It has been believed for ages that creating a “fun” work environment is a healthy way to foster a team culture among employees in business. This sometimes became an opportunity to differentiate oneself from competitors and draw in talent with eye-catching benefits like free meals and coffee, ping pong tables, open-floor offices, on-site gyms, and regular social events.
While these eye-catching and distinctive features of office life may have once been effective in drawing in new hires, remote and hybrid work models have shown that not everyone is drawn to these “special perks,” with workers increasingly looking for more substantial benefits.
People want purpose, connection, and openness; the same is true of team culture. Although every business will be unique, your company’s culture will not be defined by the tools and experiences you offer your staff. Rather, it’s about building strong bonds with your peers and leaders, improving the general work environment, and establishing common goals and objectives.
Here are some tips for effectively developing team culture whether your business is small, medium, or large and runs out of your house, an office, or the cloud.
- Recognize, discuss, and put into practice a set of team values.
- Our basic principles are kindness, knowledge, integrity, service, and respect. We stand for our group, our company’s values, and our interpersonal relationships. While every firm has its own set of values, defining yours will enable staff members to connect with you and share your goal. A company’s and an individual’s behavior and beliefs must coincide to build a healthy team culture that fosters growth among team members.
- Let your team members focus on what they are skilled at doing
- Having the proper knowledge, resources, and autonomy will make performing your work well much easier. Employees can get a better understanding of the firm and how they can use their skills to flourish as a team by providing team members with the confidence and autonomy they need, along with context about the company and its growth ambitions. While empowering team members might not seem like a good approach to building culture, making sure your employees feel capable and supported is a correct method to raise morale on both an individual and team level, which is a crucial component of a strong culture.
- Recall re-evaluating, re adjusting, and modifying as needed
- Growth can occur gradually in certain cases and swiftly in others. Greater leadership, clearer procedures, and new systems accompany expansion, but it can also create conflict for team members who may find it difficult to adapt to change or who are still attempting to perform new tasks in the same old ways. Thus, never forget to periodically check in with your team to find out what is and is not working for your current business model. It’s possible that what worked five years ago won’t work now, but that’s okay. It’s not necessary to write off earlier strategies as useless to make changes to your behavior because they were once successful and got you where you are now. It’s about figuring out new ways to be even more efficient at what you already do well. Assist your team in making the right transition and recognize the milestone.
Using your workforce to achieve team success
Building a team of varied individuals who are willing to work together, connect, empathize, and develop may often be a struggle for leaders. As a remote organization, this can be challenging and seem nearly unachievable, but you must first redefine what it means to cultivate team culture.
Culture does not emerge from a rainbow of enjoyable benefits or people working at desks two meters apart. Rather, culture is derived from the individual attitudes within your team, including how people feel about their work, the trust and encouragement they receive from you, and the natural bonds they form with one another based on shared values.
So, if your organization is running out of office or remote, fostering good team culture is important. Does your company have it?