Business is a team game. A lot has been written about the culture of working in a team. Whether your company is large or small, the same principles for team cohesion and cooperation apply. Teamwork this is not just another trendy management lifehack, neither Edison nor Ford could have succeeded alone.
At the end of the last century, researchers expanded their investigations into the behaviors of people in groups. While the internet was still in its infancy, the researcher’s investigations were increasingly oriented toward the user. At the dawn of the digital age, borders began to open and social barriers began to collapse. The role motivation plays as an effective factor in the success of a company, whether it be a restaurant, football club, tech giant or peach farm, could no longer be ignored.
According to a study by Bain & Company, giants like Apple, Netflix, Google, and Dell are 40% more productive than the average technology corporation. However, among their entire base of employees, the share of exceptionally talented professionals in their teams is estimated at only 1%. That means that it’s not just about talent but about leveraging the motivation of every single team member to bring their “A-Game” every day.
- Avoid micromanagement. Constant supervision and nit-picking never helped anyone. Employees feel more useful and prosperous if they have some freedom of action in achieving specific goals. To grant autonomy is to express trust.
- Set Clear Goals. Each team member must clearly understand their role in the team as well as the goals of the team and methods for achieving them. Among these goals, the team must be able to agree on which are the highest priority so that tasks may be delegated and coordinated for optimal outcomes.
- Establish feedback. Encouragement – material and nonmaterial – motivates effective work. Constructive feedback sets the direction of growth for the team. Leaders and team members should be able to assess the contribution of colleagues correctly and should always thank each other for their efforts and objective criticism.
- Provide opportunities for professional growth. Additional training allows everyone to become more useful to the team. A convenient communication infrastructure encourages the exchange of ideas to go beyond the office. Demonstrating empathy strengthens the connections between participants. Over the past 20 years, the time that employees spend on additional learning and qualification has grown by 50%.
- Encourage the team. According to Bain & Company, inspired employees are 125% more productive than colleagues who are simply satisfied with their work. A good leader not only strives for high profits and delegates responsibility but also explains the importance of joint efforts. They possess a deep understanding of each participant’s role and provide a hospitable and comfortable environment that fosters success on both the individual and corporate level.
Provide all the necessary resources
As the digital world evolved, the number of instruments and resources required for guiding your business and your team to success shrank. A functioning laptop, a notepad, and free coffee in the office are all the material objects needed to conduct business in the modern age. How employees are coordinated and instructed to operate now determines a business’ path to success or failure. For thousands of businesses, one of the most time consuming and morally draining aspects – document workflow – remains stuck in the past. OIRA research showed that US citizens spend an estimated 11.5 billion hours on mandatory paperwork each year. More so, the same data showed that $69 billion was spent on physical sheets of paper alone.
Utilizing apps that allow your business to save up to a weekly average of 37.8% of the time for every employee, colleague and team member are sure to improve morale and motivation.
K.J. McCorry, efficiency expert and author of Organize Your Work Day In No Time has been preaching about the many benefits of “Going Paperless” since 2009. Businesses need to analyze whether “the costs of managing documents” are restricted to money alone. These estimates and figures should include the costs of purchasing paper, ink, printing/copying equipment, distribution, mailing, and courier services, filing supplies and cabinets, storage space as well as staff time spent on handling, managing and filing paper.
Citigroup saved millions on their paper costs and 45% of their team’s working hours over the course of a year. American Century estimated that paper costs associated with its customers were cut by approximately 90% when they converted to a digital workflow.
The typical U.S. office worker uses more than 10,000 sheets of paper per year, which is about 2 cases of paper per employee. With an average price of $40 for a case of standard copy paper, the annual cost amounts to $80 per employee. Velocify CRM systems conducted a study that demonstrated how a digital workflow solution compatible with a company’s CRM can improve workflow efficiency by 91%. The benefits of improving efficiency, employee productivity and saving money don’t add up overnight, they’re an investment in the long-term success of a business.
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