts. If you’re going to praise an individual for his or her exceptional work, don’t forget to honor the rest of the team. Celebrate the little things and not just huge milestones. If you’re the type of leader who likes to give out rewards, reward them as a team. Team celebrations not only encourages teamwork but more importantly, encourages fun at work.