The phrase “there’s no I in TEAM” will more likely get an eye-roll than be taken seriously as a reminder to pull together.
Originally attributed to basketball star Michael Jordan, it was adopted in business because of its connotations of cohesion and equality. However, overuse means that it is known as more of a cliché, despite the fact that its’ meaning still resonates.
I recently came across a more contemporary acronym for the word TEAM: Together Everyone Achieves More. TEAM is popular in the education sector where it is used to promote harmony among classmates, particularly aimed at stamping out bullying. If we take the concept of ‘Together’ through to the business world, it can be applied to teams of any size, even an entire company.
But are we still ‘together’?
In the physical sense, hybrid and remote working has eroded some of the sense of togetherness that teams working together five days a week experience. While tools like Teams have made communication easier, there’s nothing to replace the “water cooler” chat or the impromptu brainstorms of the pre-Covid era, where deeper personal relationships could develop, and ideas could be sparked.
Feedback from our network supports the belief that where employees work alone, isolation can become a factor, affecting mental health. People may also grow naturally more insular over time, ‘in it for themselves’, working in a silo of one and not collaborating.
The challenge facing leaders is how to foster that culture of togetherness, to keep the team as a unit. A recurring view expressed to us by successful managers is that the ‘1-to-1’ sessions with the team members have become even more important, and should be sacrosanct, never ‘pushed’ in the diary to accommodate other, more pressing issues.
The benefit of investing in the ‘together’ part of TEAM is alignment around the vision for the business, reinforcing values by focussing on team members’ development with clear and open communication. It becomes more than just a group of people working towards their next payday and can be transformative.
There’s a lot of value behind the T in team, when you get it right.
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