Methods To Build Team Cohesion
Employees are crucial for a business to operate successfully. It is suggested that one of the reasons for employees to stay with the company is because of team cohesion.
Employees form teams and the teams are the fundamental structure of how tasks, projects, and activities are being organized and overseen within companies. Global organizations are striving to build high-performance teams in order to execute business strategies.
In this blog post, we will explore the definition of team cohesion, why it affects your efficiency, and how you can impact it to increase revenue and be the top in your competition.
Team Cohesion
Team cohesion is when a group of individuals shares a strong sense of common identity. It is this special sense that bonds team members together and motivates them to accomplish the target goals.
For a better understanding, a cohesive team means that every member in the team considers themselves making a contribution to the group and have help in achieving the group targets.
Individuals on a cohesive team are more focused on the group than themselves and are more motivated to work towards the team goal. In other words, it is the extent to which the shared bond or attraction that drives team members to stay together and are willing to work together.
Examples of a good team cohesion can be seen among team sports competitions such as basketball and baseball. Each player on the team contributes 200% effort and strives for the common goal-winning the championship.
The Importance of Team Cohesion
Team cohesion has been proven to be a predictor of the team and organizational performance. Organizations believe that the lack of alignment within a team will impact the outcome of a task or project. Benefits of a strong cohesiveness leads to:
- COORDINATION IMPROVEMENT
- LOWER LEVELS OF STRESS
- GREATER JOB SATISFACTION
- LOWER TURNOVER RATES
- BETTER PERFORMANCE
Increasing team cohesion naturally helps you boost employee engagement by creating positive relationships, shared values, and commitment toward team goals.
As the team works in harmony, there is better communication among team members, which will lead to smoother conversations with better communicative skills and coordination.
The harmony in the workforce will also lower the levels of stress of one and increase its job satisfaction when the communication in the workplace is good.
A good communication at work means employees can exchange right information and ideas within an organization. Also, the interaction between employees is good and things are going well.
In turn, resulting in low turnover rates for the organization, maintaining or increasing the efficiency of the performance. Nevertheless, a good team cohesion will lead to a better performance and ultimately a success for the organization.
Methods to Build Cohesion
So, what are the methods to build cohesion for your team or workforce? In the following, we have prepared 4 methods for you to build internal cohesion.
HIRE THE RIGHT TALENT
It is reasonable to hire a candidate with the best qualifications. However, a talent with the best hard skills does not mean that he or she is a perfect fit with your organization. You need to take soft skills into account.
Hard skills are technical or job-specific skills that can be trained or learned through practice. While soft skills are more of the personality and characteristics of a person in which refers to interpersonal skills, communication skills, listening skills, and time management, etc.
As we all know, it is difficult to ask a person to change their mindset and method of thinking. If the person cannot manage their time or work within a team, they may not be successful in the workplace.
In order to build cohesion in the workplace, you should start from the beginning, which is hiring the right talent. Make sure you consider the desired traits for the position and have it listed in the job description.
In addition, pay attention to how the candidate responds, behaves, and reacts to your questions during the interview and figure out whether they have the right soft skills and personality traits to fit in well with your company.
For more information regarding how to hire the right candidate, please read our previous blog post: How To Create a Hiring Roadmap Based On Your Business Strategy
COMMUNICATION
A lack of communication or collaboration is the root cause of failure in the workplace. Teams only function effectively with clear and continuous communication. As a team leader, you should provide the resources your team needs to communicate with each other.
Moreover, employees should also have informal communication with their peers. The purpose of informal communication includes sharing of information, establishing personal contacts, making friendship, influencing and motivating others, resolving conflicts, etc.
Informal communication can create a friendly atmosphere for work as the relationship between employees themselves and the managers improves.
To give an example, when we started university and did not know anyone. We first try to find people that share common language and interests, right? After establishing friendship, we would always group together for a team assignment.
The chemistry that drives the group working together for the same goal is cohesion. And in order to have the cohesion magic to happen builds up from communication.
ORGANIZE TEAM MIXER
A big part of building team cohesion is connecting individuals. Connecting employees with one and another can boost their self-esteem and morale as people, not just professionals.
This informal bonding of team-building activities can be a great way to build the empathy and respect that’s needed for a successful team to function.
As mentioned above, when employees interact with each other and get to know their peers beyond their work roles, team cohesion will increase, which leads to better work-collaborations.
To give an example of a team mixer, Asamby has set a regular meeting via Zoom for thirty minutes once per week. The participants are randomly distributed into breakout rooms (2-3 person max). During the meeting, participants can talk about hobbies and weekend plans, anything that is non-related to work.
CELEBRATE SUCCESS
Celebrating achievements is important to maintaining a cohesive team bond. When your entire organization is working toward common goals, it’s appropriate to enjoy achievement as a group.
Thank your team members for their hard work and accomplishments. Appreciate that everyone has played an important role.
Furthermore, you can increase team satisfaction by reflecting on why performance matters, how it has contributed to the company, and where it is heading next.
At Asamby, when we helped our clients and signed a project, Benjamin would record a short dance and share it with the team. He shares the excitement and happiness with the team, thanks the team for the effort to make wonderful things happen, and tells us where the project is heading and what we can expect to give us a clear direction.
Follow our tips to build team cohesion and keep the atmosphere of your workforce happy and healthy.
For more information regarding how to improve the communication among employees and keep them engaged, please read our previous blog post: Tips To Keep Remote Employees Engaged