The Power of Team Spirit: How to Build a Strong and Unified Team
The significance of team spirit within the workplace, how it influences performance, and how to better facilitate robust connections between team members.
Teams are built on team spirit - without a strong foundation, the team structure will be unstable and weakened. High-performing teams are nurtured over time, with special attention paid to cultivating relationships and creating bonds between teammates.
How Team Spirit Contributes to the Workplace
Team spirit is described as the feeling of pride and loyalty among team members - this often drives employees towards better work proficiency, whether as individuals or as a group.
Organisations that have strong team spirit will have employees that communicate well and trust one another, with a collaboration-focused mindset towards achieving their goals. When these factors are absent, employees are less likely to synchronize well, leading to a drop in work performance and difficulty meeting objectives.
How to Foster Better Team Spirit at Work
Company culture is one of the building blocks of team spirit. Good teamwork comes from engaged and fulfilled employees who take pride in the work they do. Here are a few activities you can do to build a culture that prioritizes team spirit.
Icebreakers
One way to support team spirit growth is by engaging teams in icebreakers. Icebreakers work by figuratively breaking the ice in social situations and relationships - whether in the office or outside of work, participants can get to know one another in a more relaxing and personal way.
Established teams and new teams alike can benefit from games, questions, and activities centered around breaking the ice and facilitating closer connections between team members.
Icebreaker examples for in-person teams:
Physical activities such as escape rooms or scavenger hunts
Team games such as building structures from office supplies
Social events such as lunches together
Icebreaker examples for remote teams:
Asynchronous show and tell
Questions and prompts like “What’s your favorite drink and why?”
Group trivia sessions
Appreciation and Gratitude Circles
In the world of teams, nothing works wonders quite like saying "thank you" and appreciating each other. These simple yet powerful gestures can make teams tighter and motivate everyone at the same time. When people feel valued for what they do, it's like they belong to a close-knit group. Setting aside time for appreciation and gratitude circles in today's busy work settings can be really helpful. These circles create special moments to cheer for each other's achievements and share in the joy of reaching goals.
Sharing appreciation isn't just polite; it's like giving a high-five to the team spirit. When teammates show that they're grateful for what others do, it creates good vibes that keep coming back. This positive energy makes everyone want to keep doing their best. Appreciation also makes the team feel like a family, where everyone's work matters.
Gratitude is another part of this teamwork puzzle. It's about being thankful for the help you get, your team, your job, and showing that you care about each other. This builds trust and makes everyone work together even better. So, when team members support each other and share appreciation, it's like the whole team gets a boost of energy to reach new goals.
Feedback Sessions
Feedback and check-in sessions can also help cultivate team spirit - it’s important that employees feel heard and seen, especially if they achieved something significant at work or if they’re having issues.
Creating a space where everyone feels safe sharing and receiving feedback facilitates open discussion, which is important for building trust between team members. With trust, work relationships are stronger and better.
Well-timed feedback and check-in sessions allow for consistent dialogue and discussion between team members, whether that is between colleagues or between manager and subordinate.
Engagement Building Apps
Another great way to improve employee engagement is by using engagement building apps in your organization. Technology takes the friction out of creating team-building opportunities, freeing up time and energy to devote to other work obligations. Examples of how technology can be used in teams include:
Feedback sessions can be automated and facilitated in a way that ensures each person gets a turn to share, listen, and reflect
Team Building can be done with in-person or remote teams using already designed templates, reducing planning and ensuring a well-connected experience.
Everyday interactions that are often missed by remote teams can be implemented into routines in a way that is easy and efficient.
Team meetings can be structured to ensure consistent, efficient, and engaging meetings every time.
It’s not always easy to foster team spirit, especially in distributed teams that span different time zones. When in doubt, lean on engagement-building apps in organizations as an easy way to cultivate team spirit among employees. There are plenty to pick from depending on your needs, whether they are team engagement-building apps, work relationship-building apps, or team spirit enhancement apps.
Activate Your Team’s Maximum Potential
We talk a lot about connection, trust, and employee engagement - let us show you instead. At Warmspace, we have built tech-guided interactions that help leaders foster a highly engaged culture with ease.
To experience what you’ve just read about, click here and book a demo.