“The way a team plays as a whole determines its success. You may have the greatest bunch of individual stars in the world, but if they don’t play together, the club won’t be worth a dime.” -Babe Ruth

Babe Ruth knew what he was talking about. One of the greatest baseball players to have ever played the game and he certainly knew what it meant to be a part of the team. It is very impressive that a man who would have been so critical to the success of his team’s win, is humble enough to express the importance of the entire team. He knew that even though individually he is one of the greatest baseball players ever, that still could not have success without his team.

When I read this quote, it really highlighted to me the importance of working with my team. I strive to build a culture that ensures my employees do not feel like employees but rather feel like team members that share in the success. I promote ownership over our projects, I encourage innovation, and I certainly want us to feel like although we are individuals working in different parts of the world that we are still a team.

As Babe Ruth is quoted as saying, “The way a team plays as a whole determines its success”. Even if I have the greatest bunch of individual stars employed and working for me, if they don’t play well together then my business is not worth a dime. If I can foster a culture of ‘team’ then it will go a long way in ensuring success for everybody.

How do I create a feeling of team?

1. Interaction.

I almost make it mandatory that my team members get to know each other. We use Google apps as one of their main collaboration systems and therefore we use Google Talk to communicate. One of the first tasks any new team member will have is to add the rest of the team to their Google chat list and introduce themselves.

 

2. Collaboration.

Most of our projects involve all of our team members working on different aspects; I do not believe I have ever had a single project where only one individual was responsible for it. This ensures that they are working together and they rely upon each other’s skills and experience and not just their own.

 

3. No middleman.

We use the Basecamp system to remove myself as the middleman between different team members. There may be times when I mediate or facilitate but the majority of the time if one of my programmers needs assistance from a graphic designer, they ask them directly. I generally only see the result of it at the end of the day when their work report comes through and I realize that two members have worked together without me having to initiate it.

 

4. Share in the success.

When my business has success, I ensure that my successes filter down to all my team members whether that is some kind of bonus, paid time-off from work, or meeting a need or requirement that they may have in their personal life. These type of incentives create that sense of ownership over your projects. Your team members would want to work hard efficiently and well to get the tasks done because they know that they will share in the success.

 

5. Open communication.

There is rarely any information that I don’t share with my team. Each week I will email them a report on how the business is going, what new projects we have, what issues we have, even to the point of sharing the financial information of the business and where we are heading. I really enjoy hearing the feedback as my team get excited about our wins, our possibilities and the future direction of the business. On the flip side, it is also beneficial to hear their encouragement if we are going through some sort of difficulty.  Not only does this help to build trust with my team but it also creates an environment where they feel free to open up with me about their struggles, both with work and their personal life. This has been immeasurably fruitful for building that strong team that I have.

 

These really were just five quick and easy simple things that you can incorporate into your team environment to build that stronger working group. They really are not rocket science and they do not take any more than a bit of time investment from yourself to get them initiated and running within your team.