How Leaders Can Better Unite Their Employees

A cohesive team is every leader’s dream come true. Great teams are characterized by diversity in thought, creativity, and ability when it comes to completing projects and accomplishing goals. However, a winning team doesn’t come together overnight. Every team is made up of individuals with their own motivations, goals, and personalities. For leaders, bringing all those personalities together can be a challenge. Many leaders struggle to unite all of their team members under a common goal. The good news is that there are many leaders out there who have already successfully united their teams and achieved great things. Their methods and techniques vary greatly, but each of them has made a shared goal their primary concern. Here are a few easy tips you can implement today to not only bring your team closer together but also to reach greater success:

Facilitate alignment between teams

Your sales team may not understand why your marketing team is concerned with social media shares. And, your marketing team may not understand why your sales team is concerned with the perfect sales proposal. Both teams have different goals they want to accomplish individually, but in the end, they’re still working towards a common goal of growing your business.Even still, the difference in tactics can cause confusion among teams. Sales might feel like marketing isn’t pulling their weight, while marketing might feel that the leads they’ve generated are not being properly dealt with. Luckily, this is easily remedied by encouraging consistent alignment between teams. This can be done through weekly meetings, daily emails, or however else you see fit.Alignment meetings and emails allow individual team members the opportunity to see what their coworkers are striving towards and how it contributes to their shared goal. They also allow you, as the leader, the chance to update your employees on the company’s progress, offer ideas for collaboration, and set clear objectives for your team. The frequency of these interactions is up to you as a leader, but at the very least, your teams should be having an in-depth conversation once per quarter to re-evaluate shared goals.

Take time for everyone

As mentioned before, teams are made up of different personality types. While alignment meetings are a good opportunity to share insight between departments, it’s important that individuals feel comfortable sharing insight within their own teams as well. It’s been proven that introverted individuals face a bias in the workplace -- they are less likely to gain promotions and as a result, only 2% of high-level executives in the United States are introverts. This has nothing to do with the qualifications, intelligence, or skill of the individual; introverts are simply not as audacious in sharing their ideas, no matter their quality.It’s important to be sensitive to your more introverted employees while still offering them feedback (both positive and negative). One-on-one meetings are a nice alternative to larger meetings as it provides an opportunity to share ideas and solutions without forcing anyone out of their comfort zone. This also enables introverted individuals to feel more invested and in tune with their teams.

Celebrate successes

Every individual wants to know that their hard work is being noticed. That’s why great leaders always take time to recognize accomplishments, no matter how big or small. Whether it’s during an alignment meeting, a one-on-one, or sitting around the employee break room at lunch, create opportunities to celebrate with your team when they reach a goal. Even more important, however, is celebrating as a team when an individual does something great. Not only do these celebrations make that individual feel appreciated but it reinforces the idea that everyone is working towards the same goal and that one person’s success is the team’s success.

Get to know each other in a non-work situation

A recent survey from Glassdoor revealed that the average American worker only uses 51% of their allotted vacation time each year. There are many possible explanations for this, but the fact remains that most people are choosing to be at work, even when they have the option to be at home. If your employees are going to choose the office over a day at the beach or a nice walk in the park, you’d better be sure that your business is providing a positive work environment for them. A great environment means better work, and better mental health for employees.The best way to do that? Encourage friendships. Those don’t always happen organically at work, so that’s why I recommend taking it outside.At SwipeSum, we recently took a day off to go golfing as a company. The purpose was three-fold: to celebrate an intern’s final day before returning to college, have a friendly competition between teams, and get to know each other better. In one activity we encouraged team alignment, celebrated an employee’s success, and had a lot of fun. At the end of the day, when a team is united with a common goal, amazing things can happen within a company. Even though everyone has a different job, there should still an understanding that each role is an important and vital part of the success of the business. Following these tips can ensure that your team feels united in their work, which will only help them produce better results.