Being able to perform at your highest ability both individually and in a team is essential to success. When you work as a team you create a positive environment and enhance your happiness in the workplace. You also maximise your ability to get fast, effective results. Ultimately, teamwork brings people together – people from different backgrounds, with different skills and different interests. Embracing your colleagues and learning to work with them cohesively will benefit both your business and your overall happiness.

A happy workplace

Getting along with your coworkers will noticeably increase your happiness at work. Think about it – working with someone you’re able to hold a decent conversation and share a laugh with is going to be more enjoyable than working with someone who you can barely talk to. When you work in a team, you foster an environment of loyalty, unity and companionship. Teamwork promotes equality and camaraderie, and encourages communication. This creates a more empowered way of working, where your whole team is inspired and focused. When you have strong morale, reaults will follow.

An effective workplace

Everyone has different strengths, so it makes sense that working in a team generates success – imagine all those strengths combined! By harnessing multiple skills, teamwork makes for a more efficient result. Working in a team tends to mitigate power structures and hierarchies, which encourages respect among employees and replaces any potential for competition with support and cooperation. Teamwork also makes room for new perspectives on problem solving, and new ideas for growing success. Additionally, it provides more opportunities for learning, as colleagues learn new techniques from each other and through the team function. Finally, teamwork shows clients and customers that your team is well-oiled, encouraging and enjoys its work. And who doesn’t want to support a business that actually loves what it does?

How to make your team function

In order for teamwork to really ‘work’, a few processes need to be followed. You can’t simply put a group of people together and tell them to get going. It’s important to initially establish your team’s direction and vision. What are your team’s goals? What does it need to achieve? Next, you should set roles within your team. Who is the leader? Who are the strategisers? Once people know their position within the team, they will be clearer going forward able to work more efficiently. Then it’s all about staying on track, making sure everyone is happy and checking that the group is functioning well. To uphold team spirit and equality, why not have a team meeting at the start of the week? This creates an inclusive environment and ensures that everyone is one the same page. It’s also a good idea to have regular team performance assessments to see where you can improve things. From there, you can continue to grow your team, your business and your success.