The Significance of Team Chemistry & How To Achieve It

Without team camaraderie and togetherness, a team will transform into a group of individuals all pursuing personal agendas. Recently, our friends at Nexxt laid out three of the top reasons that team chemistry is momentous in a company’s success and three steps to achieve it. We break down their key points below: 

Cooperation

When your team is on the same page, it will be easier to find success, and internal conflict will dissolve. Working together with a shared ‘end goal’ in mind will strengthen your team chemistry by default. When this level of synchronicity is established, your organization will reap quicker, more efficient results and positive developments. 

Productivity

When the bond is strong between employees, experts suggest productivity will escalate company-wide. Your team will begin to learn and recognize each other’s work styles, capitalizing on strengths and confining weaknesses. A lack of team chemistry can result in an argumentative culture with employees more concerned about expressing their opinion than finding a solution. 

Loyalty

Feelings of anxiety, low morale, and detachment are among the top reasons for disbandment and a lapse of loyalty. When a company is marked by discord, conflict, and individualistic mindsets, employees will seek greener pastures. If you desire to limit company turnover and construct a desirable workplace, you must set a precedent through consistent encouragement, provided opportunity, and an emphasis on engaging relationships. 

“Only 3% of U.S. workers feel involved, enthusiastic, and committed to their work.” (Gallup)

Generating Team Chemistry in Three Steps

Facilitate Communication

One of the most straightforward steps to generating team chemistry is through open communication. Keep your office door or phone line open and present yourself in an inviting matter to the rest of your team. If you appear readily available to answer questions and address concerns, your co-workers and staff will begin to feel heard and valued for their efforts. If you are ‘closed off’ in conversation, other employees will be influenced to do the same. If employees are not coming to you, go to them to initiate conversation. Set regularly schedule 1-on-1 meetings to share company updates, goals, and give way for open discussion. 

Know Your Team

Every organization consists of varying skill-sets, personalities, and inclinations. Through your 1-on-1 meetings and company gatherings (virtual or in-person), you show intentionality in knowing your co-worker or employee beyond their resume’s content. Exuding this effort is a sign of authentic leadership. It promotes being a ‘work-family’ rather than a ‘workplace.’ Giving everyone their time in the spotlight can allow self-confidence and attitudes to flourish. 

Provide Opportunities to Learn

When you provide opportunities to learn and grow, it shows your team that you are thinking of them and that you value and want the best for them. According to Gallup, 87% of millennials list “career growth and development opportunities” as vital to them in a new job. With increased opportunities, employees’ “confidence, effectiveness, and reciprocation of loyalty” will soar.

Wrap Up

If you want consistent and valuable contributions from your team, you must identify their strengths and weaknesses and place them in a situation where you know they will win. It is a difficult task to formulate an effective team out of contrasting individuals. Still, it is critical in identifying you and your team’s sense of purpose in your respective careers. 

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Eradicate These Flaws in Your Leadership

The best leaders are working to build strong units and empower their employees. This can be achieved in many different forms. However, there are countless mistakes that even the most highly touted leaders would confess. The difference between them and today’s lowly leaders? They were intentional in recognizing their mistakes, eradicating them, and researching ways to develop new habits. 

With the help of career coach Lolly Daskal and her blog ‘Lead From Within’, we’ve identified three critical flaws you MUST abolish. If made, these mistakes will lead to a poorly structured work environment and toxic culture. 

Selfish Tendencies

No one likes a manager with narcissistic tendencies. Your success is the benefit of a quality team of individuals. It is your responsibility to let that be known and share the spotlight.

Despite being in charge, you must never let go of your willingness and openness to learning. You may be the expert on a few particular subject manners, but being a great leader consists of knowing when you are not and entrusting those who are. Relying on your team members will keep morale high and build a positive workflow. 

Be powerful yet humble. Research would argue that leaders are more powerful when they are humble. Why? True humility is “when someone has an accurate assessment of both his/her strengths and weakness and sees all this in the context of the larger whole.” 

Causing Conflict & Avoiding It

When you know that you are a vital part of your company and its success, it is easy to gradually become arrogant and compassionless without even realizing it. You begin to disvalue your team’s opinions and close yourself off from the culture, all while demanding respect in the process. Your style of leadership may be the cause of conflict within your organization. 

