What is team building–and why is it something to be concerned about when trying to run a successful business?
If you own a startup company, this is probably a question that you’ve asked yourself time and time again at the beginning of your operation. You’ve likely heard all about team building and the benefits of it. But you might not know exactly how it could put your startup company at an advantage over others.
The truth is that team building is one of the most important things you’ll do when you start hiring employees to work for your new company. Without it, there’s a good chance you won’t be able to get your business off the ground.
Let’s take a closer look at what team building is and how it will ultimately help you.
What Is Team Building?
Before I dive into everything involved with team building, it’s important for you to have a good understanding of what it is.
Team building is the process of taking a collection of individual employees and transforming them into a cohesive unit that has one singular mission in mind at all times.
As the owner of a startup, you have probably spent a long time assembling a group of talented employees to work for your company. Each and every employee has a distinct role that will help your company be as successful as it can be.
However, you aren’t going to make it very far as a company without team building. If everyone on your team is only looking out for themselves, you will quickly find that your business won’t be able to perform up to your standards.
By taking the time to practice good team building, you can ensure that everyone in your company is on the same page and working together to turn your startup into a success.
How Can You Practice Team Building?
Now that you know what team building is, it’s time for you to learn how to practice it. By being proactive about building your team, you can let your employees know how important cooperation and collaboration will be to the future of your startup.
There are so many ways to go about team building. You should sit down and figure out which option will get the best response from the team of people you have put in place for your startup.
In some cases, you can practice team building simply by getting your employees together and having them help you build your brand from the ground up. The daily interactions that your employees have with one another will be enough to bring them closer.
But more often than not, it’s a good idea to practice team building long before you have employees working together on projects. Team icebreakers at meetings are a great way to allow people to meet and get to know one another prior to launching their working relationships.
If you want to start team building early on in the life of your startup, you can try:
- Organizing a picnic and asking your employees to play games together during it
- Setting up a talent show and allowing your employees to show their new colleagues a unique talent they have
- Putting together a company softball team and playing against other startups in your area
- Scheduling a weekend getaway and allowing your employees to let loose for a couple days while meeting their new coworkers
These things will make your team grow stronger in a short amount of time.
How Will Your Employees Respond to Team Building?
Initially, team building can a little bit awkward for some people. There are people who simply don’t feel 100 percent comfortable interacting with those they don’t know.
But that’s part of the reason why it’s so important to do team building in the first place.
You would much rather have those working for your company struggling to communicate during a game at a picnic than during an important meeting where you’re making decisions about the future of your startup.
Icebreakers will allow your employees to communicate more naturally in a work setting. They might not love the process. But you’ll feel better about your employees working as a unit when you practice team building from the beginning.
What Are the Benefits of Team Building?
When you make an effort to use icebreakers for meetings and other team building activities, you will enjoy quite a few benefits.
Team building will typically result in:
- Improved communication between your employees
- Increased production from your employees
- More natural collaboration between your employees
- Higher levels of creativity from your employees
- And more!
You’ll get your startup off on the right foot when you use team building to your advantage.
How Can You Continue to Practice Team Building Moving Forward?
The thing about team building that some people don’t realize is that you shouldn’t stop using it once your startup is up and running.
Far too often, startup companies will practice team building when they first get things going and then never use team building again.
You are probably going to be adding new employees to your team all the time, especially when you experience periods of growth. When this happens, you should take a step back and have your employees take part in team building activities again so that your team stays strong.
Your startup is only going to be able to go as far as your team takes it. If you take the steps to make your team strong, it’ll increase your chances of surviving as a company.
Start Using Team Building to Your Advantage Today
There are a lot of startup owners who ask themselves, “What is team building?”, when they first create their companies.
But before long, they realize what team building is and how it can be beneficial for them and their businesses.
