Creating unity on your team

In business, it is important to have unity on your team.The more united your team is, the more productive your team will be.A united team will also have a lower turnover rate, will give less H.R. headaches, and they will be more fun to work with.However, creating unity on your team takes some planning.Here are a few tips on creating unity on your team.

Focus on management.Your department heads are going to be the key players in creating unity on your team.Try to hire supervisors that are team oriented.Once you have team players at the heads of your departments, do what you can to promote unity at that level.Good supervisors and managers will form the nexus that links the different departments together as a united team.You might consider a retreat or a unity conference that the management staff can go to together, get to know one another, and practice working as a team.

Handle problems as they arise.Big breakdowns in team unity usually start as little problems that snowball out of control.Once you have a little problem between two people or two groups of people, backbiting starts and the factions quickly polarize against one another.If there are problems with any managers, deal with them openly and quickly.Get everything out on the table and then sort through the issue until you find a solution.Teach your managers to handle problem within their departments in the same way.When there are opportunities to discuss problems openly, there is less temptation to gossip and vent in private.

Focus on individual needs.As an owner or general manager, you will not have time to focus on the individual needs of every person in the company.Team leaders are the team members that will focus on individuals.Encourage your team leaders to get to know every member of their team.When decisions are made, every person should be given an opportunity to voice an opinion.The team will be strongest when each individual is treated with respect and feels like an important member of the team.

Foster friendships.Friendships within and between departments will build unity on your team.Friendships naturally develop between people who share the same workspace, as long as they have some time during the day when they can associate openly.Water cooler friendships should certainly be encouraged.Friendships between departments and between shifts are a little harder to facilitate.Give your employees time to get to know one another by holding group events.A company Christmas party and a company picnic are two opportunities for employees from different departments to develop friendships.

Play team sports.Another way to increase the unity on your team is to actually be a team.Summer softball leagues and winter basketball leagues are great ways to foster team membership between your employees.Teamwork in sports is a great analogy for teamwork in business.You won't even have to stress this point.Strong feelings of loyalty are a natural result of playing on a team with someone.

Set company goals.There are a couple of ways that you can get your whole company on the same team.You might compete against other companies in some sort of charity event or fund raising drive.Another way that you make a team out of your company is by setting company wide goals.Some companies give a bonus when the whole company goes with out an incident for a certain amount of time.Be creative and think of ways that you can get your whole company in on a single goal that involves everybody.