The Team Effect - Inspiration at the Highest Level

In a recent survey one hundred people were asked to describe the moment in time when they were most motivated to succeed. The overwhelming response for all the men and women surveyed involved a team. Sometimes it was a sports team, other times it involved music with a band and other times involved a work or community project. Why is this? Why do people work harder and become more motivated when they are part of a team? The answer is simple but at the same time extremely powerful. When people are part of a team they simply don't want to let their teammates down and when people are part of a group working together to reach a common goal they get caught up in the momentum of something bigger than themselves.

There are several very important steps to putting a work team together. A sports team knows its goals from the first day of practice and it's mentioned by the coaches all of the time. You need to do the same with your work team. Your work team needs to have a clearly defined goal. The goal should be simple enough for every team member to understand. It should be mentioned often, placed in a prominent area and there should be frequent meetings about it. These meetings should be very positive in nature and the team should be reminded to support each other. Praise should be heaped upon team members who are excelling and encouragement should be heaped upon those who are struggling.

Each team member should know their exact role in the goal and how their role affects others in the group. Once a team member knows how their goals affect the team's goals as a whole they will feel accountable to the team as a whole. They will not want to let their teammates down. Even each person must have specific tasks within the team, it is important to not focus too much on individual statistics. Every team member has a place in the goal, but the focus should be on the team and not on individuals.

Lastly, in order for an individual to get caught up in a team effort there needs to be excitement. In order to create excitement there needs to be a reward that everyone can share in for reaching the goal. The progress towards the goal needs to be celebrated. Even small milestones need to be recognized. The team should also know how reaching the goal will affect the organization as a whole and how this will affect them positively as individuals. Without excitement, team goals are just mundane work assignments.

When people feel part of a team they are more motivated. Go back in time and think about the sports teams you belonged to and how important it was for you to not let the team down and how exciting it was to celebrate a victory as a team. You can harness this kind of inspiration in work teams as well.