Businesses with high-performing teams are more successful and see a big boost in their bottom line.
Obtaining team cohesion and team spirit doesn’t just happen by hiring qualified employees, they need to be built through activities designed to bring employees together.
Corporate team building is any action or method, which brings the entire team together and motivates them to work collaboratively.
The purpose of any team-building exercise is to build a stronger unit of employees.
Team building has many benefits for businesses.
It improves productivity, increases employee motivation, encourages collaboration, and builds trust and respect among employees.
Team building exercises that are held outside the office space will help build connections with more value.
It also gives employees a reason to interact with each other in a non-work-related environment and encourages them to work together to solve a problem.
Unfortunately, many businesses fail to understand the value of team-building and don’t take the time to include team-building activities outside of the office.
Importance of incorporating team building activities for your business
Employees spend a great deal of time with each other, but they are often too busy working to interact with each other regularly.
A day out of the office allows employees to see each other in a different light and to interact with employees they may not work with on a regular basis.
Regardless of the size of your business, companies should take into consideration incorporating such team-building activities.
It’s hard to get to know someone when all you discuss is work.
By leaving the office behind, they can discuss their families and outside interests.
When employees get to know each other, they will feel more connected to each other.
When work becomes very stressful and draining, the people you enjoy being around can make a big difference.
How team building can help employees feel valued?
When the entire team feels like they are a part of something that is more than just a job, team members will be able to work better as they will be more committed to the group.
A wonderful team-building experience will encourage employees to have fun and become more engaged.
Showing appreciation for employees will not only make them feel valuable but also improves your company’s image.
As today’s employees put a high priority on company culture, they want to work for a company they can feel proud to work for.
Too many businesses lose sight of the importance of keeping employees happy and the positivity it brings to the workplace.
Creating a positive company culture helps employees become aware of their value to the team and build confidence in their skills.
The more people feel valued, the more comfortable they are in sharing their ideas and opinions.
How team building improves business relationships?
Remote team building is equally as important as in person team building events.
Some ideas for team building events for a remote team include:
- virtual amazing race
- virtual escape room
- virtual scavenger hunt
- employee virtual wellness sessions
Engaging your employees through the use of technology can be a very interesting and creative journey to improve teamwork and the quality of work.
Corporate team building activities such as an escape room challenge are designed to develop stronger communication and collaboration.
This helps teams become more effective and efficient.
Often, there is a disconnect between employees at different levels of the organization.
Team building activities can help close the gap between the co founder, chief business officer, remote team and regular employees.
Having them work together towards a common goal, can help them view each other as co-workers rather than bosses and employees.
A great idea to keep employees motivated and working well with each other is by encouraging clients to write a review on their experience in working with you and your team.
This way they can look at what clients have to say about their work as a team.
By including testimonials and reviews on your website, you improve your credibility as a business, attracting both potential leads and future employees.
It is common for individuals to look at company reviews to learn more about the company.
When employees feel valued and considered an asset to their company, their morale improves significantly.
How to build a team with talented people?
1) Plan
You can make plans to anticipate the team’s growth and identify the person who can take up the leadership role when the time comes.
Someone coming up from the ranks and having spent a lot of time hands-on in that skill can be a crucial addition to the business in the future.
2) Delegate
Delegating has always been one of the most difficult challenges to be done in a team.
You can start with important but not mission-critical activities.
This will gives a chance to assess the person’s reaction to letting go and also to expose the chinks in the armour of the team.
3) Learning from failures
It is one important for people to forgive mistakes once they happen but sometimes you need to allow the team to make mistakes even when you know the mistake is about to happen.
Of course, it is a judgment call and cannot be a business-threatening mistake.
In addition to allowing the team to learn from their mistakes, it also, sometimes, in a way, separates the chaff from the grain.
It’s a great test of one’s character on how they handle mistakes and learn from them.
4) Applying what they learn
As an entrepreneur, we are used to solving problems on a daily basis.
However, if we keep doing that, it will end up stifling the team’s creativity and problem solving skills.
This will make them more dependent on you for their tasks which ends up defeating the purpose of hiring employees.
Although it is hard to let go, the team has to be able to believe that their skills and thought process is valued, and be given room to learn.
5) Mentor
The above thumb rules do not mean you give a free hand to the team and they make mistakes and apply their methods, grow as better leaders in the process.
You have to be with them all the way, sharing your experiences and mentoring them all throughout.
They will need all your experience, insight, gut feeling, and much more to learn right and learn fast.