When conflict arises, a poor leader’s response is to shut the door and deflect responsibility. Linking back to the topic of humility, studies show that those low in humility tend to overreact during conflict, refuse to apologize, and often plot revenge. Be efficient in your decision-making, but don’t lose sight of the big picture in determining what is best for everyone.

“Both arrogance and humility are contagious. Both can be taught and caught.” -Unknown.

Lack of Accountability

When things are not working out to expectation, weak leaders will look to pass blame and create excuses. Take consistent responsibility for your choices and encourage others to do the same. Without accountability, your company’s aspirations to carry out a specific strategy becomes wasted time. Productivity is destined to ‘take a hit’ as your rogue mentality will set the standard for employee performance. Sure, this mentality may not overtake every employee, but by that fact, it will only lead to ‘Me vs. You’ implication. Taking ownership of your actions or the mistakes made by your delegates will go along way in garnering respect and getting your employees to work harder. 

In a recent article from Partners In Leadership, they revealed six warning signs of a lack of accountability in the workplace:

  1. Low Morale
  2. Unclear Priorities
  3. Declining Engagement
  4. Ineffective Execution
  5. Low Levels of Trust
  6. High Turnover

Wrap Up

Anyone who lacks sound character is often incapable of quality leadership. As a result, your company may experience high turnover and displeased employees. Best-selling author and keynote speaker Bernard Marr knows the character traits that set true leaders apart from followers. In his recent article, he reveals eight signs that a person might not be ready for a position of leadership.
Examples: Lack of empathy; Fear of change; Wishy-washy; Too bossy. 

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Building A Positive Team Culture

“Individual commitment to a group effort: That is what makes a team work, a company work, a society work, a civilization work.” — Vince Lombardi

It takes real leadership to establish a vibrant, uplifting work culture where your employees can feel a sense of authenticity and fulfillment in the workplace. When this kind of working climate is achieved, the foundation for employee satisfaction is secured. Here are a few things you can do to ensure your company’s culture is one that fosters growth and attracts future ‘all-star’ employees.

Hire the Right People

Identifying the ideal ‘fit’ for your active job listings goes beyond hiring the most intelligent individual. Recently, I spoke with a friend in the recruiting industry who revealed that his company ranks ‘culture fit’ as their No. 1 priority in candidate analyzation. He shared a story of turning away a highly qualified IT professional due to his arrogance, smug, and ‘my way or the highway’ mentality. Despite all his accolades and capabilities, it appeared inevitable that his presence would cause strife and disrupt the chemistry within the department. When you establish core company values, your goal should be to identify the same values in individuals before you hire them. 

Relationship Building

When there is limited interaction between colleagues or departments, the challenge of instilling a sense of unity and camaraderie is intensified. So, what steps can you take? Stay intentional when it comes to including others and intermixing your departments. Courtesy of our friends at Inc, here are five leadership tips to help you strengthen relationships and build a sense of community, inspired by Rick Warren’s book, The Purpose Driven Life.

  1. Speak the truth out of respect.
  2. Think of yourself less.
  3. Practice uncommon courtesy.
  4. Maintain confidence.
  5. Focus on frequency rather than intensity.

Check out the full breakdown from Human Capital Specialist, Michael Schneider here.

“Great teams do not hold back with one another. They are unafraid to air their dirty laundry. They admit their mistakes, their weaknesses, and their concerns without fear of reprisal.” -Patrick Lencioni

Establish Goals

Every employee wants to feel heard, valued, and like they made a difference. Setting new goals with your employees, both from an individual standpoint and as a team, offers the chance to make that happen. Additionally, challenge your employees to step out of their comfort zones and set some new objectives for themselves. It can be daunting, but excelling in an area outside your specialization brings a level of job satisfaction that cannot be measured.

Track the progress of these goals and encourage them throughout the way. Advocating for your employees will renew their motivation and yield feelings of importance and purpose. However, make sure that the goals set forth are ones you believe are attainable and align with the employee’s strengths. Falling short of a goal can put your employee in a rut, but completing these goals will build a sense of job security and loyalty.

Be a Role Model

If you have expectations for your employees to follow company values or act a certain way, you must understand those same guidelines apply to you. If you have core values of integrity, honesty, and fairness, you must demonstrate those values and lead by example. Choosing to put your team before your objectives is one of the most manageable steps to creating a positive culture. 

