Once people hit their adult lives, they show up for their first job to spend eight or more hours for five days a week with what is initially categorized as strangers. How can we as Sales Leaders in the new home industry create an environment for all members of the work group to feel like they are part of a team no matter how new or tenured they are?
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A sense of belonging is a human element inside each one of us. We will spend a large majority of our lives in the workplace, and it is magical when work can also satisfy this sense of belonging. But why would a company care about team synergy and making their team member feel a sense of belonging? The biggest reason is to understand that the more people who can effectively work together, the more they can accomplish together. Achieving team synergy is not simply getting everyone to get along, it’s providing the framework so everyone not only understands their roles but also appreciates the role that others will play. To achieve a synergistic team, here are some important points to remember.
You must always maintain an atmosphere of positive synergy. Team synergy has a positive ring to it, but you can have negative team synergy. It is important to always end meetings on a positive and motivational note. Even if there is a difficult goal to reach, a synergistically positive team will have a resolve and a plan to maximize personal effort in order to achieve the team goal. This positive synergy is what causes groups to climb Mount Everest, upset top-seeded teams, and break records and goals that have never been broken. The positive atmosphere creates a contagious place for achievement that everyone wants to be.
For a team to have synergy, they have to be linked by one message. Team synergy cannot be achieved when there is different direction coming from voices. This is not to say a team cannot have several layers of authority, but the overall purpose of the entire organization has to be pushed down through the organization with the same passion and belief. There has to be a genuine concern for the vision and mission statements of the company, and a team with synergy will know the part they play in it. When you are pulling together free-willed and freethinking people to a common goal and purpose, any mixed messaging could drastically affect your ability to achieve team synergy. A synergistic team collectively has one voice. All members have their own individual duties, but they all work together to achieve one goal.
Achieving team synergy takes extra effort. Effective team synergy by its definition will not be achieved with just your once-a-week sales meeting, or your once-a-month performance measure review. Team synergy must be intentional, and it has to be worked on, or it will not come to fruition. Team synergy comes from teammates understanding and knowing each other in multiple ways. It’s when a teammate understands when someone’s child is graduating kindergarten, so they need to step up and gladly take more responsibility that week. There has to be an intentional and calculated effort to provide spaces for the team to connect on a deeper level. This could be done a team building event, company dinners, after work fun gatherings, or simply celebrating an event in a teammates life. Endorsing these opportunities to happen allows the synergy of connection to exist not only outside the workplace but inside the workplace as well.
A synergistic team fends for itself. When an employee no longer wants to be apart of a team with a high degree of synergy, it becomes glaringly evident. This person tends to disrupt the positive atmosphere, and it can often be emotionally draining to the rest of the team. When a manager has created a team with strong synergy, it becomes easier to protect, because anyone that does not fit the model of a high-efficiency teamwork-based environment will begin to feel like they do not belong and will leave the team. Managers need to pay close attention to the signs and act early. A manager will gain more respect from the team with the decision.
A single person can add to a workplace environment. However, when you have team synergy, this synergy is a multiplier. In the old game of tug of war, the key to winning is not necessarily who has the strongest individual on their team but how well the team can pull together. Any manager that can do this within their team is well on their way to building something special.