Make yourself readily available. Being in the building is not enough. If you want your brand to have a positive correlation and message, it starts at the top. Show respect to your employees and allow them to feel comfortable approaching leadership with any questions, concerns, and frustrations. Mastering ‘The Art of Listening‘ will establish a healthy work culture through trust, empathy, and complimentary exchanges. When you choose to empathize with them, trust is established for both parties.

The Benefits of a Positive Culture

Employee satisfaction is the driving force behind a business’ success. When your team sees value in the work they are doing, there are enhanced levels of joy and loyalty that can become contagious throughout your company. Courtesy of our friends at Forbes, we take a look at a few of the top benefits that a positive work culture ensues: 

Recruitment
People want to work for organizations that are thought highly of by their peers. A toxic work environment can be picked up on by candidates right away, so having a positive culture is a real competitive advantage for employers.

Collaboration
When there is a sense of authenticity and fellowship, it gives way for more social interaction. Workplace acquaintances develop into genuine relationships, and fruitful ones at that! When there is open communication and teamwork, amazing things can happen.

Reduced Stress
A strong corporate culture tends to boost employee morale, health, and work performance. When employers are dedicated to seeing their employees achieve a healthy ‘work-life balance,’ you will find increased focus, communication, and interest in their work.

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The Art of Listening & Its Ties To Success

In the often-hectic work environment that COVID-19 and the ‘work from home’ order have left us in, it can be challenging to maintain consistent and productive conversations. Within your company or department, the importance of clear communication and listening cannot be understated. But the year of 2020 certainly taught us: Things are not always as easy as they seem. Learning to listen and listen well builds a healthy work culture in trust, empathy, and positive exchanges.

“Talk, and you’ll have a tough time winning. Listen, and you’ll have a tough time losing.” – Dan Whitfield

In an article for Talent Culture, writer Cyndy Trivella shared eight ways to enhance your listening skills. We break down a few of her key points and some important notes from our friends at the Forbes Coaches Council.

Allow for Silence

Have you noticed how frustrating it can be to get ‘cut off’ in conversation? No one likes the person who is continually interrupting to ramble on with his/her thoughts. This interruption gives the perception that the only opinion you value is yours. To be a good listener, you must allow the speaker time to collect their thoughts. Showing patience in conversation allows for more productive outcomes only by improving each other’s state of mind. We often think faster than we speak, but not every pause in a conversation needs to be filled with our immediate feedback. 

Learning to allow for silence will allow you to learn how others feel, think, and work. Forbes Coaches Council author Dan Whitfield recalls some of the best advice with the ’80/20′ rule: Allowing a potential or current client to do 80% of the talking leads to an 80% success rate for sale. “Talk, and you’ll have a tough time winning. Listen, and you’ll have a tough time losing.”

Repeat Back in Your Own Words

Rather than quickly providing feedback to the speaker, we can more effectively digest their words by stating it back to them. Being able to repeat back their key points and reasoning shows that you were actively listening rather than merely waiting for them to finish talking. Additionally, allowing the speaker to feel heard will, in return, make them more receptive to your feedback.

Ask Relevant Questions

Simply asking questions does not illustrate the proper art of listening, especially if the matter were to lead them to repeat something previously stated. Be sure to take mental notes throughout each point of conversation or even written notes for your workplace meetings. Asking open-ended questions will prompt further discussion, but your goal should never be to control a narrative or retort someone’s opinion. Instead, you should aim to gain a new understanding and perspective of the topic at hand.

Work Toward Empathy

Have you ever felt afraid or nervous to speak up in a workplace meeting? We’ve all been there, and part of being a good listener starts with taking away this fear from your employees/co-workers. Being empathic to the speaker begins with intentionality – to put yourself in their shoes. By providing affirmation to their thoughts and understanding of their feelings, you help calm their nerves and enhance comfortability. 

“I often like to joke that if God had wanted us to talk more than listen, he would have given us two mouths.” – Ken Blanchard

Wrap Up

Communication is key. Why? Because good listeners make the best leaders. Ken Blanchard doesn’t only recommend learning more about the ‘art of listening,’ but to consider it a skill that you must practice every day. Cyndy Trivella ends her article best: “A little understanding can go a long way in terms of collaboration, trust, and productivity.”


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